YouTube - Directory of Lost Causes

Posts tagged with "YouTube"

Not talking about my generation, talking about degeneration

Monday, 19. May 2008, 14:15:49

Doug Stanhope, YouTube, The Who, Magibon ...

When I first heard the song My Generation, as a teenager, I didn't identify with the sentiments at all. I've never felt a particularly strong sense of belonging to any generation, for which I am retrospectively glad, since it means I've never been a slave to fads and fashions. I remember some words in a review of some David Bowie release or other. The reviewer wrote, in an almost puzzled tone, that David Bowie never seemed to have been young and foolish; it was almost as if he were born old. I recognised in those words exactly what had made David Bowie stand out for me. "Look out you rock'n'rollers/Pretty soon now, you're going to get older." I've never been especially excited by music that celebrates youth, even when I was supposedly young. It's always seemed to me rather short-sighted, not presenting an elevated view of things at all.

I wonder why it is, then, that the following clip interests me:

Well, Stanhope is, of course, talking about America, and I'm not especially familiar with the younger generation in America. If it is well-represented by the kind of comments you find on Youtube, some of which are entirely incomprehensible beyond the fact they are probably meant to be insulting, and some of which are so incomprehensible that you just can't tell any more whether they are meant to be insulting or not, then it looks like he has just cause to complain.

My own complaints about 'the younger generation' would probably differ from his. To be honest, the words 'the young(er) generation' hardly ever pass my lips anyway, because, as I've said, I don't concern myself much with generational identities. I have a sense, however, of a younger generation in Britain, cheated of any possibility of making their lives meaningful by an utterly materialistic society. I also caught a certain phrase in Stanhope's routine that has meaning for me, despite having become a modern cliche, and that phrase is 'dumbed down'. I do think that 'dumbing down' is a reality, yes. I'm afraid I only have anecdotal evidence for this, but I'm sure it must show up in things like falling literacy rates in the English-speaking world, too. I haven't checked. I'm writing this off the cuff. Oh, I've said before, I've never voted for Tony Blair's Labour. Even when he was new on the scene, and had never been Prime Minister, I didn't vote for him, because I knew that his lot were going to cut student grants. My generation were the last to receive student grants from the government. Without that grant I would not have been able to have tertiary education. I am a believer in education for its own sake, and education as an investment in the future of a country. Tony (educationeducationeducation) Blair clearly wasn't.

I recently asked someone who works for the BBC, the following question:

"Is it actually written policy in the BBC these days to make sure that any documentary programme is presented by someone who knows absolutely nothing about the subject?"

The response was:

"I'm so glad you asked me that."

It was explained to me that the general process would be something like the following (I paraphrase from memory):

"Someone will have a quick ask around the office, like this: 'Hey guys, we're putting together a documentary on colony collapse disorder. Do you lot know Meera Syal? No? Too old, maybe. How about Anouska Golebiewski? You've all heard of her? Great! We'll go with her.'"

I could go on with this kind of story, and you're free to contribute your own. The point is, I have the general impression, which may be adjusted with further information, that dumbing down is very real and is part of a process of social control, making people think they already understand everything so that they don't try to find out for themselves.

However, I do see some very hopeful things (by which I mean people) amongst 'the younger generation' (excuse me, I just feel the urge to put that in inverted commas), some of whom I know personally. But to give an example of someone I don't know personally, there is, for instance, Magibon, who, I notice, has recently put up another clip in her 'mu' or 'nothing' series:

I realise a lot of people would disagree with me here, but I don't care. The interesting thing is that so many people (I'm guessing of her own generation) hate her. Let's have a look at the calibre of comment we find left beneath this clip by the haters:

I think you should speak EEENGLIIIISH in one of them since we seen you being on television and fo shizzle maaaaa nizzzlllle

What's this thing about wanting everyone to speak English? Do you know how ignorant, rude and aggressive that is?

SPEAKKKKKKKKK

There are a lot like this. It seems like a lot of people really can't stand silence. I'd hate to be in a room with one of them.

useless waste of 34 seconds lol

Not a useful waste, then? And now you've wasted more seconds by posting this comment.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT??????

These ones amuse me. Somehow these seem to me the most confused of all. Why are they looking for a point? Why don't they simply see what is there?

lmao shes not even asian

Errr, she never said she was. A lot of very silly Youtube posters seemed to think she was, probably because they've never met an Asian person before and thought Magibon was so un-American she couldn't possibly be American.

I dont understand..

I dont like any of her vids.. there pointless and stupid yet.. I subscribed!? OmGWwtFbbQ?

I quite like that one, actually. It's endearingly candid.

lol, i have seen a few of this girls videos... im stumped as to what it is shes trying to achieve :S

Does 'lol' really mean 'laugh out loud', as I'm told? If so, people seem to laugh out loud in the most deranged places. It never seems to make sense. Which is... quite interesting. Also, why should she be trying to acheive anything? Why?

dumy

I told you some of the comments are utterly incomprehensible.

