Comments on: Die Antwoord: Fatty Boom Boom

By: Shon Mogharabi

Shon Mogharabi — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:10:00 +0000

very well thought out reply and analysis of the video – thanks!

By: Joshua Bardwell

Joshua Bardwell — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 03:18:00 +0000

Can’t music and video just be a bunch of wacky stuff without deeper meaning?

Yes, but in this case, it isn’t.

By: Joshua Bardwell

Joshua Bardwell — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 03:15:00 +0000

I think you’re onto something here. The more I watch Die Antwoord videos, the more I think that nothing in them is not intentional or without meaning.

By: Joshua Bardwell

Joshua Bardwell — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 03:10:00 +0000

Ah, but can you “become” gay by choice?

Can of worms: opened.

By: Marietjie Luyt

Marietjie Luyt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:55:00 +0000

Of course not.

By: Marietjie Luyt

Marietjie Luyt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:54:00 +0000

Well, I think there is huge confusion among, say, Americans about Africa as such – hence the Mali grass skirt, which is actually found thousands of miles away in another part of Africa. The presence of the Lion King is also a joke, because the film was actually situated in Kenya – far away from Joburg. But Rockey Street is actually pretty rough – although perhaps not THAT rough.

By: Marietjie Luyt

Marietjie Luyt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:50:00 +0000

Quite so!

By: Marietjie Luyt

Marietjie Luyt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:29:00 +0000

To me, as a South African, the video is hilarious. I think it depicts what somebody like Lady Gaga might expect to see in Africa. Overseas visitors always seem to expect seeing lions in the streets, but here it’s a huge joke – they have never been seen prowling the streets. And of course we don’t have black panthers in South Africa. Unless you refer to the political kind, found only in the USA!

Lady Gaga is depicted as driving in a real People’s Taxi – the way most South Africans get around in our country. In this context, the presence of her body guards is a hoot.

The Gynaecologist extracts a Parktown prawn, a particularly nasty cockroach found in Johannesburg, from the Lady. These prawns also featured in the District 9 movie (the aliens were Parktown prawns, whose numbers just keep on growing).

Yo-Landi in Mali dress, and as a golliwog, reflects the confusion of persons from other continents as to what Africa is all about. Mali is many thousands of miles away from Joburg! The golliwog also reflects the work of the satirical South African comic-book artist, Anton Kannemeyer, who mocks overseas perceptions of Africa.

Rockey Street in Johannesburg, where the action was shot, is truly a pretty hairy part of town.

But of course the video is outrageous. In comparison, Lady G is tame and boring.

By: Philboyd Studge

Philboyd Studge — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 01:53:00 +0000

OK, here’s a unicorn chaser for having endured the Tweaker Twins and the Lady Gaga jizz-bug. WARNING: contains emo hipster, sad cat and possible furry subtexts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBLjBXFSS_Y&feature=player_embedded

By: miasm

miasm — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Hill

By: miasm

miasm — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:41:00 +0000

are

By: miasm

miasm — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:41:00 +0000

By: miasm

miasm — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:41:00 +0000

ous

By: scav

scav — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:41:00 +0000

I like to think of art as the process of doing something intentionally for an effect (usually not a purely functional purpose, but reasonable minds can differ on that point). Lots of things are the products of art. Naturally occurring or completely accidental phenomena aren’t. It would be pretty difficult for me to understand how a song and music video could NOT be art.

The products of art obey Sturgeon’s law of course.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:02:00 +0000

For anyone interested here’s some articles about celebrities and Africa

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/02/africa-celebrities-timeline-u2-michael-jackson-britney-spears

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/africa-celebrities-madonna-oprah-brangelina-george-clooney

As far as I can tell Lady Gaga did a show in SA and stirred up the locals.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:39:00 +0000

I don’t think I’ve ever known a kid to get offended over any media. Sure they might get traumatized but kids get trauma over the smallest of things like vanity plates. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/VanityPlates

By: Salamando

Salamando — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:12:00 +0000

Can’t music and video just be a bunch of wacky stuff without deeper meaning?

True story and unintentional brag – saw Aphex Twin here in Australia earlier this year, and Die Antwoord randomly came on in the middle of the set and started rapping over the music. Was kind of an uncomfortable moment as they where pretty energetic and reasonably interesting, but no one seemed to know who / what they were.

By: jhavatar

jhavatar — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:54:00 +0000

Parktown prawn (Wikipedia)

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:50:00 +0000

I thought that they were referring to District 9 prawns.

By: happosai

happosai — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:08:00 +0000

That is silly. I enjoy Die Antwoord posts, their rap sucks (apart from the “I fink you freeky” track) but their visual art is amazingly disturbing. But there is other stuff posted on boingboing I couldn’t care less about. If we all get our “the stuff we never want to see again” removed from boingboing, this will be as empty as google+.

By: kmoser

kmoser — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:56:00 +0000

Explicit content is for kids. Gross content is for kids. Controversy is for kids. As a kid, I saw far worse than this and I turned out just fine.

By: kmoser

kmoser — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:52:00 +0000

In that case, everything in the world is “art”.

By: Chris Reid

Chris Reid — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:36:00 +0000

Anyway, thats not a prawn its a weta

By: wormhog

wormhog — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:01:00 +0000

I think this one is trying too hard.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:22:00 +0000

No fucking problem with saying fuck.

By: Jardine

Jardine — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:39:00 +0000

To be clear, the f-word not allowed is the one used to refer to gay men and not the fun f-word, correct? Because fucking fuckity motherfucking fuckballs, the word fuck and its derivations are great words.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:25:00 +0000

Like homophobia….

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:21:00 +0000

He saw a lot of similarities to his own country’s history.

How bizarre. Yeah, I’ve heard the kind of “American’s are obsessed with race” thing from lots of white Eurocentric folks around the world. I’m not sure I buy it. If you aren’t engaged in some kind of clever satire then don’t mock or appropriate somebody else’s culture.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:14:00 +0000

Yeah I get it…you could do the same in U.S. ghettos.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:10:00 +0000

I assume you all were upset when 90′s gangsta rap talked about killing each other and calling themselves the N word.)

And there you have it……”why can’t we do it if they do it?”