The 5 Funniest, Animated/Video, Birthday E-Cards

E-cards are greeting cards that you can customize on an e-card service web site; typically, you enter where and to who you want it send on which day, and the site sends the link to the intended card recipient. Many are free and several are connected to charities, while others are on sites that require payment but often offer a free trial period.

Searching "e-cards" on Google brings about 107,000,000 hits. So, you can imagine my dilemma in trying to identify the five funniest birthday video cards; I admit that after looking at about ten pages of web site listings, I gave up on searching the universe of e-cards and settled on the first 50 or so sites. Here are the finalists:

Number 5: "Sorry you had to work on your birthday" at Super Laugh

A jazzy version of "Happy Birthday to You" accompanies an animation of an ordinary looking cartoon guy (blond hair, glasses, buck teeth, pink shirt with purple tie) at work. As he starts dancing, the words appear "Sorry you had to work on your birthday. Just dance the day away."

Cut to "Have a Happy Birthday" with confetti coming down and the guy pointing and tapping his foot. It's short and the dancing is hilarious.

Number 4: "Heard That It Was Cake Time" at American Greetings

Pictures of birthday cakes flash across the screen, and then, animated candles pop up out of a polka dot cake. The lead candle sings to the tune of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine:"

Oh, what cake will you get this year? Chocolate fudge, six or seven tier...I heard it was cake time. Hope some candles make the day shine.

The song goes through a list of choices of cakes, pie, mousse, and tiramisu, ending with the candles dancing on a chocolate cake, and the words "Have a Decadent Birthday."

The lead candle is so silly and lively, and the lyrics so well-written, that you can't help laughing.

Number 3: "Larry King Birthday E-Card" from Doozy Cards

At the start, an animated Larry King sits at his desk, suspenders and all, announcing what's coming up. He is handed a mike and starts singing "Happy Birthday" in a Bee Gees-like voice with background singers.

King is then joined in dance by Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, while blue and red balloons fall. The video stops with the words across it, "Happy Birthday to one of the greatest."

The high-pitched voice coming out of a really good cartoon likeness of Larry King is a laugh-out-loud comical surprise.

Number 2: "Crazy Forklift Song" at Jib Jab E-Cards

The boys who brought us "A Parody of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land' Starring George Bush and John Kerry" during the 2004 election season and "He's Barack Obama" in 2008 have been busy creating a large collection of picture and video e-cards. It was hard to choose just one favorite out of the 145 birthday choices.

Runners up were: the self-explanatory "Singing Cake," "From the Fridge" about a dozen eggs chatting while a birthday cake is being made, and "Love, Ahmadinejad" in which sweet music and a translator are heard over actual film of Ahmadinejad giving a speech. The translation is cleverly done to match the gestures of Ahmadinejad, but I won't spoil the ending by telling you.

In "Crazy Forklift Song," a video of a hand is writing words on a page, as if writing a card, while the same words are sung. The song starts out nicely enough with an apology for missing the birthday, but soon turns on the birthday person because he or she never gave the singer, of all things, a forklift truck.

A hand animated to have forklift parts attached to it scoops things up in the video while the love of the forklift song goes on. At the end, an English voice makes it clear that he is seriously wishing his mate a Happy Birthday. A surprise at every turn, seriously original.

And the NUMBER 1 funniest, video birthday e-card is: "De La Noche" on Care2

"De la Noche" (evening) is an animated cartoon featuring a Spanish troubadour with a long chin, curly mustache, in full costume, and decked out with guitar and all. He starts by speaking these poetic words with heavy accent, "As I was leaving the cantina early this morning, the scented wind of time reported your birthday to me. I rushed hither, flailing my plucked wings before your ageless beauty."

Then the fun really starts when he starts singing, "You're the only one in history that shows no age..." and it just gets sillier and more comedic from then on out. The guitar is quite lovely, but the singing is hilarious as are the exaggerated words and song in this satire of medieval romance.

If you like this one, be sure to check out Rubber Chicken's other birthday cards, especially "Birthday Song," and "Whack Father Time."

Care2 is a web site designed to help people make a difference by getting informed, taking small personal steps, and taking action to make the world a better place. Not only are the Care2 cards free to customize and send, each time you do, Care2 makes a donation to an environmental organization to help save the rainforest. Having fun and saving the world at the same time bring the Care2 e-cards to the top of the list.

So, there you have it-the five funniest (in my opinion) birthday video e-cards. Keep laughing.