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German newspaper "Die Zeit" has a few videos where they get art/cultural critics to watch and comment on modern meme culture which i find quite entertaining. H

by fxwin 1y ago

German newspaper "Die Zeit" has a few videos where they get art/cultural critics to watch and comment on modern meme culture which i find quite entertaining. Here is the video about Skibidi Toilet: https://youtu.be/z-oAtxjnDlQ?si=FjpcVJxMoLv537RZ https://youtu.be/z-oAtxjnDlQ?si=FjpcVJxMoLv537RZ (Audio is mostly german, but the subtitles are quite accurate from what i can tell). Also recommend this one with "German Brainrot": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mJENuEN_rs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mJENuEN_rs

xdfgh1112 1y ago
Really good video. I don't speak German but the subtitles were fine.
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
  Off-topic, but how do you know the subtitles are fine if you don't speak German?
  - Muvasa 1y ago
    You can go wrong in two axes. 1. The interpertation 2. The execution he means the second way, he didn't notice any english grammar mistakes or unnaturalness. It's like how good translators make Donald Trump sound smarter.
    - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
      So if someone says "I do know German and the translations were all wrong", parent should feel free to say "Actually, I just meant the English grammar of the subtitles, not the accuracy of the subtitles itself" and you'd be just fine with that?
      - Scarblac 1y ago
        He's just saying that it's a fine video with these subtitles, so thr subtitles were fine. The accuracy of the translation isn't that important. Who knows, maybe it was a bad video initially that got improved by "wrong" subtitles :-)
  - dfee 1y ago
    I could not get English subtitles. Tried for a few minutes, unfortunately.
  - dfxm12 1y ago
    You only need to be able to hear German to know if the subtitles are OK. :)
  - butlike 1y ago
    The concepts the subtitle's spoke of related to the video displayed on-screen, and aligned with the timings of said video in a coherent way. The subtitles accented the visual information I was receiving, and vice-versa, in an accentual role.
  - xdfgh1112 1y ago
    I enjoyed the content of the video using the subtitles as delivered. It made sense and was informative. I doubt there were any egregious issues given the relative similarity of the two languages.
the_gipsy 1y ago
It would be more entertaining of they had the slightest clue of any of the meanings. IMO the interesting part of "memes" is the information density not in the meme "data" itself but in the collective mind.
- mallowdram 1y ago
  We don't need static, low-res semantics in media anymore, that's how Hollywood is already DOA. Their concern is carefully curating the meaning, when the density range is far too massive out there.
- DocTomoe 1y ago
  In all fairness, as someone who never 'understood' the 'collective mind' behind skibidi toilet (and would argue there is none, he absurdity itself is the 'meme' - a term used very loosely here, considering memes of yesteryear did in fact transport messages), the Zeit critic sounds like he 'got' the cultural references pretty spot on (and he himself points out that the references themselves do not have to be understood to be there.
  - mallowdram 1y ago
    The point is that memes replace stodgy narratives, which are dinosaurs (news, history, novels), with semantic options. You can experience this as meaningless, or in well designed memewarefare, you can sense the density and how/where it applies to the culture today and sense that it has something to add when it's archaeology.
    - DocTomoe 1y ago
      By definition, a meme is an idea, image, phrase, or piece of behaviour that spreads through imitation—usually because it captures something funny, relatable, or sharply true about human experience. These are as old as mankind itself. All major religions are essentially meme-conglomerates. 'Music to invade Poland to' is a memetic concept, so is the dies-irae-theme in all music since the 1400s. Memes itself are 'sodgy narratives, and dinosaur-like news, history, or novels (hell, novels are meme-machines - they have sprung everyhing from quintessential fantasy races to actual mythofascist-occult ideas to bona fide suicide waves). I'd argue that behaviours/media/ideas eventually need to be at least explainable to a significant part of a culture to become memes. You can explain 'Courage Wolf' to a completely uninitiated person of average intelligence in 30 seconds. You can explain 'Trollface' in a minute (with the whole cast in two more). Skibidi Toilet escapes such explanations and is thus not, IMHO, a meme format. It's viral, not memetic, it spreads, but does not encode universally-understood meaning. There's no payload, just absurd emptiness.
thesz 1y ago
And the (possible) origin of Skibidi (by Little Big): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFBTdToRmw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFBTdToRmw
- RGamma 1y ago
  Also notable is Gmod Idiot Box by DasBoSchitt, which is arguably a spiritual predecessor: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF41B4E15D5443537 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF41B4E15D5443537
  - TheAmazingRace 1y ago
    I love how my favorite classic GModders and SFMers are getting mentions on HN. It amazes me how this cottage industry of animators is already over 15 years old now.
furyg3 1y ago
Wow that's just excellent. German classes paying off already!

by fxwin 1y ago

xdfgh1112 1y ago

Really good video. I don't speak German but the subtitles were fine.

CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
Off-topic, but how do you know the subtitles are fine if you don't speak German?
- Muvasa 1y ago
  You can go wrong in two axes. 1. The interpertation 2. The execution he means the second way, he didn't notice any english grammar mistakes or unnaturalness. It's like how good translators make Donald Trump sound smarter.
  - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
    So if someone says "I do know German and the translations were all wrong", parent should feel free to say "Actually, I just meant the English grammar of the subtitles, not the accuracy of the subtitles itself" and you'd be just fine with that?
    - Scarblac 1y ago
      He's just saying that it's a fine video with these subtitles, so thr subtitles were fine. The accuracy of the translation isn't that important. Who knows, maybe it was a bad video initially that got improved by "wrong" subtitles :-)
- dfee 1y ago
  I could not get English subtitles. Tried for a few minutes, unfortunately.
- dfxm12 1y ago
  You only need to be able to hear German to know if the subtitles are OK. :)
- butlike 1y ago
  The concepts the subtitle's spoke of related to the video displayed on-screen, and aligned with the timings of said video in a coherent way. The subtitles accented the visual information I was receiving, and vice-versa, in an accentual role.
- xdfgh1112 1y ago
  I enjoyed the content of the video using the subtitles as delivered. It made sense and was informative. I doubt there were any egregious issues given the relative similarity of the two languages.

the_gipsy 1y ago

It would be more entertaining of they had the slightest clue of any of the meanings. IMO the interesting part of "memes" is the information density not in the meme "data" itself but in the collective mind.

mallowdram 1y ago
We don't need static, low-res semantics in media anymore, that's how Hollywood is already DOA. Their concern is carefully curating the meaning, when the density range is far too massive out there.
DocTomoe 1y ago
In all fairness, as someone who never 'understood' the 'collective mind' behind skibidi toilet (and would argue there is none, he absurdity itself is the 'meme' - a term used very loosely here, considering memes of yesteryear did in fact transport messages), the Zeit critic sounds like he 'got' the cultural references pretty spot on (and he himself points out that the references themselves do not have to be understood to be there.
- mallowdram 1y ago
  The point is that memes replace stodgy narratives, which are dinosaurs (news, history, novels), with semantic options. You can experience this as meaningless, or in well designed memewarefare, you can sense the density and how/where it applies to the culture today and sense that it has something to add when it's archaeology.
  - DocTomoe 1y ago
    By definition, a meme is an idea, image, phrase, or piece of behaviour that spreads through imitation—usually because it captures something funny, relatable, or sharply true about human experience. These are as old as mankind itself. All major religions are essentially meme-conglomerates. 'Music to invade Poland to' is a memetic concept, so is the dies-irae-theme in all music since the 1400s. Memes itself are 'sodgy narratives, and dinosaur-like news, history, or novels (hell, novels are meme-machines - they have sprung everyhing from quintessential fantasy races to actual mythofascist-occult ideas to bona fide suicide waves). I'd argue that behaviours/media/ideas eventually need to be at least explainable to a significant part of a culture to become memes. You can explain 'Courage Wolf' to a completely uninitiated person of average intelligence in 30 seconds. You can explain 'Trollface' in a minute (with the whole cast in two more). Skibidi Toilet escapes such explanations and is thus not, IMHO, a meme format. It's viral, not memetic, it spreads, but does not encode universally-understood meaning. There's no payload, just absurd emptiness.

thesz 1y ago

And the (possible) origin of Skibidi (by Little Big): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFBTdToRmw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFBTdToRmw

RGamma 1y ago
Also notable is Gmod Idiot Box by DasBoSchitt, which is arguably a spiritual predecessor: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF41B4E15D5443537 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF41B4E15D5443537
- TheAmazingRace 1y ago
  I love how my favorite classic GModders and SFMers are getting mentions on HN. It amazes me how this cottage industry of animators is already over 15 years old now.

furyg3 1y ago

Wow that's just excellent. German classes paying off already!