8 ms·

Ben Folds Chatroulette Piano Ode to Merton

219 points by MikeCapone 17y ago

gkefalas 17y ago
His old band, Ben Folds Five, also were an early adopter of cybercasting some of their concerts back 'round the turn of the millennium or so. I can see why Bam's where he is in this video-I would probably crap myself as well if this is what I was greeted with while using Chatroulette...
- brandnewlow 17y ago
  Over on Reddit it was pointed out that "Bam" was probably a masturbator who was too chicken to do it in front of 2000 people.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
kareemm 17y ago
This makes me appreciate how awesome Ben Folds is.
- Specstacular 17y ago
  I've seen Folds live about 10 times over the past decade. He's always had crazy improv skills. It's great to see him getting coverage and recognition of this beyond his rabid but small fan-base...
jeromec 17y ago
I admit to not knowing who Ben Folds was until a few years ago when I stumbled onto an entertaining site called improveverywhere.com which did a prank imitating him, which of course somehow drew the attention of the real Ben Folds, and the prank was scaled up to include him... http://improveverywhere.com/2006/11/19/ben-folds-fake/ http://improveverywhere.com/2006/11/19/ben-folds-fake/
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
MikeCapone 17y ago
For the original Chatroulette piano improv video by Metron, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- mawhidby 17y ago
  When I first saw the Ben Folds video, I thought it confirmed my belief that Merton is Ben Folds, but after thinking about the title "An Ode to Merton", I'm confused. Are Merton and Ben Folds different people, or the same?
  - wfarr 17y ago
    They are different people.
    - portman 17y ago
      Can anyone point to proof that they are in fact different people? I know Merton claims to not be Ben Folds, but the voice, style, and facial structure are extremely similar. http://www.broadwayworld.com/columnpic/ben-folds1.jpg http://www.broadwayworld.com/columnpic/ben-folds1.jpg http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/piano-chat-improv-merton-chat-roulette.jpg http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/piano-c...
      - petercooper 17y ago
        It's hard for me to provide proof but I've been a Ben Folds (Five) fan for 14 years and been to almost as many gigs, and I didn't believe Merton was Ben Folds for a second. His playing style isn't similar (as far as pop rock pianists go) and his voice is quite different (Folds' North Carolina accent usually comes out when doing impromptu stuff - less so with studio recordings). Merton also looks somewhat younger (Folds hasn't aged too well in the last cpl years IMHO).
mcdowall 17y ago
I think I prefer the Youtube dumbed down (ie no cocks!) edit of Chatroulette.
gridspy 17y ago
There is only one reason I would log into chat roulette - and that would be to 'chat' with Ben Folds.
andrewljohnson 17y ago
I think I prefer this on Reddit where I first saw it. This is only vaguely topical here.
- earcar 17y ago
  It's interesting how two identical comments are at the top and the bottom at the same time.
  - boucher 17y ago
    People downvote duplicate posts all the time to express displeasure (and hopefully to get the author to delete the duplicate). It's not more significant than that.
    - gjm11 17y ago
      When I notice a duplicate of an otherwise-reasonable comment, I almost always upvote one copy and downvote the other, not to express displeasure or provoke deletion but to help make there be one canonical one to reply to.
andrewljohnson 17y ago
I think I prefer this on Reddit where I first saw it. This is only vaguely topical here.
- blhack 17y ago
  Agreed. I think there has been a mass exodus from reddit in the last few weeks. The quality of content there has gone down, and the quality of content here has slid as well as reddit's users bring their brand of news to the site.
  - RossM 17y ago
    Must be Erlang time again.
  - petercooper 17y ago
    Agreed. I think there has been a mass exodus from reddit in the last few weeks. To where? People don't tend to just quit their social media addictions en masse. I'm asking mostly because I don't want to miss out if there's a new cool site on the block ;-) As a regular Redditor, I'd say the quality of stuff hitting the front page/the "reddit.com" reddit has been a bit lower these last few weeks, but the more mature individual subreddits have remained pretty good.
    - thaumaturgy 17y ago
      Hopefully they're working on new social media addictions. I quit Reddit almost a year ago, and have rarely looked back since. In the case of HN -- my last "addiction" -- I've written a nice RSS reader in the usual LAMP-AJAX way, so I'm getting the articles sans comments and karma, and in a better presentation, which is nice. I'm now only visiting HN itself if I think there might be interesting enough discussion on a topic to warrant the effort.
  - gridspy 17y ago
    Note that the poster "MikeCapone" has been a HN user for over 750 days - the counterexample to your thesis.
hunterclarke 17y ago
This guy is absolutely genius. The fact that he can think that quickly in front of a crowd shows a lot of skill. No doubt he will become an internet superstar.
- zmmmmm 17y ago
  He's amazing at improv stuff - another example where he just wanders into a studio and creates something out of nothing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KI78874qbU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KI78874qbU
  - petercooper 17y ago
    He did even better than that. Before his last studio album was released, he went into a studio and recorded an entire fake album in 24 hours then leaked it to the net. Funny thing is, a few of the "fake" tracks are better than the real ones that ended up on the album, such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKRckEmKZQ#t=0m22s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKRckEmKZQ#t=0m22s (a user created music video for the fake "Dr Yang" - the real version kinda sucks) Another prime example was "For Those of Y'all Who Wear Fanny Packs" from the Naked Baby Photos album. It's a totally impromptu 6/7 minute "song" performed totally on the spot by him and his band. No prepared lyrics, music, or anything - they just riff off each other.
whatwhatwhat 17y ago
That was excellent!

