Thanks for helping me to deceive the world

September 10, 2013 1:01 PM

If you're one of the 9 million or so inhabitants of Planet Earth who watched this video last week and laughed out loud at the spectacle of a girl whose sexy "twerking" home video turns into an epic fiery disaster, then the joke's on you, courtesy of now undisputed prank-champion Jimmy Kimmel.
posted by Potomac Avenue (109 comments total)

*10.258 million & counting
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:03 PM on September 10, 2013

I don't really get why this is a huge thing. The video's still funny. I don't go to movies and get outraged that giant robots aren't actually fighting monsters in the ocean.

Okay, yes, I do, but the web's collective freakout when something is fake is still puzzling to me.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 1:06 PM on September 10, 2013 [23 favorites]

After a couple of views I figured it had to be fake, what with the convenient cutoff and no follow up ("I'm OK!" or "She is in the hospital with serious burns.").

But I still watched it multiple times. I wonder what he gets out of this.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 1:06 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Here's the part where someone says, "I knew it was fake from the first time I saw it!"

Because, guess what, I did!
posted by MoxieProxy at 1:06 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Nathan For You did it better. Much much better
posted by Napierzaza at 1:06 PM on September 10, 2013 [6 favorites]

Nathan For You did this first, in terms of getting a clip to go viral and then revealing the director's cut version. Not that it's the most original idea in the world but just wanted to point that out because Nathan For You is funny.
posted by cell divide at 1:06 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Is it weird that the amount of attention this got both beforehand and now seems really manufactured and forced meme-ish to me?

Like the video spread incredibly fast at first as an RE:RE:FWD OMG THIS IS SO FUNNY and now the "HAHA IT WAS ALL A HOAX LOOK GUIZ" is frontpaging on like every site i can think of that isn't specifically about tech news or music or something(and even some of those) and blowing up social networking.

It definitely tingles my "hmmm" sense.
posted by emptythought at 1:11 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

I thought it was funny, even after it was exposed as a prank.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:11 PM on September 10, 2013

Yeah, I briefly considered posting that video to the blue, but it was obviously fake. It was posted by someone ostensibly using their real name, with a brief explanation that served to reassure the viewer that the twerking girl was unharmed and happy for others to laugh at her moment of ignomity. And yet there were no other videos posted by at YouTube user, and the user had no other visible online presence.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 1:12 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, when I saw it I couldn't understand how the hell she could catch fire so quickly (had she accidentally sloshed through a puddle of gasoline on her way home?) but the video faded from my mind in about twenty seconds.
posted by kozad at 1:12 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I had no idea it was fake, but love how little they had to do to create this meme.

Question everything y'all. Even primary sources.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:13 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

WAKE UP SHEEPLE
posted by modernserf at 1:13 PM on September 10, 2013 [4 favorites]

Question everything y'all. Even primary sources.

Oh yeah?? Sez who???
posted by Floydd at 1:14 PM on September 10, 2013 [9 favorites]

ARGH! *disappears in puff of twerk*
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:14 PM on September 10, 2013 [8 favorites]

I don't get how this is even remotely funny or interesting.
posted by phaedon at 1:15 PM on September 10, 2013 [22 favorites]

Just wait until he reveals that all the women in EPIC TOP NEW ULTIMATE GIRLS FAIL COMPILATION 2013 PART FIFTEEN are stunt performers too.


(srsly: you? You who have or are about to post "oh I knew it was obviously fake all along?" I disbelieve you entirely. There are like a million videos of women falling down on youtube; nothing about this one looks any more implausible than the rest.)
posted by ook at 1:17 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

when I saw it I couldn't understand how the hell she could catch fire so quickly

That's what the bottle of presumably alcohol on the table was for.
posted by aubilenon at 1:17 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

I about flipped when I saw the JK reveal -- I had told a friend after seeing the original..."This could be fake...but if it is, that chick's a stunt woman." LOL
posted by qwickset at 1:19 PM on September 10, 2013

Even knowing it is fake I'm still worried watching the video. Is there a term for that, like when you are embarrassed for Michael Scott even when you know it is a script and he is an actor?

