I'm Poppy
February 26, 2017 4:52 AM   Subscribe

 
Lord that's creepy.
Off to clear this out of my history.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:10 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


I am Groot.
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:25 AM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]


The internet is the best . The internet is the worst .
posted by rikschell at 5:28 AM on February 26, 2017


Wut ?
posted by Pendragon at 5:48 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I have come to the conclusion that she is poppy, although whether that is a name or an emotional or physical state remains unclear to me.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:57 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


By this time tomorrow, the virus will have spread, and streets will alternate from being utterly empty, with the occasional survivor taking the chance at seeking shelter, and being jam packed with slow moving throngs of people blandly mentioning in ever-varying inflections that they are poppy.

I am poppy.

I am poppy

I am poppy.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:12 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


I'm Poppy. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
posted by Thorzdad at 6:23 AM on February 26, 2017 [6 favorites]


Previously on AskMetafilter
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:26 AM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]


I'm Puppy.
posted by taz at 6:26 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


I couldn't watch the opening video all the way through. It legitimately made me feel like I was going crazy—a mounting sense of anxiety and dread; a bottomless pit and I'm falling and the sky is disappearing above me and the walls are rushing past and only blackness below and blackness forever below that, no hope and no light and everything I love has been left behind, above, in the sun, where I was before I fell and fell and fell....

I see what she was going for. I respect that. But I can't participate.

I'm sorry, Poppy.

IF THAT IS YOUR REAL NAME.
posted by springo at 6:27 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]


I was intrigued, and then I was bored. Poppy isn't David Lynch.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:28 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


"Poppy reacts to kids react to Poppy" is really where it goes into the next dimension. Holy crap.
posted by adamrice at 6:38 AM on February 26, 2017 [11 favorites]




reminds me vaguely of Superidol
posted by infinitewindow at 6:45 AM on February 26, 2017


From the Poppy reacts to kids reactions, the best bit:

Poppy, both on the screen the kids are watching and the other screens:

"Are you happy?"

Kid: I'm not now!
posted by Ghidorah at 6:47 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


As was brought up on the Ask thread a while back, ThatPoppy is the same person. All the creepy stuff was probably meant as a promotional vehicle for a music career. It's been pretty effective.
posted by leo_r at 6:52 AM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]




i'm wrjklvbmn, all-devourer of the ages

let me take your hand, poppy

*CHOMP*
posted by pyramid termite at 7:15 AM on February 26, 2017


It's like weaponized ASMR.
posted by penduluum at 7:44 AM on February 26, 2017 [10 favorites]


Surrender Dorothy!
posted by Catblack at 7:55 AM on February 26, 2017


Poppy's real name and identity are kept guarded, with That Poppy explaining, "I don't want people to talk about how old I am

So, early thirties, probably.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:57 AM on February 26, 2017 [32 favorites]


I had been thinking of doing an FPP on Poppy for some time. Poppy is some KLF-level media manipulation, a savvy commentary on persona in the digital age, a healthy slice of existential dread, some genuinely catchy pop hits, a splash of surrealism, pointed comedy, absurdist fashion, an entire ambient record and, uh, some disturbing mix of all of the above. What's wonderful is that all of this is being done with an eye to the mass media, with Lowlife brilliantly bridging the gap between the mainstream pop world and Poppy's surreal Youtube world.

But what was holding me back was how to appropriately describe the strangely addicting way that working through Poppy's videos, and related videos, leads down a strange path that's initially edifying and seems deliberate, but at some point turns into what seems like Internet stalking.

It doesn't take long to start shuffling through the digital presence of Poppy's director/producer Titanic Sinclair, who also has a series of videos in the style of Poppy's, a big catchy hit single dripping with irony, and who emphasizes that he is not a cult leader.

You soon find that Titanic had been making videos with another partner, Mars Argo, who also made the same style of videos with Titanic Sinclair and also had insanely catchy pop songs and clever music videos.

But while there are official hints that remain of these proto-Poppy projects, most of those videos appear to have been deleted from Youtube. You're drawn in by the way some of them are completely normal totally catchy songs or funny and charming Poppy-style videos, but it doesn't take long to find a re-upload of a weirdly disturbing video of Mars Argo just before the transition to Poppy. It feels like voyeurism, or witnessing a breakdown, except... it's explicitly referenced in the official Poppy videos.

