Psych!
May 27, 2013 9:57 AM   Subscribe

A secret asian man has spoofed his way into numerous VIP parties in Cannes pretending to be PSY of Gangnam Style fame. Now revealed as a French Korean adoptee living in Ireland, Denis Carré gave a short interview to GQ.
posted by Iteki (37 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Haha, I am in full support of this guy!
posted by ReeMonster at 10:02 AM on May 27, 2013


"A secret asian man"

giving you a llama
posted by leotrotsky at 10:02 AM on May 27, 2013 [3 favorites]


You might say he is PSY's dopplegangnamer.
posted by 0 answers at 10:06 AM on May 27, 2013 [34 favorites]


Wait, what?

Even in its capacity as a global economy and OECD nation, Korea still sends children abroad for international adoption. The proportion of children leaving Korea for adoption amounted to about 1% of its live births for several years during the 1980s (Kane, 1993); currently, even with a large drop in the Korean birth rate to below 1.2 children per woman and an increasingly wealthy economy, about 0.5% (1 in 200) of Korean children are still sent to other countries every year.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:08 AM on May 27, 2013




He really needs to get together with Louis Ortiz.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:22 AM on May 27, 2013


Wait, what?

Korea implemented a "Special Adoption Act" in August 2012 to prioritize domestic adoptions. Time will tell if the stats change. Info from US State Dept.
posted by girlhacker at 10:32 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


I would not have guessed that pretending to be the guy who sang 'Gangnam Style' would make it easier to get into parties.
posted by box at 10:34 AM on May 27, 2013 [3 favorites]


spoofed marketed
posted by marienbad at 10:36 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


It would have been supreme if he was revealed to be Kim Jong-un.
posted by orme at 10:38 AM on May 27, 2013 [6 favorites]


I'm more impressed that he managed to pass for human with all that corporate marketing speak.
posted by srboisvert at 10:41 AM on May 27, 2013 [4 favorites]


I've been impersonating Lady GaGa for years and it hasn't gotten me into a single party (nor have any of you written an FPP about me).
posted by HuronBob at 10:44 AM on May 27, 2013


Psy Cho?
posted by phaedon at 10:56 AM on May 27, 2013


Secret Asian Man
posted by FritoKAL at 11:02 AM on May 27, 2013


I just had an idea!!! You know what someone should do???!!!! Someone should impersonate Elvis!!! Now THAT would be neat!

...surprised nobody has thought of that before now....
posted by HuronBob at 11:05 AM on May 27, 2013


HuronBob, I had an Elvis impersonator at my wedding. When I mentioned we lived in Queens he revealed that "the King's from Massapequa." And as far as doppelgängers goes, if you have sex with someone who looks just like you is it a doppelgängbang??

Anyway, good on this guy for scamming some free eats and drinks.
posted by jonmc at 11:19 AM on May 27, 2013 [3 favorites]


I'm more impressed that he managed to pass for human with all that corporate marketing speak.

Actually, the way he spoke (as transcribed by the interviewer) seemed more French than anything else. It was pretty damn sad that the guy's goal in life is to be recognized as a PSY impersonator.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:20 AM on May 27, 2013


Psy Ops?
posted by benzenedream at 11:22 AM on May 27, 2013 [4 favorites]


Ohhh...you wanted to hire a Psy clone.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:38 AM on May 27, 2013 [4 favorites]


Don't these people have Youtube? Seems like they could have checked.
posted by thelonius at 11:48 AM on May 27, 2013


if you have sex with someone who looks just like you is it a doppelgängbang

Only if you are having sex with more than one of them.

Someone who looks just like you and is dressed gangster-style is a doppelgängbanger.
posted by NoraReed at 11:58 AM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]


On the one hand, yet another culture-jamming event is revealed to be a publicity stunt by a professional marketing team.

On the other hand, I'm kinda relieved to hear that this guy only got in to Cannes thanks to industry connections. He doesn't even look like Psy.
posted by subdee at 12:07 PM on May 27, 2013


Isn't sneaking into parties by pretending to be a rock star pretty much what Gangnam Style is all about?
posted by Flashman at 1:03 PM on May 27, 2013 [5 favorites]


I'm kinda surprised that this was fake honestly, as subdee said. But for different reasons.