Cuz it sucks when fake stuff messes with my emotions like that.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:19 PM on September 10, 2013 [7 favorites]

FYI Michael Scott is real.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:20 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

That was an awesome prank. Worked a treat.
posted by Samizdata at 1:20 PM on September 10, 2013

verisillyitube
posted by Apocryphon at 1:21 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

a brief explanation that served to reassure the viewer that the twerking girl was unharmed and happy

Oh, there was? Huh. I guess I missed it.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 1:22 PM on September 10, 2013

Jimmy Kimmel should reveal Steve Carell is a fictional character played by Michael Scott
posted by Ad hominem at 1:22 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

I would get on my high horse about this, but I don't want to fall off it and catch on fire.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:23 PM on September 10, 2013 [7 favorites]

Nice use of the "bazinga" tag.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:24 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Okay, I laughed at the "Thanks, Jimmy Kimmel!" "All part of the job, Ma'am!" bit.
posted by Curious Artificer at 1:24 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Count me in with those who don't get how this is a "prank." Faking a viral video hardly seems like a difficult thing to do for anyone with access to trained stunt people, camera operators and so forth.

What would be an interesting "prank" (at least, conceptually) would be to take real viral video and then film a "making of" extended version that suggests it was actually staged ("O.K., kid, you've got the demented lightsaber thing down pat, but this time I need you to trip a little. Oh, and that fatsuit's not chafing, is it?").
posted by yoink at 1:27 PM on September 10, 2013 [17 favorites]

I guess I can use this moment of meaningless pop cultural ephemera to point out some things about burns.

The following burns are serious enough that you should go to the hospital or urgent care and get checked out:

Burns on the hands, feet, face or genitals.
Circumferential burns (the ones that go all the way around a limb).
Burns that penetrate the skin (sometimes called second*, third and fourth degree burns)

Even minor burns can be a source of serious infection, and should be treated as such.

Do not remove clothing that is stuck to the burn, seek medical attention.

Watch out for signs of shock, which can be serious even in the case of minor burns.

*This terminology isn't used as much in medical spheres now, but most people know it. Second degree burns penetrate through the first layer of skin and sometimes have damage severe enough to merit medical attention.

I am not a doctor (and this does not constitute medical advice), but I have treated enough burns in an emergency medical context to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
posted by poe at 1:28 PM on September 10, 2013 [20 favorites]

Yeah, when I saw it I couldn't understand how the hell she could catch fire so quickly

I'm tempted now to try and ignite a bunch of different cloth material to see how hard it is.
posted by Mitheral at 1:28 PM on September 10, 2013

We can't discuss twerking without discussing Go Loko
posted by The Whelk at 1:28 PM on September 10, 2013 [8 favorites]

There are like a million videos of women falling down on youtube; nothing about this one looks any more implausible than the rest.

That's the weird thing, isn't it? There was never a reason to assume the video was anything other than a genuine record of someone having a stupid accident. That someone would go out of their way to manufacture something that's briefly entertaining but not the least bit implausible, only to debunk it later, seems a bit pointless. The debunking just leads to a sort of "Oh, it was fake. Well, then it's not really funny." reaction.

Maybe it's just an American humor vs. British humour thing, because it didn't work for me.
posted by pipeski at 1:29 PM on September 10, 2013 [4 favorites]

Sooooo, the only real reaction I had to it being fake was, ok, good, glad no one was actual hurt or nationally embarrassed over this.

Did you know chickadees can edit their memories from year to year so their head isn't full of useless stuff from last year, like where did I hid that one sunflower seed May 2012, but still know that "THAT house down the road had the best bird food ever last year man".

