Manchester City: Joe Hart, Others Handle Snakes for Chinese New Year (Video)

Sunday was the Chinese New Year, and to mark the occasion Manchester City released a video on its YouTube account in a blatantly transparent attempt to drum up commercial interest in the Far East in a good excuse to have some players handle snakes.

Snakes, you say? Why yes, the current year is the Year of the Snake in the Chinese calendar. So what better way is there to celebrate a far-away nation's big day than by bringing live snakes onto your recording set? (Haven't we all asked ourselves something like this at some point?)

The result is the clip above, which serves as our Set Piece Video of the Day for this Tuesday. Enjoy.

Our favorite part involves Aleksandar Kolarov, the deadpan genius and veteran of Manchester City's brilliant "Jingle Bells" video this past Christmas (What? No live reindeer?). Cold as a terminator, Kolarov wishes us a "happy year of the snake," and we're pretty much too afraid to do anything other than agree with him.

Other entertaining parts of the clip include Pablo Zabaleta's fortune cookie ("Know what you want or you will have to like what you get"), various attempts to speak Chinese ("Japanese people would laugh) and every player's reaction to the snakes (Joe Hart: "What's he doing on my hand?").

All in all, it's another strong entry in Manchester City's already formidable YouTube portfolio. Now, if only Mario Balotelli were still around. Then we could have a proper Manchester City video marking Mardi Gras as well.

Get searching for beads, Milan.

(Video: Manchester City)

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