Weezer: All Your YouTube Stars are Belong to Us
Seems like the new rule is: Become a YouTube star, get asked to make lots and lots of guest appearances wearing the same T-shirt you got famous in. Or, in the case of Miss Teen South Carolina, the same ball gown.
Weezer today released a music video for the band’s new hit single “Pork and Beans,” featuring YouTube celebrities singing along with the lyrics while mimicking the videos that made them famous. Guests include Chris Crocker, Tay Zonday, the daft bodies girls (and daft hands too), Miss Teen South Carolina (that was kind of a surprise), Kelly and her “Shoes!”, Afro Ninja, the peanut butter jelly time banana, Charlie the unicorn, the dramatic chipmunk and, uh, Kevin Federline.
And of course there’s the Numa Numa Kid, Judson Laipply (the “Evolution of Dance” guy) and Eepy Bird (the Mentos and Diet Coke guys). Those fellows really do show up everywhere. Like, for instance, in a Barenaked Ladies video from a year ago with basically the exact same concept. It’s called “Sound of Your Voice”:
This whole phenomenon is like reverse product placement, though it’s probably more lucrative. And it’s not clear who’s using whom — combining fan bases to get a YouTube pop is a nice pick-me-up for bands, too. But at the same time the participation is pretty one-dimensional. It must have been a pretty boring video to direct: “Just do that thing you do” over and over again. And it must surely speed up the process toward has-been status for the stars.
That said, I don’t want to come off as negative; I’m sure it must have been pretty awesome to goof around with Weezer. And the smattering of Internet stars is actually a really good fit for the song, which is about nerdy self-empowerment.
But among plenty of other examples, you’ll also find all these characters in cartoon form in the Meth Minute’s “Internet People” and on South Park (our coverage):
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It’s really amazing how many of those video references I understood. The important thing to note is, they were not advertised but one person found it, enjoyed it and that clip spread like wild fire.
Bryan P on May 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 am - Permalink
The pop culture circle jerk is now a spiral…
whoop…..eee…..
Les Cowbell
Les Cowbell on May 24th, 2008 at 1:12 pm - Permalink
That`s right, the whole phenomenon is like reverse product placement, though it’s probably more lucrative.
Gerhard Kaiser – Google me
Gerhard Kaiser on May 27th, 2008 at 3:46 am - Permalink
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