I really wish we where just a little more like chickadees, because that twerk (first time I've written that word) was slightly amusing but really isn't worth the head space it now takes up, which is now double because of the 'fake' OMG histrionics.
posted by edgeways at 1:29 PM on September 10, 2013 [6 favorites]

It's funny because the video has more views than the Jimmy Kimmel Show.
posted by FJT at 1:31 PM on September 10, 2013 [12 favorites]

Maybe it's just an American humor vs. British humour thing, because it didn't work for me.
**coffBennyHillcoff**
posted by edgeways at 1:31 PM on September 10, 2013 [6 favorites]

As the comedian explained, he posted the video to YouTube to see what would happen.

Riiight, I can just imagine "let's make this video and see what happens" being the extent of conversation in Jimmy's office. Before today I hadn't seen this and I wish I could still say the same. Some days I really do hate this culture of empty self-referential stupidity. On the other days I succeed in forgetting about it.
posted by crayz at 1:33 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

Things I'll Tolerate No More Of Come 2014:

-Twerking
-Fracking
-That sneering shit of a planet, Uranus
-Macking
-Pimping
-Wacking
-Scotsmen
posted by Mister_A at 1:37 PM on September 10, 2013 [18 favorites]

First they came for Pluto....
posted by edgeways at 1:40 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

well i'm glad i ignored this one when it made the fb rounds.

JOKES ON YOU KIMMEL

(actually i'm glad i ignored it regardless)
posted by fuzzypantalones at 1:40 PM on September 10, 2013

Everybody's twerking for the weekend
Everybody wants a new blue dance
Everybody's jerking off to pretend
That Jimmy Kimmel's burning off their pants, oh-oh
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:43 PM on September 10, 2013 [13 favorites]

I thought it was real. Plausible, not actually funny, and my only reaction was, "I hope the poor girl wasn't seriously burned or shredded to ribbons from the accident." Joke's on me.
posted by 2N2222 at 1:43 PM on September 10, 2013

I finally just watched it thanks to this thread and what makes it seem obviously fake is that it's not really much of anything at all and doesn't warrant the attention it got. I see a dozen better things than this on reddit every day. And yes, I know that means I spend too much time on reddit. But seriously. It's hardly anything.

I need this guy to be real, though. Be real, guy.
posted by something something at 1:43 PM on September 10, 2013

WORST TWERK FAIL EVER!!!!!! WATCH THIS GIRL SET HERSELF ON FIRE ANALYZING THE CULTURAL SEMIOTICS OF HOW WE GOT TO THIS MOMENT IN LASER-FOCUSED MEMETIC OVERSATURATION AND WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT US
posted by naju at 1:45 PM on September 10, 2013 [19 favorites]

I missed this, though I did peripherally see it (literally) when my wife was viewing this on her iPad (the shrieks snapped me out of my PvZ reverie).

As anti-twerk propaganda, I welcome any salvo fired at the twerking movement.

As comedy, it's kinda meh for me.

In a world of Container Wars and Restaurant Impossible, what's a little more fakery?
posted by Debaser626 at 1:51 PM on September 10, 2013

Distracted by the Syrian news, I didn't even know about this until today.
posted by octobersurprise at 1:55 PM on September 10, 2013 [4 favorites]

I thought the bit where she stopped dancing to turn up the volume on the radio was a nice touch for believability. The only thing that would have made it seem more authentic is if she had started the video by saying, "Hey, Youtubers..."
posted by The Gooch at 1:55 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Great prank or not, I wish these were better in one respect - acting. Poor acting makes it extremely hard to have a nice prank. Like this video. The girl who comes in through the door - sigh... maybe it doesn't trigger your ACTORZZZZ!!!UNO111!! radar, but if you've been shooting videos and generally around cattle call auditions for all sorts of video work, you develop a sense of what these actors are capable of, their range, and what the current 'acting fashion' is.

