Last December, as you may recall, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw a shoe at former President George H. W. Bush.
I happened to be online when it happened, and I remember thinking, “Goody. This is just the kind of freaky, bite-sized news story that revealingly wends its way through the culture.”
The story broke on December 14, 2008. This was a Sunday. By Monday, what you think would happen had happened: late-night talk show jokes, op-eds about the significance (or insignificance) of the moment, reactions and counter-reactions in the blogosphere.
Then, on Tuesday afternoon, I found these:
(GIFs are courtesy Top Ten Awesome Bush Shoe-Toss Animated GIFs from the Riff blog over at Mother Jones.)
I was floored. It’s one thing when people dash off a blog post or Photoshop gag, or put up a quickie video response on YouTube, but these GIFs are so slick and so good and so artful. And even if this is an admittedly minor phenomenon, it all happened—collectively and unconsciously—in less than 48 hours. Most important of all, even though these GIFs were made by amateurs, they are funnier and more pointed than anything I saw done by professionals. Seeing them made me wonder if I can still be competitive in this culture.
I have since calmed down, even if lingering questions remain:
If I’m going to try to be “up to the minute” then what skills/resources/attitudes will it take to keep up?
If I’m not going to try to be “up on things” then what is my relationship to the cultural timestream? Am I a week behind? A month? What are the risks/rewards of being outside of conventional time?
Regardless of my relationship to time, how can I make sure that my ideas are as transformational as they need to be in order to make an impact? What is too far? What is not far enough?
Wonderful post. The last three paragraphs pose provocatve–and troubling–questions, at least for me triggering a self-doubt never far from the surface. I bet we could spend the better part of a semester wrestling with them. Thanks for taking up the subject.
I talked to a Web designer and he tells me he could put one of these together in an hour or two, max. I’m sure some Photoshop freaks could do them even faster. So… about the same time commitment as a short, witty blog post?
The questions you raise are important ones. But:
I don’t see what these particular GIFs are contributing to the culture except clutter. They acknowledge the absurdity of the moment, but are as forgettable as a Jay Leno groaner. I guess I am missing the “artful.”
I think it’s artful in the manner that it shows creativity. Taking a situation and showing it in new ways, with the artist’s spin–that’s almost the definition of art.
Clutter is the fifty times I had the actual film emailed/twittered/blogged at me, not to mention the multiple stories CNN spent examining the event.
I think some people are natural cultural junkies. They love to throw that stuff back out there into the mix. I don’t happen to be one, but there are times I wish I was. But I think it’s about maintaining an open conduit to creativity at all times.
@Anonymous:
bets touched on this already, but for the sake of clarity, when I say “culture” I mean all of it: high, low and in between.
As for whether it’s funny or not it’s all a matter of taste. I think this beats Leno six ways ’til Sunday, but if it’s all the same to you then it’s all the same to you.
Finally, as for these being easy, I envy your designer friend. I’d love to be able to blast out something like this.
Finally-finally: I’d love to see more critical comments like this one. I’d also love to see more anonymous posting. Conflict makes us more awesome.
Cheers to all.
I have a question: what cultural timeline was the shoe-throwing journalist on? He must have timed it right, or else more people would have reacted with outrage and less with humour.
See, that journalist is the person whose creativity I admire the most. The one who can say what a lot of other people are thinking, but get it across simply, clearly, and um, forcefully. To be able to get people to say, “Yeah, that’s it! That’s it exactly!” That’s the reaction I have when I’m really into something, and it’s the reaction I want to provoke in other people.
The GIFs are very cool, and thank you for collecting them. But the act that inspired the GIFs — that’s the real magic.
I try not to let worry about my relevance and timeliness prevent me from creating and producing my work. I hope I’ll catch the wave of culture someday, but I may not. I’ll never know if I don’t try.
I also agree with Kat. The guy who threw the shoe perfectly expressed the general feeling that Bush’s time was over. The follow-up clips were witty and fun but not nearly as courageous.
I hadn’t thought about it in terms of throwing the shoe, but that’s brilliant. That’s what we want — to set everything else in motion. As for time/timeliness, the question is, what are you trying to do? If you can define that, maybe there’s your answer.
My 2 cents: I got off the newspaper train early because I realized that I don’t care that much about breaking news, and didn’t want to have to go cover a fire when I’d rather be having a nice dinner somewhere. Timeliness for its own sake can be hazardous to your health — look at the accounts of 24-hour-news-cycle bloggers dropping dead from the stress.
Take it from the Kills: “time’s just gonna hit on you.” http://www.lyricstime.com/the-kills-tape-song-lyrics.html.
Hey, that was me posting as Anonymous above, unintentionally. I think my cookies were deleted at some point. Anyway, good discussion topic. I really like bets’s point about the clutter of repetition of the actual clip, as well as Kat’s point about the creativity of the journalist.
It was interesting. I’m pretty patriotic, and even though I can’t stand Bush, I was pretty pissed at that journalist. Whatever Bush was or wasn’t, he WAS the President of my country. So I felt that guy threw the shoe not only at Bush, but at the US. Pissed me off.
And then I was so excited when all that stuff came around all over the Net because it proved my unspoken point that we have freedom of speech and we can say ANYTHING here. Which I absolutely loved. In the end, the guy was trying to prove a point, but I think the GIFs were almost defensive and blew his original message away.
I know that’s not really what this discussion is about, but it was on my mind…
In there own way I’m thinking the videos are gems requiring a special talent, short, slick, funny and an immediate response. But I’m still stuck on one of Dennis’s questions: “How can I make sure my ideas are sufficiently transformational?”
I suppose somewhere after launching into a project we have to ask ourselves its potential significance and appeal. Can we take the audience inside the subject? Are we fresh, original? Are we revealing anything new? Is it multi-dimensional. Are we in some way representing a larger issue? That type of self-questioning. And we just can’t be sure of any of it can we?