Author Archives: Jan Bross

Shazaam, Staring Sinbad

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2017
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: There’s a big community of people on the internet that are convinced that as children they used to watch a movie about a genie called ‘Shazaam’, where Sinbad played him. The thing is there is apparently no such movie, but for some reason people collectively remember it. Some have even posted pictures of the VHS cover of ‘Shazaam’ with pictures of Sinbad as the genie, but Sinbad assures he was never in that movie. There isn’t even an IMDb page for this thing. Most people think that these guys are just confusing it with the movie ‘Kazaam’, where Shaq O’Neal played a genie, but they swear that it was a different movie. This has lead to all sorts of theories and speculations. Some say that it is a conspiracy by the studio because the movie was a flop and they tried to erase it from existence. Some credit the Mandela effect, which is an alternate timeline theory that says that we have memories from ourselves in alternative timelines.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Jacob has a keen interest in knowledge in internet folklore. This story surfaced in recent years, and has been increasingly growing with more and more people claiming that they have seen this fake movie. He says that there’s many cases of collective memory in the internet, such as people being convinced that the children’s books “The Berenstain Bears” were actually called “The Berenstein Bears”.

Context on the piece: This phenomenon of collective memory is usually talked about in discussion boards such as Reddit or 4chan. The idea has been communicated and made popular by people commenting on it on bigger sites, like Youtube or Snope, which is how Jake knows about this.

Thoughts on the piece: I think this folk belief goes to show how much an idea can propagate among people to make them think it’s true. This shows that this can even create fake memories for people, as it seems that they are simply misremembering the title and star of the real movie ‘Kazaam’, yet refuse to believe it, going as far as to considering conspiracy theories on the matter. This makes the belief take an almost devoutly religious aspect to it, where the people are convinced that the movie had to be real and cannot cope with the fact that their memories could be fabricated.

For  more information and discussion on the phenomenon, see: http://www.snopes.com/sinbad-movie-shazaam/

The Stanky Leg

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Detroit, Michigan
Performance Date: 04/21/2017
Primary Language: English

Main piece: The stanky leg is a dance for smooth hip hop. What you do is you you leave one of your legs still and you bring the other leg close to that one by bending you knee. You start alternating legs and it will look like you are smooth and going with the flow. You can also bring you hands in the mix, waving them around in free flowing motion.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Troy is from Detroit, Michigan, where hip hop is a large part of the musical scene. This move is a classic when dancing to hip hop, and it has been popular since the genre’s origins in America. It’s partly based on the moves of Rock and Roll figures like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, but has been adapted to have a more relaxed look to it that fits the tune of smooth hip hop.

Context on the piece: The stanky leg is usually performed in a hip hop dance party when the music gets slow, and it has the purpose of seduction. Men usually dance the stanky leg to smooth hip hop to show themselves as relaxed and smooth, something that they think the females of the dances will notice and appreciate. It is meant to make women comfortable with the relaxed feeling, and this can lead to them getting close to the women and asking to dance with them. Sometimes, the roles are inverted with the women dancing the stanky leg to captivate the men, but its usually the males doing it. It can also be danced with no intentions of seduction just to feel more relaxed during the dancing session, and it is common that lone stanky leg dancer consume inhibiting drugs such as cannabis to help them with the relaxed motion of the dance.

Thoughts on the piece: Even though Hip Hop is a fairly modern brand of music, this dance move shows that the genre still follows many of the traditions of folkloric music. It is common for cultures across the world to have mating dances in which a member of one gender will attract the other with some sort of sensual move that shows confidence or implies sex, and this is no exception. It is the male equivalence in Hip Hop of twerking, in which the females move their bottom up and down to stimulate sexual desire. Although the stanky leg doesn’t necessarily have any specific sexual movement, it is meant to simulate a safe and relaxed environment for the females, for which it is considered a seduction/mating dance.

All Star Memes

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2017
Primary Language: English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey5GItze-BY&t=10s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsSw_9oAFdI

Main Piece: These are mash up video memes on the internet that use the song ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth as their basis. The song has also become a meme and has been used, edited and bastardised in every way possible by the internet. They are usually presented with a title that says ´All Star, but…’, followed by the alteration. For example, theres ‘All Star, but every time they say star it gets faster’, ‘All Star but it’s in the melody of Space Oddity’, ‘All Star but the lyrics are reversed and the music is fine’ and ‘All Star but all the instruments are Bill O’Reilly saying his name’. There are too many of these to mention, but the amount of things that one can do with that song is unbelievable. They know every single lyrics, note and accord.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Jake is an enthusiast and avid investigator of memes on the internet. According to him, the movie ‘Shrek’ has been a meme for at least the past 8 years. He is not sure why, but he assumes that it’s because the animation and the soundtrack are an outdated product of the early 2000s, which people like to ridicule. There is even an entire webpage dedicated to Shrek memes known as ‘ShrekChan’. ‘All Star’ is the opening song of the film, so it has also been used as a meme by the internet. It represents the seemingly outdated so soundtrack of the film, as its style is that of pop exclusive for the early 2000s.

Context on the piece: Since these memes do not have any actual jokes for the general public, the videos are only meant to be funny for the people familiar with the ‘Shrek’ ridicule of the internet. It is sort of an inside joke in which only a niche group of people will get the reference.

Thoughts on the piece: This meme creates a very specific in-group, as it is meant for a very narrow audience. It is meant for people who are avid meme and internet users that are not only familiar (and most likely grew up with) the Shrek films, but that also know and understand the widely non-generic and strange humor of the Shrek memes. This creates a strong community on the internet, just when there are people with an inside joke in real life that brings them together. I think this is in part due to the fact that this group was raised on these movies, and now that they are adult they enjoy taking the film and the opening song apart in a form of expression of transitioning form childhood to adulthood.

The Coyote and The Rabbit

Nationality: Argentinian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Performance Date: 04/09/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece: You know why the coyote howls to the moon? He was chasing a rabbit and it jumped so high that it landed on the moon. That’s why we see a rabbit in the moon. Now, the coyote doesn’t want to eat the rabbit. He has fallen deeply in love with him and the moon after chasing them for so long. He sings his love every night. That’s why we hear them howl to the moon.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Emanuel lived in Lima, Peru for a year in a study abroad program. He learned this story from a street merchant woman when she sold him a wooden figurine of a wolf, which he tends to wear around his neck because it reminds him of what he considers to be “a beautiful love story”.

Context on the piece: It’s not clear from what Peruvian belief this story comes from. It might have its origins in Incan mythology, or it could have been brought by Spanish settlers. Perhaps it’s a combination of both, but seems to be a very specific myth for the locals of Lima.

Thoughts on the piece: The moon is seen as a feminine symbol of love across many cultures, and this myth is no exception. It manages to blend it with an explanation to why the moon has the silhouette of what appears to be a rabbit. This makes sense, as for a long time no one knew what the moon really was, but it was undeniable radiant and beautiful. So, having the howls f the coyote in a story like this might make their presence a more romantic one than a threatening one. It’s also interesting to see the coyote play a humbler role in this culture, as he is usually shown as the trickster or the con artists by other societies. It shows that this Peruvian folk may have a more humbling sensibility to beauty.

Two Friends

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 56
Occupation: Film Director
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/13/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece: There were once two neighbour towns that were separated by a canyon, and from each town there was a person that went to the canyon to hang around. These two people did this for many years and they saw each other every day, but didn’t utter a word to each other. One day one of them started singing a song at the top of his lungs, and the other one followed him. They discovered they could talk to each other if the talked loud enough, so the started talking to each other every day. The years passed and they became best friends by talking about their days to each other, and they always hoped that one day the towns would be united so that they could hug. Anyways, the years went by and they remained best friends until they were old, and when they both died they buried them on their ends of the canyon so that they would always be facing each other. One day many years later, they built a bridge that united the two towns, and at the ends of the bridge are the graves of the two friends.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Simon claims to have learned this story from locals while he was in a trip to the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The locals told him that the towns were real and near the city, but they had no specific names to give.

Context on the performance: This story was told to Simon in a restaurant where everyone seemed to know the story, which suggests that it is popular in that region of Mexico.

Thoughts on the piece: The tale shows a way to make connections with people without the need for physical closeness. Not only that, but the two friends were from completely separated towns, figuratively and literally, which send an inclusive message that says anyone can form bonds with someone that isn’t part of his in-group.