Genuine candid camera reactions from civilians are very different from an actors idea of what "surprise", "shock", "amusement", "fear" is. It's as obvious as those early silent movies with the actor going all googly-eyed in a cartoon "SURPRISED FACE". Doing realistic is very, very, very hard. Which is why good actors are rare, and well paid. And why in these anonymous videos, you get not a very high caliber actors. And why it almost always fails on those grounds alone.

The secret to a good prank video is to minimize the role of the actor as much as possible, because that is always going to be your weakest link. Watch the acting - that's always the giveaway.

Of course, bad acting is what kills 99% of "film by unknown" as well, so that's hardly surprising.

Bad Acting - kills yet another video dead.
posted by VikingSword at 1:55 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

'Funny' video revealed to be made by 'comedian'.

It's like an Onion headline.
posted by Sparx at 2:01 PM on September 10, 2013 [23 favorites]

I was mainly surprised at how many "news" shows would just go and blindly play a clip like this without ANY kind of background check to chuckle at someone who could have been seriously fucking hurt.

Also, ever since I saw this I'm convinced that glass tables are a menace.
posted by cacofonie at 2:03 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I had no idea it was fake, but love how little they had to do to create this meme.

See, my whole point is that i think this was mostly a test(or simply a usage) of some viral marketing company/network/system. Like this video was posted on this "innocuous" account and then a lot of work, utilizing lots of intel and research on where/when/how to post this on sites like reddit and tons of blogs it would get reblogged from and such.

Like this was a calculated surgical strike, not just a thing that "happened" to blow up. I think the content was timed and placed in the same sort of way right after "twerking" was blowing up as a phrase post miley cyrus debacle too.

jeeze, i'm feeling and sounding way more tinfoil-hattish than usual today.
posted by emptythought at 2:04 PM on September 10, 2013 [5 favorites]

I can't look at glass tables without thinking about that awful scene in "Lost Highway." You know the one.
posted by jbickers at 2:08 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

There are like a million videos of women falling down on youtube

Truly, all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
posted by MrBadExample at 2:09 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah, when I saw it I couldn't understand how the hell she could catch fire so quickly

I'm tempted now to try and ignite a bunch of different cloth material to see how hard it is.

Natural fibers are surprisingly difficult to set on fire. The first time I tried firespinning lit up I managed to immediately whack myself directly in the back with both poi fully loaded with fuel, which transferred quite a lot of burning fuel onto my back. This looked really impressively stupid for the five or ten seconds until my safety snuffed it out (Never spin without a safety, kids!) but didn't even singe the shirt (or me): the fuel kept burning; the cotton was basically just acting as a wick.

Synthetic fibers are another story; some of them can burn up pretty much right away.

Before this video was revealed as fake I thought she was either wearing something flammable or else had spilled burning candle wax on her pants leg.
posted by ook at 2:21 PM on September 10, 2013

Kimmel is so damn smug he could be Canadian if he said sorry more.
posted by srboisvert at 2:22 PM on September 10, 2013

Kimmel's fine, but he's no Karl Power.
posted by imperium at 2:23 PM on September 10, 2013

I'm twerking Matt Damon.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:26 PM on September 10, 2013 [7 favorites]

Leave it to us mefites to loudly LOUDLY loudly proclaim how little we care about this bullshit, what's wrong with society?, 56 comments and counting.
posted by Think_Long at 2:27 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I care so much I don't know what to do with myself. I'm visibly throbbing with care.
posted by naju at 2:29 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

My care package is special delivery, if you know what I mean. And I'm sure that you don't.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:31 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Kimmel is so damn smug he could be Canadian if he said sorry more.

eh?
posted by arcticseal at 2:31 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Before this video was revealed as fake I thought she was either wearing something flammable or else had spilled burning candle wax on her pants leg.

Fleece impregnated with fabric softener is supposed to go up like a torch with little provocation but I have no first hand knowledge. It makes sense as fleece will have a very high surface area to volume and many fabric softeners use flammable material.
posted by Mitheral at 2:36 PM on September 10, 2013

Of the three late night hosts (Ferguson, Fallon) Kimmel is by far the most mean-spirited of the three. Remember the 'I ate all your candy!" 'joke'?

