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A few months ago an unruly University student heckled former presidential candidate John Kerry. He got so rowdy that campus police moved in to calm him and as they subdued him he shouted out "Dont tase me bro!" They duly did and the boy became a pop-culture icon. That sentence is probably going to be around long after we are all gone- mocked on youtube, emblazoned on T-shirts and yelled in schools and bars around the world mainly by drunken youth.
How do things like that catch on? I've always been interested in how memes spread. How does a funny but undistinguished line like the one I've discussed suddenly become a significant piece of pop culture?
With pop music, we saw one good example with Rihanna's Umbrella-an incredibly annoying song that spread with the lethal obsessiveness of a virus. The beauty of it was the utter simplicity of the 'ella-ella' bit. Simple but effective- even a three year old kid could sing along and so everyone was doing precisely that. Sean Kingston did the same thing with Me love-take some very basic sounds (uh oh oh oh oh oh) repeat over and over and sit back in satisfaction. The trick is-you have to be able to hum it, it has to have a lot of vowels and all the little kids have to be able to join in. I can't help but have a sneaky admiration for these people.
***
The other day I saw an advert for BCR (Commercial Bank of Rwanda) in the papers. There was a picture of a man eating a melon and the tagline was HOW DO YOU EAT A MELON?
I thought: delightful- Rwanda's first post-modern advert. A few weeks ago I'd read a Spiked article in which a guy attacked these 'meaningless' post-modern adverts (He was especially annoyed with a Cadbury's advert in England which shows a gorilla playing drums to a Phil Collins song)He was wondering- whats the connection? But I thought that was exactly the point. There was no connection and thats what made the advert brilliant. Every ad is basically the same trying to link the brand to 'quality' and 'class' and all that. Cadbury's was like the anti-advert and I liked that.
So that's why I was excited about the BCR ad- it seemed surreal and funny and it was appealing precisely because it had no obvious connection with the Bank. Sadly the other day, I discovered a billboard that 'completed' the story. Turns out the answer to the melon question was '..piece by piece' It was a let-down- I wish BCR had left the ad exactly the way it was to baffle and amuse us for the rest of the year. Sadly they had to give us closure.
***
From the department of obviousness comes this headline from The New Times- POVERTY DRIVES THE POOR AFRICAN CHILD TO EUROPE. You dont say! Someone also told me the Pope is a Catholic and hangs out on his balcony a lot but those reports remain unverified at this point.
The paper is annoying me a lot these days. The article I just referenced above suggested that Africans who voluntarily went to Europe and did menial jobs were participating in the worst slavery in the history of mankind- appaarently the actual slaves who were packed onto slaveships centuries ago and then sold like cattle and kept in chains didnt have it so bad compared to the Nigerian guy cleaning the toilets in London. Brilliant- I love me some hyperbole in the morning. Furthermore the author mocks GDP and GNP gauges ('superficial' apparently) noting that as long as there are poor people in the country, those measures dont matter. Erm, actually they do matter dude- a hell of a lot. These are presumably the first people who will be crowing about how well Rwanda is doing when the World Bank releases figures which indicate our economy is-to use a technical expression- kicking some serious ass.
And then Shyaka Kanuma informs us a few days later that we should do away with democracy because apparently it isnt 'home-grown'. Good idea- lets get rid of everything that hasnt been created by Africans! I open the floor to nominations- Mr Kanuma can take his pick first. Maybe we can also get rid of this pesky human rights-thingy- after all thats just a legacy of colonialism right? This could be fun- anyone want to join me?
Its strange to see someone advocating for the removal of democracy because of the violence in Kenya. Did democracy cause that violence? Of course not- it didnt create that murderous tribalism thats torn apart the country. The whole article is one of those cultural relativism pieces I hate- its the same mentality that says we should understand why Saudi Arabia oppresses women because its 'their culture' and we shouldnt force-feed them things like equality or fairness. The problem with Africa has never been too much democracy but rather too little and dictators holding sham elections does not say anything about the system-it says a lot about the leaders instead. His idea is replacing it with a 'forum for political parties' to hold discussions and come up with a 'common position.' Of course that could only end well....