And so it's not hard to ask: what happened to Mars Argo? Is this more than a media project? Are these deleted videos part of an Alternative Reality Game, or a narrative, or was this a failed relationship? Am I being intentionally led down the path of looking through these videos, or am I a creep digging through digital ruins? How much of this is intentional? What is this telling us? What is it all about anyway?

Can we go back?
posted by eschatfische at 8:05 AM on February 26, 2017 [72 favorites]


Hey! I posted an AskMe about this after an 8 year old of my acquaintance told me about them. It's Uncanny Valley stuff for sure, and I let him know they creep me out, too. On preview, I see we have covered that.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:13 AM on February 26, 2017


I broke out in a rash while watching that.
posted by james33 at 8:23 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I like this. I like trying to figure out and ascribe meaning to something that I suspect may mean nothing, and everything. I can't turn away.

Note: this is also how I felt about Donald Trump's early campaign appearances. It is possible that both the Poppy phenomenon and the Trump phenomenon represent an alien race manipulating a flaw in our neural programming in order to destroy us. Or she's just a person trying to get YouTube likes, one of the two.

OR BOTH!!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:45 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


God dammit, I just got over the anxiety induced by watching the videos in the AskMe question.
posted by khaibit at 8:57 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Poppy = Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
posted by TheCoug at 8:59 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


I had just shaken the heeby jeebies from that Swedish photographer from the other day.
posted by humboldt32 at 8:59 AM on February 26, 2017


I'm Zombo.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 9:06 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Do children have to sign paperwork or something before you terrify them like that?
posted by redsparkler at 9:18 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


I dig it and have now subscribed to her channel.
posted by phunniemee at 9:33 AM on February 26, 2017


I'm papi
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 9:33 AM on February 26, 2017


Poppy's real name and identity are kept guarded, with That Poppy explaining, "I don't want people to talk about how old I am

So, early thirties, probably.


I'll save everyone a Google search: Moriah Rose Pereira, born Jan 1st 2001
posted by slater at 9:47 AM on February 26, 2017


No.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:50 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


I could swear I read some article somewhere on this being a project of some dude, and that he has this same actress in other videos.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:52 AM on February 26, 2017


Ah, I just need to read the thread.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:56 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I like this... represent an alien race manipulating a flaw in our neural programming in order to destroy us...

OR BOTH!!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:45 AM on February 26 [+] [!]


Alien-esterical!

As for Poppy, ::eyeroll:: I think I'm too old to be their target audience. After 30 seconds of the 1st video, all I could think was,"How many awful performance art shows like this have I been to in my life? And wasn't there a slew of videos just like this in the Dreamlands installation at the Whitney?" At which I also rolled my eyes. I guess I'm not deep enough to get it. Sorry, y'all, this is so not my thing.
posted by droplet at 10:04 AM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


Every generation has those who think they're the first to discover performance art.

To each their own.
posted by cooker girl at 10:12 AM on February 26, 2017




I'm Spartacus.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:24 AM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]



I'll save everyone a Google search: Moriah Rose Pereira, born Jan 1st 2001


Yeah, that person is NOT 16 years old. And I'll just say that every year dozens of "perfectly normal people" wish me facebook happy birthdays on January 1st. Spoiler: I wasn't born on New Year's Day.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:41 AM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


I'm hoppy.
posted by Splunge at 10:49 AM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Every generation has those who think they're the first to discover performance art. . .

...How many awful performance art shows like this have I been to in my life? And wasn't there a slew of videos just like this in the Dreamlands installation at the Whitney?...


Everyone please stop doing things immediately.
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:58 AM on February 26, 2017 [19 favorites]


There's something about death in all this; Poppy's a bleached and sandblasted ghost haunting spaces as empty of life and stripped of detail as that house you can't get out of in a nightmare.

Not to mention the repetition-compulsion thing.
posted by jamjam at 11:47 AM on February 26, 2017 [9 favorites]


There's something about death in all this

See the "What Rhymes with Breath" video linked to elsewhere in this thread.

Googling the name that slater mentioned earlier led me to a thread with links to a bunch of her songs from a Chinese video hosting site:

Poppy covers "Losing My Religion"
Poppy covers "Fade into You"
etc.