Oh my god, I am tired of this staring bullshit. At least start talking again. This is why people hate you because you upload videos where you just stare into the camera. I hope you get a free dental makeover so your life will be better and you will stop doing this shit.

Errr... right. Okay. Next caller, please.

Well, it's interesting that a number of people say that she seems in a very good mood in this clip. I almost got the feeling that all the waves of hate are beginning to tell on her, and she's trying to deflect them in this video. I hope that's not the case, and that the hate is not getting her down.

Hmmm. Anyway, I started writing this and actually I'm feeling uninspired, and I haven't come to any conclusions. I was going to write a bit about different decades, but I don't feel like it now.

I think sometime I might write a post collecting together all my favourite Youtube comments. There are some good ones out there.

1 Comment

Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, 14. April 2008, 15:35:57

annette funicello, YouTube

No no no no no no no no no no no no!!!

I can't stand it.

I've just discovered that my favourite ever Youtube clip has been removed.

It's the one, you know the one, where Annette Funicello is singing Tall Paul and the presenter guy is pretending she's a string puppet that he's manipulating with poles, when it's really her standing behind the stage in front of a black background in black clothes except for the tiny white dress and body hanging from her neck, and she has her hands in the shoes of this dress/body thing and she's moving them so that it makes her look likes she's really tiny and dancing to the music and doing impossible things like kicking both legs up at the same time without falling down.

I can't stand much more of this.

2 Comments

Another example of why I'm less and less ashamed to be a misanthrope

Sunday, 26. August 2007, 15:10:05

mum, beavis and butt-head, YouTube

I just watched a video of a track by Mum on Youtube. I don't mean by my mother, I mean the Icelandic electronic band on the Fatcat label. Now, one thing you should never do, if you don't want to suddenly get a yen for the destruction of the entire human species, is to read the comments on Youtube. Just don't do it. It's not worth it. In fact, the same can be said about most Internet forums that are not focused on a specialised interest, but where any idiot can just come along and sound off. And, of course, any idiot does come along. If the percentage of idiots who leave comments on Youtube is in any way representative of the percentage of idiots in the human race, then we're doomed. And, of course, we are.

The track in question is called, "They Made Frogs Smoke Till They Exploded". Here it is:

And now...

Here are two of the comments that I read, fairly mild in their levels of idiocy compared with much of what goes on on the Internet. I refrained from replying to their comments. I didn't want to get dragged into anything. But I shall reproduce them here:

wtf this vid sucks. and wtf is with all those blood. stupid shit.

what kind of a retard made this video!? wtf! its bullshit whats up with the blood, the barf eating, its not nice its horrifying, btw what the mother fuck does the title have to do with the video i mean theres no frogs smoking or exploding, retard

Hmmm. It seems like these idiots are clones of each other. Their use of 'wtf' makes it sound as if they are going round in a constant state of bewilderment, which they probably are. I'm not even going to comment on the level of literacy. It's actually refreshing these days to discover someone capable of writing a sentence, since that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. "All those blood"? It's funny how both of them are fixated on the blood. Apparently, "its not nice its horrifying". Riiiiggght. Okay, so they should have cut the blood out? But I think my favourite part of this penetrating critique is this bit:

btw what the mother fuck does the title have to do with the video i mean theres no frogs smoking or exploding, retard

This reminds me of the fact that many of the amateur videos posted on Youtube are slavishly literal. I saw a couple of attempts people had made of videos for Mammal, by They Might be Giants, and the basic mentality was that, if the lyrics mentioned whale, you should show a picture of a whale, if they mentioned monkey, you should show a picture of a monkey. No, that is exactly how not to make a video. What you should really do is try to use your imagination.

At least there's one advantage to reading this kind of thing. It makes me feel better about the fact that I'm not a best-selling author.

But maybe, even with this advantage, it's just not worth it. "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" WTF! Shakespeare certainly could not have written that after reading the comments on Youtube.

Incidentally, I do think that there's a connection between the title and the content of the video. My interpretation is that the title refers to the cruelty that children have in experimenting on animals, a cruelty that pervades human society generally. I think that is "what's up" with the blood. I was interested to see the attitude that Mum would take to this theme, as most popular culture, no, let me rephrase that, most culture these days seems to take the Beavis and Butt-head-type attitude that human cruelty is cool. I thought that the video might be an attempt in some way to appropriate this cruelty as part of a cool, I'm-detached-and-wearing-shades type image, but it's not. Notice how the cruelty is reversed at the end, with the kitten's head sewn back on, and the butterflies released into the wild.

PS. Come to think of it, most Youtube comments read as if they're written by Beavis and Butt-head.

PPS. Someone recently told me that Gurdjieff said most people are manure. Then he learnt the word "shit", and said that this was a much better word to describe people.

