The end of the year is often about reflecting on the good, bad and the ugly of the last 12 months.
It's a time of numerous lists, best this, worst that, in's and out's. It's a time when we can collectively look at the past year and say, "What the hell just happened?"
And our country's group reflection is never complete without also examining the pop culture that influenced us, for better or for worse, over the past year: the movies, songs, fashions, artists, TV shows and celebrities that will forever make 2010 stand out in our minds.
Accordingly, YouTube, the purveyor of all things pop culture, has just released their "Most-Viewed YouTube Video of 2010." And what the popularity of this video says about our wonderful, wonderful world is that ... we're a bunch of sick bastards.
Drum Roll please....
Antoine Dodson's "Bed Intruder Song" is the Most-Watched YouTube video of 2010, according to an announcement Monday made by YouTube, a Google-owned company. (Just an aside, Google is so paid!) Anyway, YouTube added the view counts for two versions of the video (original and auto-tune) and put its total at more than 61-million views.
OK, maybe we're not all sick bastards, but I have to say, there's something terribly creepy about the popularity and entertainment value of a distraught young man's spontaneous account of his sister's attempted rape.
If you've been under a rock for the last year, Dodson is a 24-year-old Alabama student who gave an angry (and hilarious) TV interview about an attempted rape against his younger sister. The interview, Dodson and his now-famous red kerchief became a viral hit.
I'm not sure what's more disturbing, the nation laughing at Dodson as he recounts a traumatic attack on his sister, or Dodson capitalizing on his popularity and making goo gobs of money with ring tones and appearance fees (not to mention appearances on awards shows and late night talk shows).
I know this is America and you have to get it while the getting is good. I can't be too mad at him for that. I know in two months, Dodson will be forgotten and just a footnote in popular culture. And I know, frankly, it was funny as hell! I get it. If the fame that came to him as a result of this video allows him to have a better life, good for him.
This is an age where celebrity is less about accomplishment, talent or work, and more about ... well, just celebrity.
But I can't help but wonder...
As I see him bop down the red carpet at the BET Awards ...
29-Nov-10 - Facebook Pastor Cedric Miller resigned from his post, after it became public that he had a three-way sexual relationship with his male assistant in wife. Now, it's being reported that he will return to his job.
16-Nov-10 - Forty-five years after he was killed by an Alabama State Trooper, Jimmie Lee Jackson, whose death lead to the first civil rights march on Selma, he is finally getting a small measure of justice.
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