Thursday, May 3, 2012

What's it like to be an internet meme? Chuck Testa, Antoine Dodson, and Double Rainbow Guy explain

Success Kid is going to be there you guys!
 
ROFLCon is this weekend at MIT here in Cambridge, and it's a pretty LULZY/interesting lineup of internet pop culture and panels featuring people who think really seriously about the unserious stuff on the internet. I wrote a piece about it in the Globe today, which I've excerpted some of below. But the best part is the memes I got to talk to. I was oddly much more excited to get on the phone with Double Rainbow Guy and Antoine Dodson than I have been for any of the "authentically" "talented" people I normally interview. Read , then come back for the longer transcript versions of the interviews, including ultimate homeboy Chuck Testa of Ojai Taidermy.


The idea behind ROFLCon is an ambitious one: to bring a swath of the Internet’s pop culture players and viral celebrities together under one roof. Every other year since 2008, the Rolling on the Floor Laughing Convention has done just that, and the third installment of the culture conference — to be held this Friday and Saturday at MIT — promises more. Think of it as an academic gathering where the subject matter includes Internet memes and all things viral.

“It’s for people who study memes and online community — and for people who were momentarily famous on the Internet,” explains Tim Hwang, who cofounded ROFLCon with a group of Harvard students.

Among the discussions he’s most looking forward to this year: a panel on children and memes that will include David, of “David After Dentist” fame (Google it), and his father. The video of the woozy 7-year-old has been viewed over 100 million times. Also on hand will be “Success Kid,” a little boy named Sammy Griner whose image became the template for a viral “Advice Animal” meme you’ve likely seen a thousand times if you’re a Tumblr or Reddit aficionando — or perhaps never if you’re not.

“They’re going to be there talking about what it’s like to have your young kid become unexpectedly famous on the Internet,” Hwang says.

“The Internet is the new television,” says Jason Martinez, of Eyeboogie, one of the sponsors of ROFLCon, and the producers behind the new YouTube channel Pop Spot. They’ll be at MIT filming content for the channel, including segments on Internet stars like Double Rainbow Guy, taxidermist Chuck Testa, and Antoine Dodson, whose interview after a break-in at his home became a YouTube sensation.

“For people to get to see the people that they love on TV, it’s almost the same way you love to see the ones from your computer screen,” says Martinez. “They get to see the kid David from David After the Dentist, and it gives a tangible quality to that fandom.”

We chatted with a few of the so-called human memes about how they — accidentally or intentionally — became some of the most famous faces on the Internet.
  
Go , then come back here for the longer versions of the interviews with some of the memes I spoke with. 



Chuck Testa

Did you have any idea that that this many people would end up watching your commercial when you made it?

Oh no clue. Right now we're at , plus several million on all the other ones. The kids react one 4 or 5 million, Songify is like 5 million. The zebra one is like 4 million....I was on a reality TV show [“Commercial Kings”] and I actually thought I would get real business from being on TV, and instead I got nothing. And then my kid...part of the deal about being on the TV was we had to have Facebook and a website, which I didn't have. We made the website ourselves never having done it before. [My son] posted it on YouTube, and the rest is history as they say.

It's weird right?

That's so funny, I don't know how to describe it. It's been all positive, people come by my shop from all over the world, but mostly to meet me and maybe buy a t-shirt now. My business isn't the kind of business people [just show to out of nowhere]. Everyone's not going to run out and shoot a deer just to bring it in.

But it's been great for the art of taxidermy, as far as exposing it to the whole world and bringing it out to the mainstream. Every experience I've had, except for the people who want to burn down by my house and stuff, always going to get some of those...

Who, like anti-hunting people?

Yeah. People won't kill a deer but they'll kill a human? I don't even hunt, that's the funny part. I have to tell people and explain a lot of things about my business. People just don't go out to kill things just to mount it – it's just not done. It's a byproduct of hunting.

Have you been to lot of conferences like ROFLCon?

This is the very first thing I've done so far. I've done a couple other commercials since I'm still overwhelmed. I'm so busy already. My job takes a lot of time, it's hours and hours. Now I need help, I don't know what to do. I like to answer everybody who writes me, or calls or emails. I need to put up more stuff all the time. I don't even know how to take a picture and put it on the thing, and then get it to my website. It's like all this drama for me. Which everybody does instantly. I don't even have a cellphone.

So you're happy with the experience over all?

It's been the best experience of my life, next to getting my kids, I guess I have to say that. I've had so much fun and met so many people and it's been amazing. I feel lucky. Who does it happen to? I don't know how to put it into words. I just talked to a production company that pitched a TV show about me. Who knows. But who even gets that far? Even Jay Leno's people called me. I didn't get on, but if you told a year ago that Jay Leno would call me. I'm just a guy, I”m not anybody. People ask for my autograph, take my picture. It's a little, not embarrassing, I don't know if awkward is the right word. I don't feel like I'm a celebrity.




Antoine Dodson

What are you working on now, a music career?

Right now I just did a song, my next single called “Get This Party Started.” filming it out here in Huntsville, Alabama, where my sister's attack took place.

What's your music like?

It's kind of like, two personalities going on, you got Antoine Dodson and Kevin Dodson. Antoine is like this real party hearty person, live and outspoken, and you got Kevin who's like really calm, more into love and relationships. I sing and dance and rap.

Did you ever think that when you went on the news so many people would end up seeing it?

Yeah I didn't really expect it. I wanted the story to get out, I didn't think it would get out to the world.

Do you get recognized everywhere?

Omg, it's like everywhere I go, don't care if it's Missisppi, dirt country, people know who I am. If I wanted to go to store, for 5 minutes, I will be in here for 2 hours, doing photos, autographs. I really cant do too much without people noticing who I am.