Give me a Doctor Who dance number or Neil Young singing 'Whip My Hair Back & Forth' any day.
posted by leotrotsky at 2:38 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

Leave it to us mefites to loudly LOUDLY loudly proclaim how little we care about this bullshit, what's wrong with society?, 56 comments and counting.

Phew, thank God you didn't fall into the trap!
posted by yoink at 2:42 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

The glass table makes me wince every time. I expect her to crawl away from the camera, dragging her lacerated legs behind her and leaking gallons of blood.

Knowing it's fake does nothing to stop that reaction. David Cronenberg, are you listening?
posted by jsturgill at 2:42 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

The turd who hosted "The Man Show" says he hopes that he "put an end to twerking forever" with a stupid prank video. Gosh, ain't he just the voice of intelligent, trash-culture-hating white people everywhere? Haw, haw, haw.
posted by koeselitz at 2:47 PM on September 10, 2013 [8 favorites]

I think I have officially crossed into middle age, because when I see someone twerking, I can't help but notice what a graceless mess of a dancemove it is. It's pretty ugly. So thanks twerking, not only are you painful to watch, but now you've made me old.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:49 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

We can't discuss twerking without discussing Go Loko

But I still haven't finished talking about Big Freedia and its been two years!
posted by Chichibio at 2:55 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

I enjoy that when promised booty everywhere, there is infact, booty everywhere.
posted by The Whelk at 2:57 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Saw this earlier today, and it just cemented my opinion that Jimmy Kimmel is an ass. An unfunny ass.
posted by MexicanYenta at 3:01 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

So that's what twerking is. Oh man that is so hot.
posted by Flashman at 3:01 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

This doesn't offend me or anything, but I don't really understand why it's supposed to be funny. To me, it's like, "We made a video of a guy getting hit with a tennis ball in the nuts, and a bunch of people who like videos of guys getting hit in the nuts by tennis balls passed it around. But it's a FAKE video of a guy getting hit in the nuts."

I mean ... okay? You convinced people something was real, mostly because it seems like such a stupid thing that there's no reason anybody would bother faking it. I often think Kimmel's stuff is funny, but this is kind of like faking an entry to America's Funniest Home Videos, isn't it?
posted by Linda_Holmes at 3:08 PM on September 10, 2013 [9 favorites]

this is kind of like faking an entry to America's Funniest Home Videos, isn't it?

Wait - Are you telling me that America's Funniest Home Videos was real?! Fuuuuuuuck!!! We're all dooooooomed!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:10 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

A famous TV personality and his PR team approached every major internet 'aggregator' site and got everyone to post the same video! No one can believe it's fake! So Bold! So Innovative! Such Edge!

Oh it's just Jimmy Kimmel. I'd rather it have been real, at least a regular girl could've made a bunch of money off the adsense revenue, instead of Disney via Kimmel.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:13 PM on September 10, 2013

I think all these responses are begging the question: "Y U MAD THO?"
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:14 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

This is dummb.
posted by straight at 3:17 PM on September 10, 2013

I'll bet you thought that extra "m" was a typo! But I did it on purpose! TO FOOL YOU! THE JOKE'S ON YOU METAFILTER!
posted by straight at 3:18 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

PLEASE GET THIS JOKE OFF OF ME! THIS JOKE: IT BURNS!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:20 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

As Nice Guy Eddie would say, let me make sure I have this straight.

So Kimmel and his people put together this little video with some slapstick humor involving a young woman "twerking." They don't do anything to promote it or draw attention to it, and it languishes for a couple of months, just one of many "takin' it in the nuts" videos on the tubes.

Then Molly Cyrus makes a fool of herself at the Video Music Awards and brings "twerking" in all it's crass glory to the forefront of America's consciousness. Now almost two months after Kimmel put his prank video on YouTube, thanks to Cyrus' antics, the thing goes viral. It even landed in my inbox, and most of my friends know I'm not big on this kind of thing.

So this puts Kimmel in the position of having the best, last laugh at the whole twerking phenomenon/debacle/media bandwagon/whatever.

I'm right about that, right? That's correct? That's your story?

Because I think that makes Jimmy Kimmel some sort of comedic genius. Or a time traveler.
posted by Max Udargo at 3:35 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

I think Molly Cyrus was in on the whole thing.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:38 PM on September 10, 2013

Molly Cyrus? Was she the one in that Hannah Monaghan thing?
posted by yoink at 3:42 PM on September 10, 2013 [5 favorites]

Because I think that makes Jimmy Kimmel some sort of comedic genius. Or a time traveler.

You're assuming that one in three YouTube videos AREN'T planted there by Jimmy Kimmel in case they one day become relevant.
posted by Sparx at 3:42 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

The Unthinkable Molly Cyrus
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:43 PM on September 10, 2013 [5 favorites]

Good point, Sparx. Actually, if one out of three YouTube videos are planted by Jimmy Kimmel, that explains a lot about YouTube. His people must spend a lot of time trying to run over Russians.
posted by Max Udargo at 3:44 PM on September 10, 2013 [5 favorites]

then the joke's on you

Zing!
posted by hartez at 3:46 PM on September 10, 2013

The Boy Who Could Not Be Twerked.
posted by The Whelk at 4:01 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think that there is something very interesting happening along the edges of this stunt. Here is Slate.com's Daniel Engber talking about the video:

It’s a hostile, self-promoting act—a covert ad for Jimmy Kimmel Live—rendered as ironic acid that corrodes our sense of wonder. If the Web provides a cabinet of curiosities, full of freakish baubles of humanity, the hoaxer smashes it to bits, then counts his money while he preens atop the rubble.

That is overwrought, but Engber really shows his cards here:

How is Kimmel’s stunt substantively different from those of other lying members of the media we now deplore, like James Frey and Stephen Glass and the father of the Balloon Boy, Richard Heene?

That is a very nifty move. Stephen Glass stands very far apart from Frey or Heene as Glass is a journalist with all of the responsibilities that come with that.

Recently, Conan O'Brien had a segment showing news anchors around the country repeating verbatim the same script in regards to an Easter story. While that story doesn't have the same hoax overlay as this Kimmel video, I think that the key point that is being revealed is that for all of the shine of these news programs, the truth is that they are exceedingly superficial.

This might be obvious, but such a clear demonstration of this superficiality is what I believe really bothers media members, like Engber.

It’s time we raised our voices against these polluting cynics. Their pranks are ruining the Internet, and the only way to stop them is by establishing a social norm

We have commentors here (and I suspect everywhere) completely unbothered by the hoax-iness of this. But what this does do is make content-producers wary to use Youtube videos as filler. Of course Slate.com would see this as polluting Youtube. This type of hoax is making Youtube a space that is unsafe for journalists. As journalists, they have a responsibility to be honest and accurate. However cynical Kimmel might be, this type of video can only succeed as a hoax to the extent that news agencies are cynical in a much more insidious way.
posted by Hypnotic Chick at 4:02 PM on September 10, 2013 [8 favorites]

If Kimmel's stunt convinces even one news show to stop showing YouTube videos as filler, we will all owe him an enormous debt.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:09 PM on September 10, 2013 [17 favorites]

Twerk, for the day is coming when you shall twerk no longer.
posted by octobersurprise at 4:12 PM on September 10, 2013

I was referred to a link that required me to sign in because of adult content, on the grounds that the "original video" was taken down.

Now I wonder if this was a ploy to grab my Gmail address.
posted by CancerMan at 4:12 PM on September 10, 2013

I'm so upset that I submitted a NYer cartoon with the tag line " he Twerked too far." like two weeks BEFORE the VMA blowup. I could've been timely for once! They should have bought it is what I'm saying ( although I had to explain what twerking was to the cartoon editor, also what fanfic was. It was a strange meeting.)
posted by The Whelk at 4:15 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Ask not for whom the belle twerks, she twerks for thee.
posted by yoink at 4:24 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

OK, I'll state the boring and scary obvious that what worries me is that news outlets apparently don't double check anything
posted by anothermug at 4:30 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

I don't think the job of the news is to fact check things, that's the commentators jobs. The news is there so people will look at ads and then buy the things in the ads so there can be more news.
posted by The Whelk at 4:41 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Not a joke. Not a prank. Advertising.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 4:57 PM on September 10, 2013 [6 favorites]

There are like a million videos of women falling down on youtube;

That Jimmy, he's a really busy guy, that's a lota videos to post just to get one up on CNN!
posted by sammyo at 5:09 PM on September 10, 2013

People really need to stop twerking if they don't have anything to twerk with. A proper twerk with sufficient booty is a hypnotic thing. Otherwise it just looks like you're trying to kickstart an invisible dirt bike.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:12 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

My SO thought that video was so funny he showed it to the whole family. My 6 year old son was on the verge of tears, because of the poor lady hurt and on fire.

My 6yo > Jimmy Kimmel
posted by Joh at 5:44 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yo, can we stop hating on twerking? Twerking ruled before white folk played it out. Just stop stealing our stuff (also on this list: the term "throwing shade") and it will stay cool.
posted by youarenothere at 6:20 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

(...hamburger?)
posted by youarenothere at 6:21 PM on September 10, 2013

Nathan For You did this first

I would just like to point out (again) that I TOLD YOU SO AND YOU WERE ALL DUMB JERKS ABOUT IT.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:15 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

youarenothere, seconded!

This post covers an extensive sampling of the varieties of traditional/contemporary booty dancing worldwide, for those who are baffled by twerking's temporary pop-culture ascendancy.

Is Kimmel's fake video an encouragement or discouragement to people who post bandwagon dance videos on Youtube? I feel conflicted because I really loved the era of c-walk videos.... but the (New) Harlem Shake was depressing and I generally like goofy collective dancing. Maybe it's a craftmanship thing.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:06 PM on September 10, 2013 [4 favorites]

Oh man is my face red for polluting facebook with this nefarious hoax.

Now if someone would take responsibility for sticking all these random inspirational quotes on top of pictures of people who didn't actually say them, that would be great.
posted by empath at 8:20 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Now if someone would take responsibility for sticking all these random inspirational quotes on top of pictures of people who didn't actually say them, that would be great.

"I've got my pitchfork and my chewing tobacco. Let's get 'em." - Marilyn Monroe
posted by crossoverman at 11:16 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

A proper twerk with sufficient booty is a hypnotic thing

is that it? I just haven't seen it done right? yay I'm not old!

(I still want those fucking kids off my lawn, though)
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:30 AM on September 11, 2013

Now if someone would take responsibility for sticking all these random inspirational quotes on top of pictures of people who didn't actually say them, that would be great.

Here ya go!
posted by the latin mouse at 2:13 AM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I would like to echo the view that people being paid by commercial interests to create viral videos is not a "prank." Or, if it is, then the prank exists at a much larger and more civilization-crushing level.
posted by belarius at 2:53 AM on September 11, 2013

twerk of beans
posted by neuromodulator at 11:19 AM on September 11, 2013

The joke's on them: I faked my reaction video to it.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:37 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I would like Mr. Kimmel to say he is behind that 2006 video of the woman stomping grapes and then falling off the platform. It doesn't even need to be true—I would just like mental plausible-deniability to forget that such a thing ever happened (and to cleanse my brain of the horrible camel-horking-a-hairball sounds that she made).
posted by blueberry at 12:44 AM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]