Who would imagine that this Starsky and Hutch wannabe to your left could receive over $200,000 in corporate contest prizes for videos just like Mr. Watercooler?

Meet Joel Levinson, the 2.0 version of the 50s Evelyn Ryan, made famous in movies like The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio for her ability to support her family on winning contests for advertising jingles. As money for ad men drops faster than the Dow, corporations are looking for cheaper talent to hock their wares. Hence: YouTube contests where the prize money is less than what they'd pay for one day of professional marketers.

But win enough of these online contests, and you're rich, bitch:

He has won trips to Budapest, Buenos Aires and Copenhagen from Delta Air Lines; an iPod from the American National CattleWomen; and $6,000 from the Israel Project, an advocacy group, after honors in three separate categories — English, German and Russian — and he barely speaks German or Russian.
“It’s so great to have license to be an idiot,” he said.

Also, Levinson is from Ohio, so maybe there is just something in the water there (boredom? Can you put extreme boredom in a water supply?) that makes people eerily good at making annoyingly catchy jingles.

After the jump, another example of Levinson's adeptness at capturing the YouTube zeitgeist for cash and prizes:

Welp, there are probably people out there less deserving of their money than the 28-year old college dropout. Or at least, that's what we have to keep telling ourselves to keep the rage levels to a minimum today.