How can this not be a form of pop culture? It took a satirical twist on one of the most popular sports with one of the most popular movies. The Matrix fighting style is most likely the most popular fighting sequence of our century. Every popular motion media source has done some sort of Matrix remake. From Shrek to Live Free or Die Hard, from children movies to action movies the Matrix slow motion or flying fighting has been used.

The Matrix was first released in 1999 and for a decade remakes were done of the Matrix phenomenon. This video along with many others is proof of the pop culture created by the Matrix.

So there are a number of things that incorporate pop culture in this video. The video itself doesn’t exactly address popular culture, but if you look closely you will notice a few things.

Firstly, Fred is wearing a ‘Fred’ shirt. So the Fred phenomenon is producing enough viewers that he feels that he can make a revenue off of merchandise.
Secondly, Fred owns a keyboard phone. In a previous post of mine I stated how keyboard phones is an epically growing trend.
Thirdly, when swimming Fred brings up the issue that he’s not confident with his body. This is part of the body craze that is currently going on in popular culture. We’re being brought up to believe that our bodies are unsatisfactory unless they are super model skinny. (Although I personally think it’s to keep sexual predators at bay).

As you can see, although Fred does not address popular culture in his videos, if you look closely and between the lines you can tell that the Fred amateur video actually closely reflect today’s popular culture.

The every annoying, yet the ever popular Peanut Butter Jelly Time is one of the first YouTube trends. Designed to be repetitive so it stuck in your head, Jelly Time boomed fast. It became so big that it’s on the 99 amateur videos to watch before you die. Also there were and still continue to be merchandise like T-Shirts that feature the original Peanut Butter Jelly Time banana.

This video is still classified as popular culture because every now and then a new version or remix of the video will be created or the fad will resurface for a small period of time.

I really like Philip DeFranco’s form of amateur video because it focus on pop culture, but it focuses on weekly even daily pop culture. I talked about Philip DeFranco briefly in a previous post. In this video DeFranco focuses mainly on political issues; however, they are popular topics that everyone is interested in. For example the RedEye scandal.

DeFranco’s style of amateur video in itself is a form of pop culture. His style is that of a rant which is classified in amateur video as popular culture as it is the most common form of amateur video.

I’m fairly sure that everyone has seen this video. This video was shot during the popular Britney bashing era that the tabloids created. This video went both ways some thought it was absolutely hilarious but thought it was harmless, while others made fun of Chris Crocker ruthlessly. This video became so popular that the famous Seth Green did his own rendition of ‘Leave Chris Crocker Alone’. He created this as a result to the epic amount of hate mail Chris Crocker received.

Chris Crocker’s video also starred in the satirical movie Meet the Spartans. The video appeared on the chest of a transformer. In a way Crocker should be pleased with himself because he formed a new form of pop culture. Everywhere people know his form of amateur video, whether in the form of satire or not.

Well this video is pretty obvious on how it reflects popular culture. It’s not exactly the most recent in today’s fads but Harry Potter is still quite popular especially with the movies still being produced. This video definitely demonstrates the excitement that the Harry Potter craze created. I especially like this video because it shows the anticipation for the last book to finally be released in a fun musical way for the whole public to see.

Larry Lessig comments during one of his TED conferences that amateur content is content that is create by the love of doing something, and not for the money. This culture is mainly generated by by youth between the ages of 14-24. These youth generate amateur videos by welding the past and present together. They take the songs of the old and mix it with the content of the new and make something different. According to Lessig, the video that follows is called a ‘Read My Lips’ amateur video.

Amateur artists use copy written content to create a different type of medium of art. However, since copy write laws are extremely relaxed. Therefore, amateur artists can use this content without worrying about breaking the law.

Sources:
How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law Larry Lessig Video

Wikipedia is an online free encyclopedia created in 2001 with almost 3,000,000 entries in English and almost 800,000 entries in French. The site also includes entries in a wide variety of other languages including German, Italian, and Spanish. The site creates a network of people because any can join the community.

The down side to all of this is that by being a member you can also edit certain entries. When Wikipedia was first created, edits were not monitored. Someone could say that elephants have red ears, which is completely untrue. This makes Wikipedia unreliable because as an encyclopedia it is expected that entries be based on truth. This is the reason why teachers refuse to allow students to use Wikipedia as a resource. On the bright side, Wikipedia does now monitor edits, flags inappropriate entries, and bans abuses of the site. The latter was probably a result of Stephen Coberts constant jabs.

However in all of this, Jonathan Zittrain does have a point when stating “…Wikipedia has since come to stand for the idea that involvment of people in the information they read – whether to fix a typographical error or to join a debate over its veracity or completeness – is an important end itself…”

So, whenever in doubt, there is always Wikipedia to help you out.

Sources:
The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain

In all honesty, the only thing that really bugged me about the program is that they didn’t mention that the reason Canada is in Afghanistan is because there was an attack on a NATO country. The treaty entails that all countries involved with the NATO agreement must step in to defend the attacked country. The country I’m obviously talking about is the United States, a country I mind add that hasn’t been paying their NATO dues for quite awhile.

Despite all of this, the program needs to be viewed with an open mind after all it is a satire. After all how many times have Canadian satirically news programs jabbed at the war in Iraq, and even go so far and poke fun of the Hypocaust (an extremely touchy subject)? Not once do I remember any of their hosts having to apologize.

People have definitely lost their sense of humour. There is even a Facebook group dedicated to banning the show off the air. Which you can join here. Philip DeFranco says it right. People need to calm down. It’s a show that’s aired at 3am with minimal viewers. What’s next? Are people going to petition to get Obama out of office after his Special Olympics slip up?

Sources:
CTV News Article Here

However, I’m going to talk about something called Barbiefaction (Yes, I made that term up). Barbiefication is the new fascination people have with Barbie. She has gone from play doll to designer. Popular outlets are using this trend to create a high revenue fad. Just by walking through a mall like the Rideau Centre you can see how far this fad has gone. In high end shoes stores you can buy Barbie label shoes. Along with this make up stores like Sephora and MAC have Barbie make up.

What does all of this mean? Well Barbie has gone from make belief to reality. Now people no longer have to fantasize about being the perfect looking woman like Barbie, they can now be Barbie. Trend setters are eating this notion up like candy. The trend setters start the cycle; thus you have Barbiefication.

Sources:
The Empire of Mind by Michael Strangelove