Category Archives: Digital

Dead Baby Jokes

Nationality: Dutch
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Dutch

Informant: I know a lot of dead baby jokes, unfortunately.

Collector: Do you remember any of them offhand?

Informant: I do, actually. They’re all coming back to me. Um, what’s red and silver and keeps running into circles? Or, sorry, circling into walls?

Collector: What?

Informant: A baby with forks in its eyes.

Collector: (gasps). Oh no!

Informant: What gets redder and redder and shorter and shorter?

Collector: What? (muffled by hand over mouth in fear)

Informant: A baby combing its hair with a potato peeler.

Collector: (screams).

Informant: (chuckles at Collector’s reaction).

Collector: These are horrible! I have not heard these before. Like, I’ve heard dead baby jokes before but much more tame!

Informant: Oh yeah. These got terrible.

Collector: …Do you have any more?

Informant: Yeah. Why’d the baby fall out of the tree?

Collector: Why?

Informant: Because it was dead. Why’d the koala fall out of the tree?

Collector: Why?

Informant: Because it was stapled to the baby. Why’d the giraffe die?

Collector: Why?

Informant: The tree fell on him.

Collector: Oh my God.

Informant: Which, you know, doesn’t make sense because why are the giraffes in Australia?

Collector: Yeah. Where’d you hear these? Just in high school going around?

Informant: Yeah! Well, I found them all online.

Collector: You found them online?

Informant: You just look up ‘Dead baby jokes’ and there’s your repertoire of however many dead baby jokes.

Collector: So you took time out of your day to look these up?

Informant: Yep! I took time out of my day to find them. And I told them to people and the ones that I just told you were the best of the best.

Collector’s Notes: We talked a bit about dead baby jokes in class when we talked about humor, and we noted that they come up a lot in booms of baby births.  I also think that it is another way of breaking the tension that comes with talking around taboo topics, such as death, and more seriously, infant death.  It something that has always been a part of our culture, but is seldom really talked about.  People avoid talking about it at all costs, really.  But people can use these jokes to bring up a taboo subject, and talk about it in a way that isn’t tip-toeing around being politically correct or PG.  It’s also a display of a dichotomy of themes.  Mostly people connect babies with the idea of purity and innocence, and murder as the complete opposite.  We take something soft and sweet to heighten to effect of the really horrible topic by contrast.  Also, I think that they’ve been perpetuated because of the clear divide about feelings toward the jokes.  Some are very, very offended, and others think that the conservative need to lighten up and “take a joke.”

What else is interesting about this is the combination of cyberlore and actual word-of-mouth.  In this case, the Informant went online to find jokes that they could later share in person with their friends at school.  I imagine it was a trend and therefore there was more effort put into finding and sharing them.  This is a way that the internet and person-to-person interaction mesh into one being.

 

 

 

 

!!111!!

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA/Chicago, IL
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: English

Collector: I consider you as really on top of the trends. (laughs)

Informant: Let’s see, the things that are trending right now…

Collector: What’s that thing you always say?

Informant: Oh. “Am I right, ladies?”

Collector: Yeah that one! And the other was “Fries before guys,” right? I actually saw a phone case that said that.

Informant: Oh really? Yeah it’s just little things like that. Like, things that are trending on Twitter are like “!!1111!!”

Collector: What is that? Like, what does that mean?

Informant: It’s like, if you’re saying something sarcastically, but like with a lot of emphasis. So it’d be like, “wow, I had a really good night of sleep last night !111!” if you’re like, completely kidding.

Collector: Oh! I’ve never even heard of that.

Informant: Oh, really? Yeah it’s something I always do.

Collector: I’ll have to look on your Twitter.

Informant: It just like indicates that you’re being really sarcastic but also very passionate at the same time.

 

Collector’s Notes: It’s really weird and yet interesting to see our culture’s interest switch from the written word to symbols or pictures.  In a society in which we exchange picture via Snapchat all the time and limit our thoughts online to 140 characters or less (Twitter) it makes sense that people would try and find ways around actually writing things out.  From using emojis to convey emotions and thoughts, to simply replying with a selfie, some people find it difficult to articulate how they’re feeling with words like we used to.  This specific one, the !!111!! is a mystery to me.  The fact that the exclamation point and number one are on the same key makes me think that maybe this started off as some kind of typo-turned-joke.  Also, the number 111 can be dialed for a medical emergency “when it’s less urgent than 999” in the UK.  Any correlation? Maybe!

 

REFERENCE: http://www.sparsholtandwestcot.org/content/call-111-healthcare-when-its-less-urgent-999

 

 

Tumblr Culture

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA/Chicago, IL
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: English

Informant: I saw it on Tumblr. Cause you know they have text boxes and stuff.

Collector: I still can’t use Tumblr the right way. I try so hard. I think I just reinstalled it on my phone ‘cuz I’m gonna give it another go!

Informant: I like looking at it just for…You know, that’s how I got the inspiration for my room and stuff.

Collector: I just wanna learn how to use it correctly!

Informant: I can teach you!

Collector: Okay!

Informant: It’s like Pinterest, but there are no organized boards. You just read.

Collector: I just have a hard time finding people to follow.

Informant: What I usually do is, like if I’m going through my feed, the person that I reblog the picture from, whoever they got it from I’ll follow them, too. And then it kind of just becomes this whole thing.

