This time, Billiam gets a cold shoulder

In the run-up to Wednesday night's YouTube debate among Republican presidential hopefuls, the Hamel brothers had little hope that lightning would strike twice. ¶ It had been four months since their 18-second YouTube clip starring Billiam the Snowman had become a worldwide viral video sensation after the first-ever such interactive debate, among Democrats. Nathan and Greg Hamel enjoyed a completely unexpected 15 minutes of fame far from their Minneapolis hometown. ¶ But would it happen again?

"It just feels like the odds are much more against us this time," Nathan said before CNN broadcast the debate. "With 5,000 videos for them to choose from, I think we've got a very slim chance."

In fact, they got half a video loaf. Although they didn't make the cut among the 40 recorded questions aired during the debate, a snippet of their video was aired in a montage of "loser clips."

Nathan pointed at the television as the debate moderator mentioned the "much-maligned snowman."

"See? Now they won't show it," he said. "It's better than nothing, I guess, but it seems like they kind of trivialized it."

As they had done in July, the Hamels had invited friends to a debate-watching party at their south Minneapolis home.

Their assessment of the new crop of civilian questioners of the GOP candidates?

The Hamels' national media splash began as something of a lark in June, when CNN and YouTube announced a contest that would allow just about anyone with access to a video camera to pose questions at presidential debates.

Already video hobbyists, Nathan, 26, and Greg, 23, recycled footage they had made of a snowman standing in their back yard who is decapitated by a rampaging samurai. They gave the snowman a moving mouth and added an annoyingly squeaky voice recorded by Greg Hamel.

For all the surface goofiness, they intended their question to be serious: How would the candidates address global warming? But it was the questioner that became an instant sensation.

"Probably the coolest thing that happened to me was getting my face on the front page of the Wall Street Journal," Nathan Hamel said.

While the clip was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube, it was Republican candidate Mitt Romney who sealed Billiam's fame by saying he found it undignified "to have people running for president answering questions posed by a snowman."

The line was one Romney had once used against a heckler, Nathan Hamel said.

In turn, that led to a feature on CNN showing the showdown between Romney and a snowman.

Eventually, all of the Republican candidates, including Romney, agreed to appear, and the GOP debate attracted even more interest than the Democrats' did, drawing nearly twice as many video submissions.

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184