219 points by MikeCapone 17y ago

His old band, Ben Folds Five, also were an early adopter of cybercasting some of their concerts back 'round the turn of the millennium or so. I can see why Bam's where he is in this video-I would probably crap myself as well if this is what I was greeted with while using Chatroulette...

brandnewlow 17y ago
Over on Reddit it was pointed out that "Bam" was probably a masturbator who was too chicken to do it in front of 2000 people.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

kareemm 17y ago

This makes me appreciate how awesome Ben Folds is.

Specstacular 17y ago
I've seen Folds live about 10 times over the past decade. He's always had crazy improv skills. It's great to see him getting coverage and recognition of this beyond his rabid but small fan-base...

jeromec 17y ago

I admit to not knowing who Ben Folds was until a few years ago when I stumbled onto an entertaining site called improveverywhere.com which did a prank imitating him, which of course somehow drew the attention of the real Ben Folds, and the prank was scaled up to include him... http://improveverywhere.com/2006/11/19/ben-folds-fake/ http://improveverywhere.com/2006/11/19/ben-folds-fake/

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

MikeCapone 17y ago

For the original Chatroulette piano improv video by Metron, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
mawhidby 17y ago
When I first saw the Ben Folds video, I thought it confirmed my belief that Merton is Ben Folds, but after thinking about the title "An Ode to Merton", I'm confused. Are Merton and Ben Folds different people, or the same?
- wfarr 17y ago
  They are different people.
  - portman 17y ago
    Can anyone point to proof that they are in fact different people? I know Merton claims to not be Ben Folds, but the voice, style, and facial structure are extremely similar. http://www.broadwayworld.com/columnpic/ben-folds1.jpg http://www.broadwayworld.com/columnpic/ben-folds1.jpg http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/piano-chat-improv-merton-chat-roulette.jpg http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/piano-c...
    - petercooper 17y ago
      It's hard for me to provide proof but I've been a Ben Folds (Five) fan for 14 years and been to almost as many gigs, and I didn't believe Merton was Ben Folds for a second. His playing style isn't similar (as far as pop rock pianists go) and his voice is quite different (Folds' North Carolina accent usually comes out when doing impromptu stuff - less so with studio recordings). Merton also looks somewhat younger (Folds hasn't aged too well in the last cpl years IMHO).

mcdowall 17y ago

I think I prefer the Youtube dumbed down (ie no cocks!) edit of Chatroulette.

gridspy 17y ago

There is only one reason I would log into chat roulette - and that would be to 'chat' with Ben Folds.

andrewljohnson 17y ago

I think I prefer this on Reddit where I first saw it. This is only vaguely topical here.

earcar 17y ago
It's interesting how two identical comments are at the top and the bottom at the same time.
- boucher 17y ago
  People downvote duplicate posts all the time to express displeasure (and hopefully to get the author to delete the duplicate). It's not more significant than that.
  - gjm11 17y ago
    When I notice a duplicate of an otherwise-reasonable comment, I almost always upvote one copy and downvote the other, not to express displeasure or provoke deletion but to help make there be one canonical one to reply to.

andrewljohnson 17y ago

I think I prefer this on Reddit where I first saw it. This is only vaguely topical here.

blhack 17y ago
Agreed. I think there has been a mass exodus from reddit in the last few weeks. The quality of content there has gone down, and the quality of content here has slid as well as reddit's users bring their brand of news to the site.
- RossM 17y ago
  Must be Erlang time again.
- petercooper 17y ago
  Agreed. I think there has been a mass exodus from reddit in the last few weeks. To where? People don't tend to just quit their social media addictions en masse. I'm asking mostly because I don't want to miss out if there's a new cool site on the block ;-) As a regular Redditor, I'd say the quality of stuff hitting the front page/the "reddit.com" reddit has been a bit lower these last few weeks, but the more mature individual subreddits have remained pretty good.
  - thaumaturgy 17y ago
    Hopefully they're working on new social media addictions. I quit Reddit almost a year ago, and have rarely looked back since. In the case of HN -- my last "addiction" -- I've written a nice RSS reader in the usual LAMP-AJAX way, so I'm getting the articles sans comments and karma, and in a better presentation, which is nice. I'm now only visiting HN itself if I think there might be interesting enough discussion on a topic to warrant the effort.
- gridspy 17y ago
  Note that the poster "MikeCapone" has been a HN user for over 750 days - the counterexample to your thesis.

hunterclarke 17y ago

This guy is absolutely genius. The fact that he can think that quickly in front of a crowd shows a lot of skill. No doubt he will become an internet superstar.

zmmmmm 17y ago
He's amazing at improv stuff - another example where he just wanders into a studio and creates something out of nothing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KI78874qbU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KI78874qbU
- petercooper 17y ago
  He did even better than that. Before his last studio album was released, he went into a studio and recorded an entire fake album in 24 hours then leaked it to the net. Funny thing is, a few of the "fake" tracks are better than the real ones that ended up on the album, such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKRckEmKZQ#t=0m22s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKRckEmKZQ#t=0m22s (a user created music video for the fake "Dr Yang" - the real version kinda sucks) Another prime example was "For Those of Y'all Who Wear Fanny Packs" from the Naked Baby Photos album. It's a totally impromptu 6/7 minute "song" performed totally on the spot by him and his band. No prepared lyrics, music, or anything - they just riff off each other.

whatwhatwhat 17y ago

That was excellent!