(You need to wait for half a minute or so for the videos to play.)
posted by dhens at 12:00 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


This is either a brilliant and important multimedia/performance/culturejamming art piece or I am officially and literally insane now.
posted by cmoj at 12:17 PM on February 26, 2017


I've seen this/her show up in various feeds lately and I've always gotten a Max Headroom vibe from it - as in an artificial talking head media construction. I don't know what, if anything, it means, but I feel a sense of dread watching and so I don't.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 12:38 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


I just asked the kid about this and apparently Poppy blocks anyone who mentions Melanie Martinez. Googling "Melanie Martinez Poppy" reveals a hole I'm not willing to go down.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 12:45 PM on February 26, 2017


Everyone please stop doing things immediately.

That wasn't my intention. Just making an observation. Each generation is more than welcome to "discover" performance art. Again, to each his (her, etc.) own.
posted by cooker girl at 1:36 PM on February 26, 2017


Warning: dhen's first like redirected my phone to the Android store, where, surprise, the application had been removed.
posted by zenon at 1:49 PM on February 26, 2017


I'm sure William Gibson wrote this novel in the early 1990s.
posted by cstross at 1:49 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


I was intrigued, and then I was bored. Poppy isn't David Lynch.

Have you seen Lynch's work since IE? Poppy is at least as David Lynch as the man himself, and probably more.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 2:13 PM on February 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I broke out in a rash while watching that.

Rashes are a common side effect of contact with the cold ones from the other side of the mirror. However, these side effects are not merely limited to humans. Your walls and floors should be inspected, especially under throw rugs or behind wall hangings and pictures, and topical ointments should be applied to the affected areas. Unfortunately, the objects the taint was covering should be burned immediately, paying careful attention to avoid looking at any affected photos of loved ones, as the photos have been known to attempt bargaining to avoid their fate.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:31 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]


Melanie Martinez

Wait. Melanie Martinez, who was a contestant on The Voice? And who (I think) shows genuine talent in the work she's released as an artist?

(On a superficial note, I admire her as one of those folks who can afford to "fix" their teeth but don't, which I think is charming.)

Poppy poppy poppy.
posted by maxwelton at 3:01 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


I'm sure William Gibson wrote this novel in the early 1990s.

Well we're all living in a William Gibson novel from the early 1990s sooooo
posted by The Whelk at 3:30 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


So.

Producer and conceptual artist makes pop music/art with girlfriend but they break up. He takes his concept to Island Music who looks to their stable of up-and-comers they've been sniping pop songs from and decide to ask Poppy if she'd like to give up singer/songwriting for more of a modern pop sensation (whatever the fuck that means at any given instant) and she's totally on board. The result is weird on weird on weird and I'm not totally opposed to it even though it makes me feel very old.
posted by carsonb at 4:48 PM on February 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


So Nardwuar showed up in the suggested videos eventually and a spark of hope shimmered in the cold dark recess that is my heart that there would be a Nardwuar vs. Poppy interview one day.
posted by carsonb at 5:15 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


So I went back to start watching at the beginning, and the character building and intention are there right at the start. There's a lot to unpack. It seems a little random at the very start, but the groundwork starts right away. Normal life represented by cotton candy and fingernails and telephones. And then I'm Poppy drops: Poppy is a woman and has emotions and ambitions and agency (He Loves Me Not, I'm Poppy) and at the same time wants fame and a platform for her music (Umbrella, My Kind of Woman which is a flipping brilliant cover/first single) and it clearly gets a lot more complicated from there. But I find it very cool how so many of the elements of pop stardom are under attack (addressed?) from a perfect doll-like epitome of that standard.
posted by carsonb at 7:11 PM on February 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


And OMG her first original tune, Everybody Wants To Be Poppy, hits that nail on the head:

Everybody wants to be Poppy Poppy
Everybody wants to be

All the people all around want to know
What to look like, what to think, where to go

But I don't know, I don't know
I don't know what to think anymore, No

I'm not here to tell you, what to say or be
Why is everybody just like me

I don't know who to belong to
I'm just a princess with a pistol
.....
Im not here to tell you, what to say or be
Why is everybody just like me

cuz I don't have all the answers
but what I say is true
all you need to do is just be you


