March 24, 2021

Okay, guys, but I've got to tell you — even though I see what you're seeing — and in spite of my stoical distancing — I got chills — repeatedly, even on a second viewing.

Can I explain getting chills? I'm not a fan of the Biden administration or a sucker for social programs, but the music is familiar and emotionally effective, and the woman's commitment to the role — with added silliness — is disarming. I can't tell that this particular performer is a dimwit fan of the new administration. This clip made me think of this extremely silly extolling of Trump: 

 

It's humor. But does it sell the politician? Does my getting chills mean that propaganda is working on me? I rewatched "The Little Mermaid" sequence with that song, and I got the chills in all the same places. So I tend to think it's all about the music. That's some powerful emotional manipulation.

100 comments:

deepelemblues said...

The Japanese Trump commercial wasnt made to extol Trump, it was made to exploit his image in the inimitable Japanese way. That other video is explicitly made to extol Biden and for no other purpose.

Jason said...

Fuck it.

Repeal the 19th.

gilbar said...

Serious (and i mean SERIOUS) question.. What is she on? How do i arrange to NOT be given any?

gilbar said...

she has the eyes of a deranged drug addict

Jason said...

North Korea called. They suggest toning down the Juche Spirit a tad.

Jason said...

Is that the chick from the Obsessive Girlfriend meme?

daskol said...

Ali G: what is the most popular thing in the world?
Trump: Music

Amy said...

I got through it but only by an act of sheer will.
Annoyance factor was a 10.
Doesn't ANYBODY ever thing "Where does all this free money come from?"
Anybody? Bueller?

Ann Althouse said...

"The Japanese Trump commercial wasnt made to extol Trump, it was made to exploit his image in the inimitable Japanese way. That other video is explicitly made to extol Biden and for no other purpose."

I didn't say the Japanese Trump commercial was made to extol Trump. But what is on screen is an "extolling of Trump." Later, I say it's humor.

I think both are humorous as they appear on screen. We can only speculate about the precise intent of the people who made the film. The woman in the pro-Biden video could also be making fun of women who are suckers for govt programs. You're asserting that you're certain it was only to extol Biden. I disagree. BTW, I think men may tend to assume that women are not using humor. Sometimes we are.

Ann Althouse said...

"she has the eyes of a deranged drug addict"

Evidence that it's humor.

Tommy Duncan said...

Stop the world and let me off. I'm getting nauseous from the spin.

gilbar said...

Ann Althouse said...
Evidence that it's humor.


Assumes Facts, not in evidence

daskol said...

I have this problem too, where sappy ass shit, whether it's a musical number in a Disney movie or play or any mushy scene in a movie, tears me up. Even worse if I've had a drink or smoke. It's easy to pluck my heartstrings, or at least goose my tear ducts.

Tinderbox said...

Humor not humor.

AZ Bob said...

It is so over the top, I thought it was satire.

Leland said...

Fans will be fans, but when I clicked it, I didn't get sound initially. Her facial expressions seemed over the top and generally, she seemed to have tons of white privilege.

Interested Bystander said...

No chills here. A big urge to vomit and a lot of cringing for sure.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Obama girl was way better.

Arashi said...

She is so high, she could hunt ducks with a rake.

If the video is sincere, it is horribly, horribly out of step with pretty much anyone who still has functioning brain cells.

If it is satire, it does not work, as she seems to really, really like the asterisk plan, and is sure that once everyone turns over all of their thinking and decision making to the government their lives will be just oh so perfect. Just like certain folks in China - you know the uighurs.

Jersey Fled said...

I'm not watching.

Patrick said...

Everything wrong with the 19th Amendment is right here: the entire video, Ann's genetically ingrained emotional response to it, even the subtle cutesy celebration of female alcoholism at the end.

Bob Boyd said...

What's up with her left eye when she's outside? Wierd.
Glitch in the lizard people costume?

Bilwick said...

Like Winston, she loved Big Brother.

Bob Boyd said...

Who's the woman?
Was she paid for this?

Bilwick said...

Like Winston, she loved Big Brother.

Bilwick said...

Like Winston, she loved Big Brother.

Bob Boyd said...

Who's the woman?
Was she paid?

Temujin said...

I made it to the 7 second mark with the phrase 'competent leaders'. I have to say, I'm finally at the point where I think that there's a serious problem with white women in America. Sorry to say that, Ann. And I do love my wife, but Jesus Fucking Christ. What is it with Democrats having to take to song and dance whenever they get elected?

Chicago Teachers Union
Obama Youth Praising Him

Maybe it got better. If I had only stuck with it, I'd get the joke. But honestly, I'm just watching what's going on at our border, listening to arguments about how mass ballot mailings and harvesting is the only way to ensure an honest election. I'm up to my eyeballs with people trying to explain why we should watch our country go to shit.

As my grandkid said: I not playing.