This type of this is not impossible to do at all. Me, several of my friends, and a lot of other people I've talked to have gotten in to music festivals with a fake press pass and a DSLR, private parties just by walking right in and acting confident, and all kinds of other stuff like press previews for movies, etc.

Sometimes it's having some kind of credential or item that makes it look like you're supposed to be there, whether as a guest or working the event. Sometimes it's just confidence and a dickhead "excuse me? I don't have time for this" attitude or response if anyone stops you. Nothing about this video surprised me. You can get really far if you're confident and encounter something like someone saying "hey, you need a purple wristband to go in here" and you just go down to the check in desk for press, staff, etc and go "hey, XYZ person(not the security guard, something like "my boss") said this is where I go to get my purple wristband?". Following cues is big, but it's often like solving some simple puzzle in a videogame. A friend of mine ended up at some huge Oscar/Emmy party(I honestly forget, but tons of stars were there) because someone went "hey, you look like XYZ minor actress. Are you (some major actresses) friend?". Next person asks who they are, they say that, bam "step right this way ma'am" and walk into the limo.

My friend calls it "ballwalking", and I like that, because when this sort of thing isn't some tired publicity stunt, it's pretty much just a function of being ballsy.
posted by emptythought at 1:39 PM on May 27, 2013 [7 favorites]


Now revealed as a French Korean adoptee living in Ireland, Denis Carré gave a short interview to GQ.

A nice plot twist would be if it turned out they, too, got tricked, and interviewed the real Psy instead.
posted by ymgve at 1:47 PM on May 27, 2013 [6 favorites]


And if you don't look like a celebrity, just carry a clipboard and look harried.
posted by sammyo at 1:47 PM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]


This is funny.

I am not a party enjoying kind of person, but I am a free drinks enjoying kind of person, so I never miss the chance to sneak into the lobby for a movie premiere or art gallery opening. For a recent film festival I just took a picture of a photographer standing outside, cropped and rotated the picture in camera until I had a closeup of the badge, went to walgreens to print the badge, and was drunk on cheap wine 15 minutes later, with a DSLR in my hand.

A security guard asked me if I wasn't supposed to be working, I told him I was only taking 'special' pictures and he left me alone.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 1:56 PM on May 27, 2013 [5 favorites]


A few years ago there was a book about a man who fakes working for a newspaper and attends oodles of press parties. It was set in China, I recall, but not much else.
posted by Jehan at 3:34 PM on May 27, 2013


A secret asian man

uh, yes, he's Korean. What an odd (and exceedingly awkward) way to open this FPP.
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 3:55 PM on May 27, 2013


A secret asian man

Yes, I thought this would be abut a Syrian spy passing for Psy. Misleading headline.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 4:48 PM on May 27, 2013


There's blagging your way into parties, and there's making a career out of impersonating an artist everyone sort of knows from that one novelty hit while only sort-of looking like that artist. I can't believe no one confronted him before Psy called him out on twitter.
posted by subdee at 5:08 PM on May 27, 2013


Oddly enough, the phenomenon of international Korean adoptions was the most fascinating part of all this; I had never heard of this before.
posted by indubitable at 5:17 PM on May 27, 2013


What an odd (and exceedingly awkward) way to open this FPP.

It's a joke.
posted by blue t-shirt at 5:37 PM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]


"This video contains content from EMI, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 6:13 PM on May 27, 2013


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR34ilk4xaI

Well, actually the link above was to the original song, but hey XD.
posted by subdee at 6:45 PM on May 27, 2013


I am not a party enjoying kind of person, but I am a free drinks enjoying kind of person, so I never miss the chance to sneak into the lobby for a movie premiere or art gallery opening. For a recent film festival I just took a picture of a photographer standing outside, cropped and rotated the picture in camera until I had a closeup of the badge, went to walgreens to print the badge, and was drunk on cheap wine 15 minutes later, with a DSLR in my hand.

Wouldn't it you cost less in time, effort and psychic strain to just buy a bottle of cheap plonk?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:54 AM on May 29, 2013


Wouldn't it you cost less in time, effort and psychic strain to just buy a bottle of cheap plonk?

Which makes a better story?
posted by saysthis at 1:12 AM on May 30, 2013 [1 favorite]


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