the rise of the weblebrity
– by Belle Gleeson
It’s a weird word, and an even weirder concept: the ‘weblebrity’.
Wikipedia describes the word ‘celebrity’ as ‘a widely-recognised or famous person who commands a high degree of public and media attention’, and the word web as…well, honestly, we all know what that word means. Weblebrities are the new generation of average people making it big in ‘Internet-Wood’.
But basically, anyone with a video camera in their hands and a dim-witted idea can become a weblebrity. These people achieve a high level of fame and recognition for streaming their own home videos on internet sites such as YouTube. They acquire celebrity status for essentially ‘blogging’ the things they do to amuse themselves.
Now, I’m not entirely against this new weblebrity concept. I will shamelessly admit to using research time for this article to watch some entertaining people here. Most people, however, either love the idea of weblebrities or absolutely loathe it. Entertainment comes in many forms; but so does stupidity. Where’s the line to separate the two? And when does it all go too far?
Take for instance, Chris Crocker. Most of you will know him. If not, picture this: guy films himself wearing makeup and crying about the treatment of Britney Spears by the media. When I first saw it I wasn’t sure if it was funny or creepy. Then I wondered what possessed him to film it, let alone broadcast it on the Internet. And it seems like I wasn’t the only one to think this. Chris Crocker has now been interviewed on a number of shows in the US, and the video of him having a break down for Britney has taken over 350,000 hits on YouTube.
It seems crazy that one video, albeit one of the funnier ones I have seen, has caused so much public attention. Is this the type of entertainment we are craving now? What happened to going to the circus to watch people making fools out of themselves, or to the theatre to see comedy for a laugh? It is obvious that sitting at home and being able to watch anything you want on the Internet is a lot easier, but does that justify the fact that anyone can showcase themselves via this means? It seems to be that our generation, as a majority, find more entertainment on the net by looking for people to laugh at, rather than laugh with. It seems we are encouraging this type of behaviour by supporting it.
The ‘Numa Numa’ guy was just a bored, regular guy, sitting in his room listening to foreign pop songs one day when he decided to have a little dance to it. The result being over 14 million views on Newgrounds.com, the original site he broadcast it on. I saw an interview on TV with him not too long ago—he’s raking in the money from what was an act of boredom. Evidently, we love him. And now he’s gone on to help companies advertise their good and services, he has thousands of people imitating his dance in nightclubs and has a whole fan base of people who imitate his video and broadcast it themselves. He would never have become a celebrity for what he did; but in the wacky world of weblebrities, thanks to the people who log onto those sites every day, he’s a star.
If that’s all it takes to become a famous weblebrity, nervous break downs over female pop stars and dancing like nobody is watching, then give me a camera! Keep an eye out for what I might openly publicise.