Collector: It’s like Tumblr culture.

Informant: Yeah.

Collector’s Notes: Tumblr is a new craze that has really grown in the past couple of years.  I don’t know much about it, as made clear by the interview, but it seems like second nature to a lot of teenagers and young adults of today.  What it is, essentially, is a combination of all social media, but in a more raw form.  If someone likes a picture, recipe, or quote, they share it as a blog post on Tumblr, and then it gets passed around and commented on by all the other users in a person’s circle of followers.  While I think it’s great for passing around culture and bonding through a digital medium, I worry that it prolongs this idea of no longer using words as communication.  Why say what you’re thinking when you can just reblog someone else saying it for you?  Or a picture?  We’ve come a long way from unlimited prose in statuses on Facebook.

 

Do it for the Vine!

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA/Chicago, IL
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: English

Collector: Where did the phrase “Do it for the Vine” start? Because people use it, like, not for Vines…

Informant: Okay, so like, I think it specifically started with this little girl and she was being filmed and someone was like “Do it for the Vine” and she was like “I ain’t gonna do it!” And they were like “Do it for the Vine,” and she’s like, “I ain’t gonna do it!” Then finally they’re like “Do it for the Vine!” and she just started dancing.

Collector: Oh! I feel like I’ve seen that one!

Informant: It’s just this girl and she’s like (acts out dance). And she’s like three! And so I think that’s where it started.

Collector: So now I feel like it’s used whenever you want someone to do something like…

Informant: Crazy! Yeah. Like, the image just came to mind: rolling down in shopping carts or something through a parking lot. Someone would be like, “Do it for the Vine!” Cuz it’s like crazy things that you would see on Vine.

Collector’s Notes: I’ve just started hearing this this year, and I’ve heard it used in many context yet similar contexts.  I think my Informant got it right on the nose when they said it’s for doing something “crazy.”  I think I also saw that original Vine once before and it had many, many “revines” or repostings.   Vine in general is a fairly new phenomenon.  Pretty much you get about 6 seconds to do something that people will want to watch or share.  You can film consistently, or you can stop and go with the recording.  I’ve seen a lot of different types of Vines, which is most interesting to me.  I’ve seen stunts, magic tricks, time lapses of recipes being acted out, jokes, and singing.  People have even become “Vine stars” or celebrities now.  Meaning, if their Vine account has a lot of followers, they become verified as a significant person.  This sets up a completely different culture.  Generally only people who spend a lot of time on Vine know who these people are, or what they’re famous for.  I learned from my Informant that a couple “Vine stars” have even been featured in movies like actors.  These people have millions of fans just for posting six second videos that catch people’s attention.  For the “Do it for the Vine” scenario, I think people saw the little girl, thought it was funny, then decided to put their own spin on a trendy video to get views and be a part of the trend itself.  Then, that permeated the division between the digital forum and real life.  It reminds me of the transition from texting terms like “lol” and “rofl” being written, and now being spoken like real words.

REFERENCE: https://vine.co/search/do+it+for+the+vine

 

 

 

AMV

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 30APR2015
Primary Language: English

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The Amateur Music Video!

Kropp was a secret geek in high school. He thoroughly enjoyed sports, rap, and women but had a soft spot for cartoons. He says he would secretly want to be a superhero if he had the chance – “a dope superhero” at that. He is currently a USC student studying environmental science, is enrolled in the NROTC program and loves to skateboard. He has very close ties with his extended family. He hopes to one day commission into the navy as an officer.

What may come to mind when reading the title is a very under-budgeted, poor music video by a new talent trying to make their way into the music industry. But, in fact, an AMV – Amateur Music Video, is something much more personal. AMV’s are composed of a song of your choice (as the theme song to a video); and by yourself on programs like iMovie and Adobes Premier Pro, edit scenes from a TV show or movie or music video that has already been published. It’s your own music video with characters and actors from your favorite media.

My friend, when he was in middle school, used to take clips from his favorite cartoon Teen Titans and create music videos. On youtube, he and thousands of others would have AMV challenges as to which video was the best – determined by those who posted the challenge and by other viewers. The editors were challenged to create something that had great images, a story or a smooth flow, and most of all the song had to represent not only the story that he was trying to tell but had to represent the characters themselves. His favorite characters were Beast Boy and Raven. Beast Boy was the comedy relief on the show – “or tried to be” he says. While Raven played “the devils advocate”. Not to mention he liked the bit of romance there was between the two.

He spent hours after school watching episodes to see which scenes would be right for the song. He then spent days cutting down the episode into scenes and then the rest of the time was devoted to synchronizing the combat and movements of the characters to the rhythms in the song.

Analysis: I also used to make AMV’s in my early high school years out of videos from Lost. One of the main reasons I did it was because after the show finished it gave me an opportunity to change some of the outcomes. I changed the romantic relationships with one love song and some downloaded scenes of my favorite episodes. I also kept the show alive by continuing to play around with the characters that would no longer show up on Tuesday nights. I think that may be the reason he did it – not just because he really liked the show growing up, but he wanted to be amongst the characters. He wanted to be a Teen Titan (c).

While he was too shy to give a link to his own videos, he gave us the link to one of his friends and competitors: