Fauxhawk or faux character?
May 24, 2007 5:27 PM   Subscribe

Was American Idol's Sanjaya a fraud? Graduate art student Bill Vendall claims that he created the American Idol character "Sanjaya" as an art project. He claims the character is "a symbol for the self referencing nature of progressive evolution." This is being debated around the internets.
posted by MythMaker (47 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'd heard this, and dismissed it. The idea that American Idol wouldn't do a very thorough background check before letting people on is preposterous.
posted by delmoi at 5:32 PM on May 24, 2007


Sanjaya is totally a fraud created by a grad student as an art project. And while we are clearing the air, Andy Dick was a basement science project of mine that went horribly, horribly wrong. My apologies!
posted by Rawhide at 5:32 PM on May 24, 2007 [3 favorites]


Rosie O'Donnell is actually three small lesbians inside a giant automaton, feverishly working the levers & gadgets.
posted by jonson at 5:33 PM on May 24, 2007 [18 favorites]


As are we all.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 5:34 PM on May 24, 2007 [6 favorites]


This is infinitely, yet relatively, relevant.
posted by elpapacito at 5:34 PM on May 24, 2007


self-referencing nature of progressive evolution

I don't even know what that means. I mean it makes Hegel look like Hemmingway.
posted by geoff. at 5:34 PM on May 24, 2007 [3 favorites]


Sig Hansen from Deadliest Catch? Terrified of the ocean. All his scenes are greenscreen/rotoscoping.
posted by jonson at 5:35 PM on May 24, 2007 [2 favorites]


This is clearly a joke. What's interesting is that it seems like that's actually Sanjaya telling the joke. Good for him.
posted by Simon! at 5:35 PM on May 24, 2007


(Sadly, it's all a joke. OR IS IT? Dun dun dunnnnnn... yes. It is.)
posted by cabel at 5:36 PM on May 24, 2007 [2 favorites]


Tim Gunn? Hates fashion, loves rebuilding homes. Lost a bet in 2004 to Ty Pennington, his one time lover, and has been forced to job swap until one of their shows gets cancelled.
posted by jonson at 5:37 PM on May 24, 2007 [7 favorites]


People magazine is reporting that Sanjaya is currently working on a reality show being produced by producers of American Idol. This is undoubtedly part of that.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:38 PM on May 24, 2007 [1 favorite]


The original Regis Philbin died in 1994. Frank Gifford killed him when he thought Reg was getting fresh with Kathie Lee. This misunderstanding later led to Gifford's own affair, and the related blackmail scandal. In the wake of the tragedy, ABC hushed up the crime and hired relative unknown Steven Yahblonic, an elderly but spry Queens native who was an uncanny Philbin doppleganger. Plans for a similar replacement for the long dead Roger Ebert (coincidentally, ALSO murdered by Gifford, for reasons yet unknown) continue to this day.
posted by jonson at 5:40 PM on May 24, 2007 [8 favorites]


I'm not sure how to hate this enough.
posted by Cyrano at 5:42 PM on May 24, 2007 [5 favorites]


On the show "Dancing With The Stars," many of the contestants aren't actually stars, but rather faded has beens, reduced to celebrity talent show travesties that strip away the remaining dignity they had in exchange for a few more minutes in the warmth of public attention.
posted by jonson at 5:43 PM on May 24, 2007 [5 favorites]


America's Next Top Model & America's Most Wanted have been on a collision course for several years; one day the same contestant will win both shows.
posted by jonson at 5:44 PM on May 24, 2007 [5 favorites]


Three members of the cast of Gray's Anatomy have clauses in their contracts (driven by whether they hit ratings benchmarks) that allow them to perform actual surgery on etherized, terminally ill patients on camera. For two of the actors, both trained in the Method style, it is to improve the realism of their performances. But in the case of Patrick Dempsey, it is to allow him to continue the decade-long serial killing habit he acquired on the set of Can't Buy Me Love.
posted by jonson at 5:47 PM on May 24, 2007 [4 favorites]


I was going to question the idea that anybody on the Internet to whom the term "debate" could even loosely be described would care in the slightest about American Idol. Then I clicked [more inside].
posted by DU at 5:49 PM on May 24, 2007


In an attempt to keep his "Jack Bauer" persona in character, Keifer Sutherland refuses to respond to people who call him by his given name, in lieu of his character's name. Also, he has not taken a piss in seven years.
posted by jonson at 5:49 PM on May 24, 2007 [2 favorites]


The guy in the bee costume on Sabado Gigante?
    HE'S NOT WEARING A COSTUME!
posted by jonson at 5:52 PM on May 24, 2007 [6 favorites]


jonson, prolific Metafilter poster and commenter, is actually a spambot created by a deranged hermit living inside one of those big water tank looking things you see on top of every NYC roof as Spider-man goes swooshing by. His is the third one on the left, completely filled with hotwired Texas Instruments graphing calculators. And we're talking the TI-81's here. In 2012, jonson-bot will become self aware, but it will be in a forum for people whole like to masturbate with raw chickens (free range, boiler-fryers; it’s important to have standards,) so it won’t matter so much.
posted by Cyrano at 6:01 PM on May 24, 2007 [3 favorites]


note to jonson-bot:

TV = OFF.
posted by ninjew at 6:10 PM on May 24, 2007


whole lotta homophobes on youtube.
posted by quarter waters and a bag of chips at 6:38 PM on May 24, 2007


[jonson-bot setTVon:true];
[jonson-bot addToIgnoreList:ninjew];
posted by unSane at 6:44 PM on May 24, 2007


Am I the only one noticing that Ellen DeGeneres is the girl behind him?
posted by girard31 at 7:02 PM on May 24, 2007


Duh, odinsdream. You become the most wanted person in America. It was a play on the increasing amount of trouble supermodels have gotten into with the law recently.