It's like the message I've always wanted to hear in pop music, perfectly distilled in a really catchy tune.
posted by carsonb at 7:15 PM on February 26, 2017


Poppy reacting to kids reacting to poppy is one of the most perfectly post-modern things since like Learning from Las Vegas.
posted by signal at 7:32 PM on February 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


The best FPP I've seen in a while comes as a comment on the best FPP I've seen in a while... which is perfectly appropriate for this FPP.
posted by scrowdid at 8:55 PM on February 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


My god what is this rabbit hole you've thrown me down? Man I really like Mars Argo.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:01 PM on February 26, 2017


I went down that hole, and then bailed when I found that "mastermind" Titanic Sinclair's Twitter feed was full of ironic pro-Trumpish right wing BS.

It has also been alleged that TS had the person playing Poppy base her performance on his ex-girlfriend Mars after breaking up, which is really creepy and weird, if true. One could probably have a pretty interesting concept about feminine agency and the implications of the Poppy thing.

----

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Feb 22
I want to stage a protest to protest all of these protests.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Feb 20
#Milo just doubled his book deal

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Feb 7
I bet the people who invented the Internet are thrilled we're all using it to bitch about the US Secretary of Education.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Feb 1
My tweet about Trump will challenge your beliefs and sway your opinion.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Jan 30
Comedians were a lot funnier before they all became politicians.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Jan 28
Complaining about Trump online stopped him from becoming president and it will continue to be effective in making change.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Jan 24
I care about how many people were at the inauguration because it impacts my life directly.

After they posted the dossier:
Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Jan 10
Buzzfeed won't exist in a year.
Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Jan 10
See: Gawker
Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Jan 10
Joke about pee

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair Jan 9
I like when actors tell me how to feel.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair 29 Dec 2016
If you think creating a Twitter trend will encourage a publisher to cancel a book, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you #Milo…

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair 10 Dec 2016
Re-watching those videos of "stand up comedians" begging people to vote for "their" candidate is laugh out loud funny at this point.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair 7 Dec 2016
Why are people surprised Trump is Time's person of the year? You couldn't shut the fuck up about him for the past 12 months.

Titanic Sinclair‏@titanicsinclair 19 Nov 2016
Political tweet: the left is acting the same way the right did when Obama won the election.

----

I don't tend to judge great art by the political opinions of the people creating it, but when it comes to low level memey shit that makes $ through clicks, I am less forgiving. I'm sure that he feels that he is ironic, like Milo is ironic, but coming from someone that pale, that doesn't wash with me. Your mileage may vary.
posted by bootlegpop at 10:24 PM on February 26, 2017 [8 favorites]


*pretty interesting concept should read: pretty interesting conversation
posted by bootlegpop at 10:39 PM on February 26, 2017


It's all very Stanley Parable, in that it's about itself. In the Stanley Parable, spoiler alert, the goal is to become free but Stanley can only be free while the player isn't running and playing the game. And in That Poppy, Plant, a fan of Poppy's, isn't the only other person trapped in Poppy's existence. Charlotte, a sane naysayer, and Skeleton, a person confused by everything, are also part of it. They represent people with those attitudes toward Poppy in real life. And those people are all part of That Poppy and supporting it. Why? Because THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT IT.

We're all part of it.

Poppy's just the one in room 427.

Wait, Poppy, where are you going? If you go through there I won't be able to--(LOUD STATIC)
posted by BiggerJ at 3:21 AM on February 27, 2017


Poppy's a cute gimmick and all, but I watched the react channel video and mostly I can't stop thinking about how the little eyebrows kid has grown so much since I last saw one of them.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:55 AM on February 27, 2017


I miss Shaye Saint John
posted by ostranenie at 9:03 AM on February 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


bootlegpop: It has also been alleged that TS had the person playing Poppy base her performance on his ex-girlfriend Mars after breaking up, which is really creepy and weird, if true.

I've been churning through the videos on the That Poppy channel, and occasionally dipping into some of the meta-commentary videos that are everywhere. This one (Inside a Mind, 18mins, you don't have to watch it) puts a much more satisfying interpretation on, uh, what's going on, which I'm thankful for because prior to watching it I felt much the same as bootlegpop.

