In ‘honor’ of Black History Month in February of 2010,
BuzzFeed published “The 10 Most Influential Black People from Viral
Videos.” Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain,”
President Obama, a racist computer, a news story about the new car fad in
Oakland, a commercial for a furniture store, a blogger’s fridge, and even SNL’s
hit single “I’m on a Boat” make the list.
Since 2010, I’m sure the article would add the “Ain’t Nobody Got Time
for That” original and Autotune Remix from 2012. Seeing as BuzzFeed is a popular form of
social media – at least on Rhodes Campus – I thought the article was relevant
for our blog.
Though I did find many of the videos humorous, I had to
wonder – why are they so funny? What was it about the videos made them “iconic?”
In my opinion, most of the videos do not show the slapstick humor that has made
other videos popular in America’s
Funniest Home Videos, however, I see a distinct association between the
videos to stereotypes of African Americans in our culture.
Music and rapping make a prominent appearance. In my opinion, these videos are on the list
because they go against the stereotypic norm in our society: the rich, mature
voice of Tay Zonday comes out of the body of someone who looks like he has yet
to hit puberty. Samwell’s video does not
pronounce the multitude of women he sleeps with, but alludes to the relatively
unspoken occurrence of a homosexual African American. Sammy Stephens and Reh Dogg may also just be
so popular because their rapping attempts are comical.
Another set of stereotypes I found interesting was the
‘ghetto’ stereotype. This stereotype is
blaringly obvious in the “Bubb Rubb” video.
Whistler Tips are an addition to the muffler, which whistle as the car
moves and makes the car audible from “a mile away.” Having a ‘tricked out’ car, or even a car at
all is known (or at least propagated by shows like “Pimp my Ride” and various
movies) to show superior economic status in ‘the hood.’ I believe that this video is popular because
it plays into that stereotype – an add-on to a car to show relative
superiority, which, in the eyes of the upper and middle class (the viewing
audience) is comical because it has no function and can be seen as gaudy. Bubb Rubb’s and his companion’s comments also
play into the ghetto stereotype from the way they speak: “The whistle go
whoooo… Well you wanna whoo, whoo. It’s
that whoo whoo, if you know what I'm sayin’.”
In my opinon, the upper and middle classes did not know what he was
saying, hence the virility of the video.
Why do you think these particular videos are so popular?
Leah,
ReplyDeleteI don’t think the question here is whether or not these videos are funny. I think what’s more concerning is that BuzzFeed is considering these videos to be “the most influential.” What is influential about them? I doubt BuzzFeed included T-Pain and the video to “I’m On A Boat” on their list because they recognized the influence that a popular integrated music video might have.
I don’t think that it is as much of an issue that these videos are popular; as it is that these videos are included on a list of the top 10 most influential. There are plenty of viral videos of whites defying stereotypes or playing into them that are hits on YouTube, however these people are not taken seriously as influential members or representatives of the community.
I agree with Lucy. Even though these videos are popular on youtube, that does not make them influential. There is no real purpose behind them. They are only kind of funny. Buzzfeed could have done something great with this list. It could have been comprised of Ted Talks given by influential African American speakers, or highlighted the success of true music legends. They even could have added one of the "kid president" videos from the SoulPancake channel, because those videos inspire everyone to feel great and do great. Buzzfeed did not honor Black History Month by creating this list; instead, they made a mockery of a historical celebration.
ReplyDelete