23 Comments

Desert Island Clips

Friday, 19. January 2007, 14:30:46

Desert Island Discs, YouTube

I had a conversation with someone the other day about Desert Island Discs. For those of you who don't know, Desert Island Discs is a programme on British radio (apparently the longest running music-related radio programme in the world), in which a guest is asked each week to choose a selection of eight pieces of music (discs) that they would like to take with them to a desert island if they were in the predicament of Robinson Crusoe (minus Man Friday, I presume). They are also allowed one book and one non-practical luxury item. In order to avoid lots of boring redundant choices of the book (I presume again) there are also a copy of the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare awaiting the castaway on the island.

The conversation that I had centred around the writer Edna O'Brien who, as of the time of writing, was the latest guest on the programme. I suppose I began to think, as we talked, about what I would take with me. I think it turns out to be a very philosophical question, and not one as simple as naming one's favourite pieces of music. These pieces of music, and the book and luxury, should be specifically chosen in order to nourish one in what will be a lifelong isolation, away from all human contact. Some pieces of music, or some books, even if they are your favourites, might, under the circumstances, prove to be undermining to the spirit, or might suddenly seem meaningless. I think, if it were me, I might want to swap the copy of the Bible for the Tao Te Ching, the original text of Taoism. Having said that, the former is a doorstep, the latter a mere pamphlet, so I suppose there might be some disadvantage in that. I may well take a volume of the tales of H.P. Lovecraft with me as my own choice of book, partly because, of all the writers I have read, his work is the work I have re-read the most. I have recently read Michel Houellebecq's H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life, a cracking read that also includes two of Lovecraft's stories (in this edition). I haven't re-read any Lovecraft for years, but since it was there staring me in the face, I decided to do so and find, after all, even now I am not disappointed. I have not outgrown him. Also, his work is not concerned with matters of human interest, with society and so on, but with things on a cosmic scale, in which human life pales into insignificance, so they would not remind me so much of the society to which I could never return, only inspire in me thoughts of awe about the cosmos in which I had my brief existence. But to be honest, that's just a choice off the top of my head, and if, for some strange reason, I really were to be marooned on a desert island for the rest of my life, I might want to think more carefully about my choices. (Incidentally, there was a very distressing item on the news last night about the inhabitants of the Carteret Islands, who are having to leave because of rising sea levels. So we might not have desert islands for much longer. God, why don't we all just kill ourselves now and get it over with!)

Anyway, I haven't really had the time or the energy to think seriously about my own desert island discs, but what I have decided to do is compile my desert island clips, that is, my YouTube clips. This selection probably won't be that representative, as my discovery of YouTube is only fairly recent, and I haven't really saved that many to favourites as yet. But it will be representative of something, I suppose. In any case, I thought it would be an easy way to write a reasonably entertaining blog entry. So, without further ado, here are my eight desert island clips:

1) Laurel and Hardy, Western Dance - Well, some things are beyond words. This is just about as ineffable as it gets:

There were a number of good Laurel and Hardy clips, and I almost chose this one as a piece of kitsch erotica and for the postmodernist value of watching a fake 'desert island' dance on a real desert island, and also just because.

2) Kate Bush, Violin - In one of the Austin Powers films, Dr Evil is incredulous with joy when his son gets him a very special birthday present: "You haven't got me fricking man-eating sharks with fricking laser beams on their heads?" I think I felt something similar when I discovered this next clip. "Kate Bush in a fricking bat costume singing fricking Violin and dancing with two men dressed as actual fricking violins one of whom actually fricking tries to strangle her before a really fricking tall man does a guitar solo?!!!" What more could you want?

3) Brass Eye, Pulp Spoof - I'm a relative latecomer to Brass Eye. I'm most familiar with Chris Morris' work in Jam and Blue Jam. I'm also a fan of Pulp. I have no idea exactly how far Chris Morris wanted to stick the knife in on this one, but I like it anyway. It just happens to be a really great angle to take for an especially good impression of Jarvis Cocker and Pulp. "Pogo on that, you twat!":

4) Thousand-Hand Guan-Yin - This clip was introduced to me by Lord Whimsy. I don't really know what to say about it. It's like some kind of hallucination. Just watch it:

5) Aidan Smith, Early as the Trees - I found this clip on the blog of Aidan Smith. No, not that Aidan Smith, the other Aidan Smith. Or another Aidan Smith. Anyway, it appealed to me for some reason. I tend to hate music videos, but not this one. Rather fey and whimsical. I know nothing about Aidan Smith, though, either of them:

6) Elliott Smith, Lucky Three - This is a very simple 'documentary' showing Elliott Smith playing three of his songs and wandering around Portland, Oregon. I find it incredibly poignant for some reason:

7) Kigurumi, Tarako Tarako Tarako - I think if I ever needed to drive myself all the way into insanity as an escape from loneliness on my desert island, I'd just watch this clip over and over until my mind was finally ground down into gibbering idiocy. Actually though, it is quite cute:

8) Morrissey, I've Changed My Plea to Guilty - Well, it was very difficult choosing one Morrissey clip, but I settled on this one, because it's a particularly good performance, and because the song might be soothing to me when I was feeling very lonely. I almost chose The Last of the Famous International Playboys, though.