Boycott Phone books?

By Brooke Stains



In today’s world, some people spend hours at a time going through the videos on YouTube. Even though people can post political videos and videos that actually have a meaning, most people search YouTube for entertainment – not education. Most of the world has probably seen at least one video on YouTube – and most people have probably watched at least one video that they found to be a waste of their time. This shows that people can use YouTube just to get their voice heard. They know that there is a good chance that at least one person will probably take the time to watch their video. (Everyone gets bored at work eventually! Don’t tell my boss that.) The video I’m choosing to analyze is a video blog posted on YouTube by supricky06.

The video starts off with a young guy sitting in front of his computer. His voice is in the background as if we were inside his mind listening to his thoughts. He keeps hearing loud thuds outside of his door. After a few of them, he finally decides to get up and check out what the noises were coming from. It shows him scared to open his door to find out. When he finally works up the courage to open the door (and you can tell the video is very fake or staged), he finds multiple phone books outside. Then the video turns into a rant about phone books. The guy starts talking to the camera and telling us what a waste phone books are and how he can not remember the last time he saw someone use one for its intended purpose. He says the last time he saw someone actually use a phone book was in an instructional video on YouTube on how to rip a phone book in half. He then proceeds to use his knowledge to destroy the phone book, but apparently the instructional video wasn’t the best (he was unsuccessful). He talks about how making one phone book is probably killing a baby tree. At the end he let’s his audience know that he is going to boycott phone books and that everyone else should follow his lead. I personally believe that he wishes he could be Dane Cook.

When watching this video, one can tell that by the faces and actions of the young man that he might be a comedian in real life. He almost comes off as sarcastic. This video was obviously made more for entertainment value. He knew that people would get bored and watch his video eventually. He was right – there are 264 comments on his video and at least 4 video responses to it. This webcam video seems like it would be more of an exhibition type video. It seems like the guy just wanted to come up with something to gripe about and do it in a humorous way. My opinion that this guy is an exhibitionist is supported by the fact that he has over 100 videos of himself uploaded on YouTube. One is titled Poop on a Stick, and many of the other ones seem like humorous rants about everyday things that bother the average person. YouTube is used by so many people who don’t even post videos; it is inevitable that his videos will get seen.

In Convergences, Atwan says that the message is what the video, photograph, or text is saying and what it means (Atwan 3). The message in this video is obvious; supricky06 wants everyone to join him in boycotting phonebooks. It seems like he’s trying to tap into what might bother an average person and make it funny to draw more interest. People love those types of things. Most famous comedians use that tactic – they make fun of things like going to the DMV or the eye doctor. People enjoy watching these kinds of videos because they can relate. Who really needs seven different phone books? I can honestly say that I have probably used a phone book maybe five times in the last few years. This man knew he could draw an audience by talking about things that people can relate too. This goes along with a lot of videos on YouTube. People will watch videos of someone doing everyday tasks and enjoy it because they’re thinking “Hey, I do that same thing!!” The average person loves watching reality tv shows, and videoblogging is very similar. You can learn a person thoughts and feelings.

Supricky06 seems like one of those people who hopes to gather a big enough following to start some sort of career. He enjoys making people laugh. This is a good way for a comedian to get a start and one of the main perks of YouTube. Depending on where a person lives and his money situation, he may not be able to get a good career started in comedy. Even if he does stand up shows, he can only do so many a week. With YouTube, he can do shows at comedy clubs if he wants and also reach millions of people at the same time. This is the perfect way to start to gain notoriety.

Another good thing that supricky06 and other avid videobloggers have going for them is the fact that their videos are able to be spread around very easily. Besides telling someone “Hey, check out this video on YouTube!”, people can post supricky06’s videos on their own Facebook and MySpace pages and allow him to reach a whole new audience. Once people find videos they enjoy, they start spreading the words to their friends. People can gain real fame from this. I found an article online about a boy who began posting videoblogs on YouTube just for fun and attention. Now he has 13,000 subscribers and is coming to the United States to be on a show hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. So if a person is looking for an audience, YouTube is definitely the place to find one.