The latest oppressive trends in viral marketing received a sceptical close-up this week in The Hollywood Reporter, but for sheer word-of-mouth fanboy horror, look no further than Tuesday's video chronicle of the Dark Knight "scavenger hunt"/wild geek goose chase through Hollywood. MTV sent an intern to do its dirty work, which included — we shit you not — "a FedEx from the Joker himself," counting the number of fountains in the courtyard at the Hollywood & Highland Mall, and a half-dozen more eggheaded stunts that dead ended with Warner Bros. giving the hundreds of spectators three minutes to stampede to the multiplex — just to get a three-day jump on watching a trailer.

While we wouldn't pretend we're too cool to anticipate The Dark Knight, our old-fashioned theatre-going sensibilities defy our will to get this exercised about a commercial. Of course, if and/or when David Mamet finally gets off the couch and takes his cremated dog for a walk in sly support of his forthcoming Redbelt, we'll be the first ones there with our own cameras. We know, we know — we're such snobs.

• Ramsey the Intern Videoblogs 'Dark Knight' Viral Event [MTV]

Tags: mtv | the dark knight | warner bros