In reading Brown's article, "Evil Bert Laden: ViRaL Texts, Community, and Collision," I thought his larger topics were very interesting: Can there be a planetary culture? What would one involve? How are we supposed to/can we interpret these ViRaL texts? All of these were well researched and even included input from Convergence Culture's Jenkins. But what struck me about this whole situation, though, was just how funny it is.
Like the picture we looked at in class Thursday, combining John Kerry and President Obama in a funny verge-of-political sort of way, the "Bert Laden" image is sort of funny and something that most Americans, if seeing it on their friends' facebook, for example, would have likely chuckled a little to themselves and moved on. In a different context (a rally people don't agree with), the image suddenly seemed to take on a new meaning. No longer was it remotely funny, it was a possible detriment to children, and on and on.
In a way this is an understandable reaction. I imagine people felt like something that is used for good (educating children) in the United States was tainted somehow by being put on a poster like these. All of this, to me, though, just make the situation seem even funnier. The evil Bert website and its accompanying photos are funny because though Bert is a puppet on a children's show, it's true that he's not really a nice guy. And a puppet from Sesame Street being caught in these compromising situations just seems clever.
Another layer of misunderstanding/hilarity was added when a foreign printing company didn't realize that an American children's puppet had made its way into a picture of Bin Laden. This brings up some questions about exactly how connected we really are to the rest of the world and how connected it wants to be to us, to be sure. But this sort of real life miscommunication seems like something that could only happen in a movie. And it's kind of funny.
On top of all this, apparently news stations and Sesame Street and parents were appalled by the idea that a character could be taken in a bad light. I don't think it would have affected my worldview as a child if someone had told me Bert was a terrorism activist on the side. I remember thinking he was mean and Ernie was nice. Kids learning their ABC's don't automatically go for worldwide implications. Terrorist = Mean Guy. And to take it a step further, why can't we teach kids that terrorist = mean guy? The threat of terrorism, since I was 11, has been a real part of my life, but on September 11th, 2001, I didn't understand who the terrorists were.
There are reasons that it's easy to define comedy and hard to define funny. To some people, certain things are funny, and to others, they're not. To me, this whole story of miscommunication is funny. A puppet in a compromising position on CNN is funny. A puppet making it onto a poster in support of Bin Laden is funny. And the guy's likely original motive for making the picture? A few laughs.
I also found the Bert Laden photograph funny. In hindsight I believe that we should all be able to laugh at the incident and the way people reacted.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that it was taken so seriously by so many people was for two reasons. The first reason being that the picture became viral shortly after 9/11 and during this time the United States was hypersensitive to anything relating to terrorism. Second, I believe this state of fear was amplified because the original origin and meaning of the picture was unknown.
I'm with you here. Miscommunication can be seen as comical for some groups and offensive to others. In other contexts, it forces us to consider the implications of comical pieces on communities that have access to these pieces but were not the target audience. Without regard to the potential audiences as well as the intended audience, we face an unhealthy virtual discourse.
ReplyDeleteI think the point you make about exactly how connected we really are to the rest of the world and how connected it wants to be to us is interesting and valid. Obviously we are connected to the rest of the world through the Internet, but it's interesting (or funny) that this mishap occurred with no real motive. The fact that the printing company perhaps thought this picture was a legitimate one to put on a serious protest poster shows that although we are connected, we have yet to learn and/or understand certain aspects of each other's culture. That seems like an obvious point, but even though Bangladesh apparently had a localized version of Sesame Street, the printing company still did not seem to recognize that bin Laden was posed with a puppet from a children's television show. In my opinion, a puppet with bin Laden would not have conveyed a very serious message of protest on a poster. More than funny, I think this occurrence was just bizarre.
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