My initial thoughts on Weezer’s Pork and Beans (previously) was that it was somewhat making fun of YouTube and webculture. At the same time, the song, lyrics, and imagery resonated with me. After watching it a dozen or so times, and thinking about the lyrics, I’ve changed my mind. Consider the following:
- One Man Band – viewed 1,141,294 times, ranked **** by 10,960 viewers since February 14, 2007.
- Numa Numa – viewed 13,935,534 times, ranked **** by 74,678 viewers since August 14, 2006.
- Dramatic Gopher – viewed 4,488,610 times, ranked ****by 16,181 viewers since June 20, 2007.
- Black Ninja – viewed 2,831,104 times, ranked ****by 6,272 viewers since January 17, 2007.
- Diet Coke and Mentos – viewed 6,123,323 times, ranked **** by 20,131 viewers since June 14, 2006.
- Evolution of Dance – viewed 86,162,871 times, ranked **** by 323,113 viewers since April 6, 2006.
- The White Version of Crank That Soulja Boy – viewed 9,892,997 times, ranked **** by 16,838 viewers since July 21,2007
- Chocolate Rain – viewed 22,309,848 times, ranked **** by 111,586 viewers since April 22, 2007.
- Star Wars Kid – viewed 7,233,827 times, ranked **** by 19,232 viewers since January 15, 2006.
And so on.
None of the above will make any significant money from their 3-minute contribution to our collective cognitive deficit, despite being enjoyed by millions, equaling many commercial book or music releases. As a commenter on Valleywag mentioned (BTW, check out the embedded compilation video of the 24 referenced clips), Weezer bettered “humanity by [appealing] to the amateur inside”.
Tags: Soulja Boy, youtube
