Because of some harrowing ‘80s experiences, I thought I was through with video art, and most of the pieces I saw today at the press preview for the Whitney Biennial didn’t help: enough process and repetition videos to put anyone off the stuff for a lifetime. Our culture has never been more wedded to screens, yet visual artists, overwhelmingly, seem constitutionally incapable of either embracing their seductions or harnessing their potential.

Not so Marianne Vitale, whose “Patron” (2009) renewed my faith in video art, if not the Biennial itself. Like a cross between Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in “Full Metal Jacket” and Barbara Stanwyck in “Double Indemnity,” Vitale delivers the kind of ad hominem beat down Americans so enjoy, whether directed at the poor schmuck kicked to the curb on “American Idol” or the tearful penitent who dared to be dowdy on “What Not to Wear.” Only this one’s parodic.

Vitale’s video harangue is a mashup of aspirational homilies and absurdist directives. “Patrons! The final drill of the night: it’s a five-step run. This’ll take you to the next plateau. Sure it will! Don’t forget to say no. But you can’t. So don’t even try. But don’t forget, either. Number one:close your eyes. Call yourself a number.” A string of nonsense images follows (“copper bonnet timpani,” she says with venom) and Vitale’s manic rant—a vicious scold here, a command to stand in gopher pee there—is impossible to pull into perspective, just like the parade of public humiliations and apologies, small and large, we witness on a weekly basis. Bombed innocent Afghans? Lied about your faulty gas pedal? Wore a blazer with bike shorts? You’re going down.

Unlike the other videos in the biennial, this one actually attracted an audience—that laughed. And while the others played to benches stationed across the room, Vitale’s featured a subtle touch: just one folding chair positioned mere feet from the screen. I dared to sit in it. I was embarrassed. Then I was redeemed. But mostly I was happy to leave the Biennial contemplating a witty, theatrical, well-edited video that resonated with so much media culture.