And that's ok?

Yeah, I'm ok with that...

Were you uncomfortable with the song at first? 
 
When [producers the Gregory Brothers] did the song, put it on YouTube, and it got a lot of attention, I thought it was somebody trying to make fun of my family. My sister got attacked. But when they explained it to me and talked about possibilities, and I listened to it, I was like, wow, it does have a funny type positive message it was sending out.I think it might get the attention of teenagers and people who don't watch the news. I was like wow, this could come across to teens, people in their 20s, that there is someone out there. They do need to hige the kids, hide your wife.

Did the guy ever get caught?

Unfortunately no. I come to Huntsville a lot, I got family here. I go to Lincoln Park still. A lot of people tell me they got broken into, still no one has done noting about it. I just don't understand...

Is there money in being a meme? 
 
At the beginning it was kind of like scary, I didn't know what to do. as I started working, going on trips, I kind of got used to it. I mean, I make a living for me and my family. Im not making like Nicki Minaj money, but I'm comfortable.
 



Paul “Yosemite Bear” Vasquez aka Double Rainbow Guy

So, were you on drugs or what when you saw that rainbow?

I was completely sober. I had just finished writing an email saying I was like Noah, and my organic farm, fruit tree, greenhouse, feels like an ark. I sent the email, the house fills with color, I turn on my camera and that's the video. Rainbows have been coming to me for a long time, and I'm just tripping out. They follow me, come to my front yard. This was not just a double rainbow, it was a complete disc of color, like a giant eyeball. What could have an eyeball that big? God? I just finished saying I'm like a profit of god who saw a rainbow.

What do you do for a living?

I bought this land a long time ago, just making videos, photography. I breed dogs, I was just doing a subsistence farming, just trying to make a living on the side of this mountain with my art, getting a little money breeding dogs. I didn't have any bills, I was just surviving. I lived on 6 thousand a year or less. When the video hit, YouTube offered to have me put ads on the video, and I said no, that was god. I can't put ads on god. I turned down all that money. God told me my needs would be met in other ways.

It's been a while since it came out, do people still get in touch a lot?

Dude, it's nonstop. I'm still doing interviews all over the world. Anywhere I go I'm getting mobbed. It's still going on all the time. I probably do at least one interview a week sometimes more.

Are you annoyed by it?

Here's the thing, I”m a servant, for my fellow man. I'm a vessel for my spirit, here to deliver a message to humanity. I don't live my life for myself, I live my life to serve. This is me serving my fellow man,it just happens to be fun.

So what exactly are you going to be doing at ROFLCon? 

I'm gonna do whatever they want me to. I'm a former cage fighter, whatever you put in front of me I'll knockout. 




Brian Manowitz aka Vegan Black Metal Chef

Where are you from and what do you do for a living? 
 
Orlando, FLA. I do this now, I do a mixture of and sell some of my audio equipment that I don't use, and do whatever to make money, largely focusing on the VBMC stuff, and my other musical projects.

When did the first video hit? 
 
Jut about a year ago. This will be the one year anniversary in May, and we've got a DVD and album release with next episode. The DVD is HD version of all the episodes so far. The album is going to be all the backing tracks that I've made without the vocals.

How long did it take for people to notice your videos?

Honestly, it took off instantly. I uploaded it to YouTube, posted it on my Facebook. I thought it was kind of funny, then a week or so later somewhere around 2 something million views.

Are you making money off of it? 
 
I guess, depending on several factors. I guess make money in a few ways. Google ad revenue you can get, I've done commissioned work, licensing out of episode. I've done merchandising. Now I'm kind of moving into the phase where I'm releasing a few more physical, and downloadable products, making appearances at different conventions and stuff.

There's a difference between what you do and what a lot of other memes do, right? Just getting attention for doing something dumb. You actually made something cool.

You can become internet famous by getting hit in the nuts in the funniest way possible by a 100 cats. That's the double edged sword of what I'm doing, in that it does have the humor aspect, and the holy crap what the hell is that guy doing in the kitchen with all that stuff on aspect. But the flp side of it is that at the heart of it it is a vegan cooking instruction show – that's a fairly niche market in and of itself. That's what is ordinarily thought to be a pretty small market. Vegan cooking shows – they don't exist on television. Of course the market is a little expanded with the custom music in a sense, and the broader metal market in general. It's kind of a double edged sword, not just me getting kicked in the nuts every time. The people that watch have to watch to see ii for something, especially after the WTF factor. Now it's been accepted as reality. Now people are watching it who want to watch it.

Do you play in a normal metal band?

My normal black metal project is gearing up to play out again later this month. Forever Dawn. I have a band that I play out with, not a black metal band, kind of eclectic metal called Fields of Glass.

I usually think of veganism and indie rock, not metal. Is there much crossover?

There's definitely much more of a vegan presence in hard core, and probably indie rock, yeah. The funny thing is, the initial answer is no, there's not much crossover, but at same time, after the videos have been up, I get constant messages, like “ I thought I was the only one.” I guess if you go around the world, you could fill a small auditorium.





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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't even begin to imagine how awful/some that dude's music career is going to be.

said...

I imaging it will be hard to capture lightning in t a bottle again, but you never know. (Yes you do).

Anonymous said...

So double rainbow guy is inane IRL then?

Meghan said...

THE DOUBLE RAINBOW GUY WAS AWESOME! I didn't know you went to that. My favorite person I met what the keyboard cat creator.

said...

I didn't end up making it down in person cause I had some other shit to do. Keyboard cat dude was there!?

Meghan said...

Yeah he was awesome. I met all those guys they were all super nice. http://charlieschmidt.com/

Anonymous said...

that baby looks like patton oswalt.

said...

haha so he does

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