In many ways, the platform of Youtube has been compared to a talent show stage, where there are thousands of uploads of ameteur content which could be compared to that of an elementary school show-off platform. Whether it be song covers, either by physically redoing the song live or by lip-synching, or the talent which humans have always found fascinating, impersonations. From the days of the Ed Sullivan show with live improv comedians doing impressions of movie stars and presidents, to modern shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Royal Canadian Air Farce, there has always been an audience for impersonations.
The showcasing stage of Youtube does have an aspect of anonymity in performance. A webcam is not the same as live to broadcast of all America, however, amateurs set themselves up for a lot of rejection by posting videos, as has been seen with thousands of postings, all from anonymous critics in the comments section below. Truly, there is a discrepancy in the voicing of opinions at someone who really doesn’t know much better, and is either intentionally hamming it up, or is expressing themselves with not much success in the talent part.
According to literary theorist Johannes Willem Bertens, post-modern fiction is liberating because it can destabilize preconceived notions with regard to language. “It effectively undermines all metanarratives and all beliefs and values that derive from metanarratives. However, it always also undermines itself: it will make fun of itself”. In the case of professional actors doing impressions of celebrities, and example of which would be the Tina Fey’s impersonation of Sarah Palin, the use of humor can influence and audience to have a serious opinion change based on a exaggeration of the actual speaker. One could argue that a majority of North America learns of news-stories from shows such as Jim Stewart and Conan O’Brian because the average person is much more receptive when they’ve heard something in good humor. Examples such as these propagate a healthy criticism of famous people, whether in politics or entertainment to help dissipate some of their power, or help us in expressing possible annoyance at them for their success by seeing that that they can be stripped down with humorous characiturization.
The other end of the spectrum is doing impersonations for the sake of becoming famous by association. Since the death of Elvis Priestly, the cult of Elvis impersonators is truly a strange phenomena of expression that has been underlying talents shows in America and increasingly overseas such as in Japan and the former Soviet Union. This is a form of idolization, which as times is on the part of the performer, to be not the instigator of ridicule, but to be popular through being linked to a celebrity.
The video here shows a girl Sirina, doing impressions and it appears that she is being filmed by her dad. Before her acting out impersonations of several celebrities she says to her dad who is watching something to the effect of “don’t put it up on youtube like you always do”, which implies that he has done this before. The phenomena of child star and our cultures historical fascination with miniaturization is related to this, and further discussion of this may be warrented. The expression of this very young amateurs’ view of famous people’s mannerisms is amusing but the implications involved are rather discomfiting.
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