***
Watched Mirrormask- one of those films that make you glad to be alive. It might be too weird for most people-it is very odd- and it starts off slow but it gets a lot better and becomes a kind of Alice in Wonderland adventure thats very charming and the twist is a clever one. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to see something very different.
How do things like that catch on? I've always been interested in how memes spread. How does a funny but undistinguished line like the one I've discussed suddenly become a significant piece of pop culture?
With pop music, we saw one good example with Rihanna's Umbrella-an incredibly annoying song that spread with the lethal obsessiveness of a virus. The beauty of it was the utter simplicity of the 'ella-ella' bit. Simple but effective- even a three year old kid could sing along and so everyone was doing precisely that. Sean Kingston did the same thing with Me love-take some very basic sounds (uh oh oh oh oh oh) repeat over and over and sit back in satisfaction. The trick is-you have to be able to hum it, it has to have a lot of vowels and all the little kids have to be able to join in. I can't help but have a sneaky admiration for these people.
***
The other day I saw an advert for BCR (Commercial Bank of Rwanda) in the papers. There was a picture of a man eating a melon and the tagline was HOW DO YOU EAT A MELON?
I thought: delightful- Rwanda's first post-modern advert. A few weeks ago I'd read a Spiked article in which a guy attacked these 'meaningless' post-modern adverts (He was especially annoyed with a Cadbury's advert in England which shows a gorilla playing drums to a Phil Collins song)He was wondering- whats the connection? But I thought that was exactly the point. There was no connection and thats what made the advert brilliant. Every ad is basically the same trying to link the brand to 'quality' and 'class' and all that. Cadbury's was like the anti-advert and I liked that.
So that's why I was excited about the BCR ad- it seemed surreal and funny and it was appealing precisely because it had no obvious connection with the Bank. Sadly the other day, I discovered a billboard that 'completed' the story. Turns out the answer to the melon question was '..piece by piece' It was a let-down- I wish BCR had left the ad exactly the way it was to baffle and amuse us for the rest of the year. Sadly they had to give us closure.
***
From the department of obviousness comes this headline from The New Times- POVERTY DRIVES THE POOR AFRICAN CHILD TO EUROPE. You dont say! Someone also told me the Pope is a Catholic and hangs out on his balcony a lot but those reports remain unverified at this point.
The paper is annoying me a lot these days. The article I just referenced above suggested that Africans who voluntarily went to Europe and did menial jobs were participating in the worst slavery in the history of mankind- appaarently the actual slaves who were packed onto slaveships centuries ago and then sold like cattle and kept in chains didnt have it so bad compared to the Nigerian guy cleaning the toilets in London. Brilliant- I love me some hyperbole in the morning. Furthermore the author mocks GDP and GNP gauges ('superficial' apparently) noting that as long as there are poor people in the country, those measures dont matter. Erm, actually they do matter dude- a hell of a lot. These are presumably the first people who will be crowing about how well Rwanda is doing when the World Bank releases figures which indicate our economy is-to use a technical expression- kicking some serious ass.
And then Shyaka Kanuma informs us a few days later that we should do away with democracy because apparently it isnt 'home-grown'. Good idea- lets get rid of everything that hasnt been created by Africans! I open the floor to nominations- Mr Kanuma can take his pick first. Maybe we can also get rid of this pesky human rights-thingy- after all thats just a legacy of colonialism right? This could be fun- anyone want to join me?
Its strange to see someone advocating for the removal of democracy because of the violence in Kenya. Did democracy cause that violence? Of course not- it didnt create that murderous tribalism thats torn apart the country. The whole article is one of those cultural relativism pieces I hate- its the same mentality that says we should understand why Saudi Arabia oppresses women because its 'their culture' and we shouldnt force-feed them things like equality or fairness. The problem with Africa has never been too much democracy but rather too little and dictators holding sham elections does not say anything about the system-it says a lot about the leaders instead. His idea is replacing it with a 'forum for political parties' to hold discussions and come up with a 'common position.' Of course that could only end well....
***
Watched Mirrormask- one of those films that make you glad to be alive. It might be too weird for most people-it is very odd- and it starts off slow but it gets a lot better and becomes a kind of Alice in Wonderland adventure thats very charming and the twist is a clever one. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to see something very different.
posted by Minzo at 3:06 AM
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