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I _think_ that the Michael Cain section is Peter Serafinowicz doing a Michael Cain impression (which has then been deepfaked), but it could be Lyre Bird or simi

I _think_ that the Michael Cain section is Peter Serafinowicz doing a Michael Cain impression (which has then been deepfaked), but it could be Lyre Bird or similar! The fact that I really can't make my mind up which it could be and the weird sense of doubt, to me, means that this has hit the mark perfectly. I've been thinking about this video a lot since I first saw it. It's genuinely very unsettling.

pimlottc 6y ago
NYT did an article about it [0], which has some details on the casting. Peter Serafinowicz is indeed doing his Michael Caine impersonation, and also does Trump. Other characters are done by Trey Parker and various family members. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/arts/television/sassy-justice-south-park-deepfake.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/arts/television/sassy-jus...
pram 6y ago
He also did Michael Cain in his show, it’s extremely spot on. https://youtu.be/HdBZ3Pg0-OM https://youtu.be/HdBZ3Pg0-OM
- agency 6y ago
  Why does it best? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFIQIpC5_wY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFIQIpC5_wY
  - asciimo 6y ago
    This is the first thing I thought about when I saw the Sassy Michael Cain. This is the only thing I remember from The Trip.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    I think Rob Brydon's is the best.
cableshaft 6y ago
Wouldn't be surprised. While searching him on Youtube I even stumbled on Peter Serafinowicz's appearance on Stephen Colbert where they're talking about him even doing 'bad lip reading' videos for trump in different personalities, one of them being 'Sassy Trump', so he might have had something to do with this show coming about in general. I don't think he's doing the voice for Sassy Justice, though. That sounds more like Trey Parker to me. But they probably brought him in to do Michael Caine. https://youtu.be/Oe28UOFNlxk?t=138 https://youtu.be/Oe28UOFNlxk?t=138
- GilbertErik 6y ago
  I think you need to listen. There's little differences between Peter Serafinowicz as Fred Sassy and Trey Parker as Al Gore. There's tiny little mistakes in the voice. I think you need to watch it again, but this time watch with your ears. </s>
unfunco 6y ago
Peter Serafinowicz is a co-creator of the show and I think Sassy Trump was originally his idea, I remember seeing him do it on The Late Show.
mattnewton 6y ago
I thought the punchline was going to be a wavenet-style audio deepfake for that segment haha, I had no idea it was a person doing it haha. It explains why they repeatedly said it was impossible for a _human_ to do a perfect impersonation.
- jonhohle 6y ago
  That's where my mind went as well. There are some audio artifacts right around the time he says that that almost hint at the audio being generated. I really enjoyed the ambiguity.
- ehsankia 6y ago
  In my experience wavenet-audio isn't that good. You can definitely hear the difference. That sounded very natural. I'd be surprised if it wasn't an impression.
  - grenoire 6y ago
    That's exactly what Michael Caine would say!
modeless 6y ago
Funny, I kind of got the opposite message. The Tom Cruise bits were poking fun at the fact that all of these deepfakes are every bit as obvious as the puppet. And they didn't even try deepfaking the voices because it doesn't work at all. Just listen to the latest state of the art voice mimicking samples. They're terrible! It says a lot that the only actually convincing fake in the entire video was a human impersonator's voice. That said, this stuff will improve over time. But before you label it the end of the world you really have to think about how much has always been possible with impersonators and makeup/prosthetics.
- nucleardog 6y ago
  The podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz did an episode on deepfake voices[1], which is my only real exposure to the audio side of this that I know about. Certainly wouldn't say it didn't work or was terrible. [1]: https://www.20k.org/episodes/deepfakedallas https://www.20k.org/episodes/deepfakedallas
  - modeless 6y ago
    I guess it's a matter of opinion, but it's obvious to me that the quality in that episode and in the state-of-the-art models is very, very far from the quality of that Michael Caine impersonation. If they had deepfaked Michael Caine's voice, nobody would have been fooled.
    - dwd 6y ago
      I would have to agree that impersonations still come off as far more convincing at the moment, and some are really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Btb8gLy3-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Btb8gLy3-E
brahweh 6y ago
At about 3:18 into the video you can see what appears to be Serafinowicz playing Sassy as the camera moves behind him. Makes sense that faking would be hard from strange oblique angles, so looks like they just skipped it. https://youtu.be/9WfZuNceFDM?t=198 https://youtu.be/9WfZuNceFDM?t=198

pimlottc 6y ago

NYT did an article about it [0], which has some details on the casting. Peter Serafinowicz is indeed doing his Michael Caine impersonation, and also does Trump. Other characters are done by Trey Parker and various family members. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/arts/television/sassy-justice-south-park-deepfake.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/arts/television/sassy-jus...

