Dude, d’you see Nebraska’s tourist ad?

The state’s newest pitchmen for tourism are two dweebish office workers who, in video skits available only on the Internet, plot pranks against coworkers who are off vacationing in Nebraska. The adventures of “Ben & Riley,” which debuted a month ago, are an edgy effort by the state tourism division to capture the imagination — and the travel dollar — of younger people who surf YouTube and other Web sites for entertainment and information.

So far, three installments of “Ben & Riley” have drawn mixed reviews from cybersurfers. Some call them an embarrassing waste of taxpayer money. Others praise them as “very funny” and a noble effort to attract today’s younger crowd. As of Friday, the videos had attracted about 16,000 views via YouTube and about 5,000 via www.seenebraska.org.

The state spends about $850,000 a year in lodging tax revenue on tourism promotion.