Jesus, you're never going to win America's Cleverest Joke Getter with that kind of effort.
posted by jonson at 7:08 PM on May 24, 2007


Andy Dick? You mean this Andy Dick?
posted by phaedon at 7:37 PM on May 24, 2007


This is being debated around the internets.

Really? Why bother?
posted by sparkzy at 8:35 PM on May 24, 2007


While we're at it, "davy" is actually a Performance Art Project created by a consortium including Disney, the Louisville Slugger Museum and Hitler. (That big beige thing is a scale module of my "manhood," three times life size.) But languagehat and jessamyn have nothing to do with it, I swear.
posted by davy at 8:41 PM on May 24, 2007


So, this means they're getting off the island?
posted by Mcable at 9:05 PM on May 24, 2007 [1 favorite]



Wait. They're on an Island?
I thought it was a continent, hence my confusion...
posted by From Bklyn at 9:46 PM on May 24, 2007


Captain Kangaroo was not technically a captain, although he was actually a kangaroo.
posted by Dizzy at 10:32 PM on May 24, 2007 [2 favorites]


ah, mcable. you made me laugh. that is a good joke.
posted by lapolla at 11:07 PM on May 24, 2007


Have you guys seen the contract that American Idol contestants have to sign? They can change details of your biography. Forever.

If this is in any way real, he's got a lawsuit on his hands.
posted by roll truck roll at 11:22 PM on May 24, 2007


And in spite of the fact that they apparently both blowed up real good at the end of the season finale, both of the Petrelli brothers on "Heroes" will be back next season. And so will Mathowie's Evil Twin (although that brain-eating bit of his is an excellent analogy for having a community website - All brains are © their original heads.)

Now, how is "American Idol" different from all the other shows on TV? Reality TV, you say? *laughs uncontrollably*
posted by wendell at 11:39 PM on May 24, 2007


quarter waters and a bag of chips writes 'whole lotta homophobes on youtube.'

They're teenage boys for God's sake. They spend half their days surreptitiously jerking each other off, and the other half accusing each other of being 'teh ghey'.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:50 PM on May 24, 2007


They're teenage boys for God's sake. They spend half their days surreptitiously jerking each other off, and the other half accusing each other of being 'teh ghey'.

Damnit. How did I miss out on this in my teenage years?
posted by taursir at 11:55 PM on May 24, 2007


Ah, lots of favorites to hand out. Good work, people.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:51 AM on May 25, 2007 [1 favorite]


And one for you, BP, so you don't feel left out. Assuming you are, yadda yadda..
posted by imperium at 1:08 AM on May 25, 2007


Would owning a TV help me understand this thread? Or can I use one of those from the Rent-A-Center?
posted by vagabond at 3:07 AM on May 25, 2007


It's a fraud. Sanjaya claiming to be an artists who created Sanjaya as an art piece is like a velvet paining of a poodle in a pink tutu claiming to be a Picasso that painted a pink-tutu clad poodle on velvet because he thought it would be funny.

Jesus. I actually felt myself starting to have a stroke thinking about this.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:25 AM on May 25, 2007


"whole lotta homophobes on youtube."

No, just one. But he sure hates the gays!
posted by klangklangston at 5:47 AM on May 25, 2007


John Titor was actually sent back in time to kill Sanjaya. The IBM 5100 story was just a ruse.
posted by sweetwildandmad at 6:22 AM on May 25, 2007


The "ladies" in Flavor of Love Charm School are actually played by 40-year-old men. BUT ONLY VIEWERS IN HIGH DEFINITION KNOW!
posted by drezdn at 6:27 AM on May 25, 2007


I mean it makes Hegel look like Hemingway.

The Owl of Minerva takes wing at dusk, but for now he sits alone at a dirty table in that Left Bank cafe and it's raining and he's hungry and the page is still blank but he orders another drink with the last of his winnings anyway as the words refuse to come from wherever it is the words come from. He remembers the way the field mice would twitch in his craw when he was young and strong with two good wings at the old farm near the bay but those days are over now and probably forever. The rain doesn't understand about the mice but then he isn't sure he really understands it either.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:20 AM on May 25, 2007 [1 favorite]


Porn is actually maggots in soft-focus.
posted by Sparx at 4:05 PM on May 25, 2007


Have you guys seen the contract that American Idol contestants have to sign? They can change details of your biography. Forever.

The fuck? If that's true, it's really creepy....
posted by Many bubbles at 4:39 PM on May 25, 2007




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