pram 6y ago

He also did Michael Cain in his show, it’s extremely spot on. https://youtu.be/HdBZ3Pg0-OM https://youtu.be/HdBZ3Pg0-OM

agency 6y ago
Why does it best? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFIQIpC5_wY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFIQIpC5_wY
- asciimo 6y ago
  This is the first thing I thought about when I saw the Sassy Michael Cain. This is the only thing I remember from The Trip.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  I think Rob Brydon's is the best.

cableshaft 6y ago

Wouldn't be surprised. While searching him on Youtube I even stumbled on Peter Serafinowicz's appearance on Stephen Colbert where they're talking about him even doing 'bad lip reading' videos for trump in different personalities, one of them being 'Sassy Trump', so he might have had something to do with this show coming about in general. I don't think he's doing the voice for Sassy Justice, though. That sounds more like Trey Parker to me. But they probably brought him in to do Michael Caine. https://youtu.be/Oe28UOFNlxk?t=138 https://youtu.be/Oe28UOFNlxk?t=138

GilbertErik 6y ago
I think you need to listen. There's little differences between Peter Serafinowicz as Fred Sassy and Trey Parker as Al Gore. There's tiny little mistakes in the voice. I think you need to watch it again, but this time watch with your ears. </s>

unfunco 6y ago

Peter Serafinowicz is a co-creator of the show and I think Sassy Trump was originally his idea, I remember seeing him do it on The Late Show.

mattnewton 6y ago

I thought the punchline was going to be a wavenet-style audio deepfake for that segment haha, I had no idea it was a person doing it haha. It explains why they repeatedly said it was impossible for a _human_ to do a perfect impersonation.

jonhohle 6y ago
That's where my mind went as well. There are some audio artifacts right around the time he says that that almost hint at the audio being generated. I really enjoyed the ambiguity.
ehsankia 6y ago
In my experience wavenet-audio isn't that good. You can definitely hear the difference. That sounded very natural. I'd be surprised if it wasn't an impression.
- grenoire 6y ago
  That's exactly what Michael Caine would say!

modeless 6y ago

Funny, I kind of got the opposite message. The Tom Cruise bits were poking fun at the fact that all of these deepfakes are every bit as obvious as the puppet. And they didn't even try deepfaking the voices because it doesn't work at all. Just listen to the latest state of the art voice mimicking samples. They're terrible! It says a lot that the only actually convincing fake in the entire video was a human impersonator's voice. That said, this stuff will improve over time. But before you label it the end of the world you really have to think about how much has always been possible with impersonators and makeup/prosthetics.

nucleardog 6y ago
The podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz did an episode on deepfake voices[1], which is my only real exposure to the audio side of this that I know about. Certainly wouldn't say it didn't work or was terrible. [1]: https://www.20k.org/episodes/deepfakedallas https://www.20k.org/episodes/deepfakedallas
- modeless 6y ago
  I guess it's a matter of opinion, but it's obvious to me that the quality in that episode and in the state-of-the-art models is very, very far from the quality of that Michael Caine impersonation. If they had deepfaked Michael Caine's voice, nobody would have been fooled.
  - dwd 6y ago
    I would have to agree that impersonations still come off as far more convincing at the moment, and some are really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Btb8gLy3-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Btb8gLy3-E

brahweh 6y ago

At about 3:18 into the video you can see what appears to be Serafinowicz playing Sassy as the camera moves behind him. Makes sense that faking would be hard from strange oblique angles, so looks like they just skipped it. https://youtu.be/9WfZuNceFDM?t=198 https://youtu.be/9WfZuNceFDM?t=198