If the That Poppy thing is a comment on pop culture from as many perspectives as possible, and altogether an act across several characters, YouTube channels, various social media accounts, and all wrapped together into an Island Music futuristic media endeavor, then there are four main characters. Titanic Sinclair is the 'they' that creeps into Poppy's videos, representing the controlling interests of corporate media and the creators who sign onto that gig. Poppy is the star, the celebrity face of those controlling interests, and the connection between them and the audience. The Audience is another character, of course. The last character is Mars Argo, the artistic creator who chose not to read 50 minutes of the Bible aloud in one take (IE sign a contract with corporate media controlling interests AKA the Illuminati), broke up with Titanic Sinclair, and is now happily free from desire.

That's a terrible summary of a rather elegant theory that's based on this quote:
"If you want it all you cannot be distracted by the illusion you have created. Only when your mind is silent you can see clear enough to enjoy your life and forget about your desires. Your desires are irrelevant."
Which is said by 'they' (backwards and distorted) at the end of this one weird Mars Argo video that's posted on the channel of her old cinematographer. Mars Argo freed herself from the desires Poppy is obsessed with (money, fame) and is happily escaped from under the thumb of the Illuminati.

Anyway, back to where I'm at with Poppy: She just read from the beginning of the Bible for 49 minutes exactly, with very little stumbling or stuttering, only yawning two or three times near the end. When she was done she looked DONE IN, like she regretted agreeing to do it. I mean, have you read Genesis? It's its own special hell, a punishment of weird names and pointless lineages. After about 20 minutes I got out my own copy of the Bible to follow along in sympathy. The next few videos after that are where things take that real creepy turn and I can start to see why her 'fans' started to get worried about her situation.

Mars Argo may have made the right decision by declining to take the act to the next step, but that didn't stop the people in charge from finding a replacement for her, someone who would be happy to step up into the star character.... at first. I'm going to continue to watch this channel in the hope that there's a story being told about a girl getting out of her deal with the devil.
posted by carsonb at 10:49 AM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


It would be more interesting if he stuck to his own kayfabe, but my impression is that his Twitter and Reddit accounts are unfortunately pretty much out of character, especially the Reddit account, given how much time he has spent trolling and being rude, and that he was doing so long before Poppy. It would be nice if I was wrong, but it's still just more digital negativity out there, no matter what the intent, since it doesn't really matter if a troll means it.

As for the Mars thing, for the sake of full disclosure, I got my info from what Max Landis posted on his Twitter account. He is friends with MA and cast her in one of his recent(ish) projects:

https://twitter.com/uptomyknees/status/751064137963220992?lang=en

Max Landis‏Verified account @Uptomyknees 7 Jul 2016
Poppy is a rip off of @marsargo, the original created as a team by Mars Argo and Titanic Sinclair.
Max Landis‏Verified account @Uptomyknees 7 Jul 2016
@NM_NickNocturne Titanic and Mars had a brutal break up and he stole the project they created together. It's all pretty ugly.
Max Landis‏Verified account @Uptomyknees 7 Jul 2016
@NM_NickNocturne Mars is a good friend of mine. Whole thing is cool, but it's kind of a real bummer.
Max Landis‏Verified account @Uptomyknees 7 Jul 2016
@NM_NickNocturne The most frustrating element is that Poppy is a literal impression of Mars Argo.
Max Landis‏Verified account @Uptomyknees 7 Jul 2016
@NM_NickNocturne The rip is most evident in this video. Worth saying, Titanic deliberately deleted all of the videos they made together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=KbS-dKD4c9I
Max Landis‏Verified account @Uptomyknees 7 Jul 2016
@NM_NickNocturne Mars is a very unique, special person, and Poppy mimics not only her look, but her real voice.
Max Landis‏Verified account @Uptomyknees 7 Jul 2016
@NM_NickNocturne It's actually really horrible and sinister. Imagine a boyfriend making an entire webseries copying the personality his ex.
posted by bootlegpop at 3:55 PM on February 27, 2017 [8 favorites]


Ew, nasty reality intruding on my perfect pop fantasy! Ugh, so gross.
posted by carsonb at 8:41 PM on February 27, 2017


That's not poppy.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 10:18 PM on February 27, 2017


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