Bob Boyd said...

Moderation's on. I guess now were just waiting for the orderlies to recapture Mary.

Ice Nine said...

So it's the music that makes you get chills, Ann, do I have that right? Not the video nor this ding dong that is singing - just the music? Like, you would get chills if you heard her singing that song on the radio? Serious question - but I have to tell you, I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to buy the idea that it is just the music.

As for me, all that I get - from that whole thing - is the urge to tranq dart that disturbing woman.

Kathryn51 said...

Oh Althouse - I love "Little Mermaid" - it was the 1st VHS video that my young'ins watched.

But I couldn't get past the first 30 seconds.

This is throw-up worthy.

Oso Negro said...

Blogger Bob Boyd said...
Moderation's on. I guess now were just waiting for the orderlies to recapture Mary.

3/24/21, 6:25 PM


Genius.

n.n said...

Chills or tremors?

tim maguire said...

I made it about 20 seconds. The music meant nothing to me and I couldn’t get past the affluent white chick singing about how wonderful the bailout is. I'm not interested in what the affluent white chick has to say about economic suffering.

Big Mike said...

I'm not a fan of the Biden administration or a sucker for social programs

You actually believe that about yourself?

Inga said...

I sure hope it’s humor. Singing in a political ad, yuck.

Michael K said...

Wow ! She and Pajama Boy would make a nice couple. AS long as I didn't have to listen to them.

Narr said...

That had to be satire. Tell me it was satire. If not . . .

She's the kind of upper-middle Karen who has never in her life heard the golden words--

Shut the fuck up, bitch!

Narr
I watched the whole thing

Bob Smith said...

What should frighten anyone with common sense? That Joe Biden, Donald Trump and the whole of the Republicrat/Demican establishment were what our political process boiled down to.

readering said...

Well of course the average commenter here couldn't stomach it. I love musical comedy, but am pretty cynical about political ads. But I guess it helped watching after getting my first Pfizer shot this morning. (Crowds handled remarkably well. The line was to get into the parking garage. I should have parked off site and walked.) Never saw the Trump spot. So Japanese!

mockturtle said...

The Japanese ad was far less 'silly'. It was art.

pacwest said...

Althouse, that was cruel and unusual punishment putting that on your blog. And I just finished a big dinner! I think even Inga and readering puked when they saw that.

stevew said...

That is not a real Biden support video. Nope, ain't buying it as real. Satire, 100%.

Levi Starks said...

I guess the best satire is when you’re really not sure

Whiskeybum said...

Music IS a very emotion-inducing element in any kind of propaganda message. Just keep that in mind as you watch any such propaganda, whether you are generally supportive of the message or not. Imagine the same information being presented without moving background music, or filming techniques for that matter - would you still be supportive of the message being sent if it was just stated plainly? Or do they have to hypnotize you to get you to buy in?

Ken B said...

Has anyone considered it’s really just a “look at how rich I am, with this house in this neighborhood” video?
I know that makes her sound like a snot, but really it’s the charitable take here.

Meade said...

Kamala Harris, sea witch, has a cackle that gives me chills. And probably nightmares.

Night Owl said...

So this is how the Dems will sell their government dependence plan to America; they'll channel Walt Disney.

Guess I'm not the target audience because I couldn't make it through the whole thing. But Althouse got the chills so I gotta give it to the Dems that they know their base.

Sonny said...

This reminds me of the Paragard IUD commercial.
Looks kind of like the same woman and always makes me laugh.

Night Owl said...

I forced myself to watch the whole thing to see if I got the satire vibe. I couldn't decide. It was propaganda so insulting to anyone with a brain that it might be satire. But then again, it could just be the Dems marketing to their base.

chuck said...

I kept looking for her tits at the camera's urging, the sound was a distraction.

Ken B said...

I can understand, intellectually at least, the chills. The most effective bit in Cabaret is The Future Belongs To Me, and it is so effective because the musical is so beautiful. I still remember the moment almost 50 years later.

However this is shitty music so I wonder what else set Althouse all a-tingle.

rhhardin said...

It reminds me of the game of pong.

lostingotham said...

I learned ages ago that if you can see the whites all the way around a person'e eyes they are Cra-Zy.

This woman sets off my neuroticism alarms at full blast. Run, do not walk, the other direction.

Amadeus 48 said...

When Shouting Thomas drops by, maybe he can explain it.

In the words of Noel Coward, "Extraordinary how potent cheap music is."

Laughing Fox said...

When I saw the houses--interior and exterior--the "neighborhood" without people that this ecstatic lady was supposed to be singing to or in, I thought, "They are playing to the very upper middle class." No smaller houses, no commerce or work of any kind visible, not even children. I've been in neighborhoods like that, but I've never been ONLY in neighborhoods like that. The unreality of the setting, with the unreality of her voice (way too sweet), gestures, and facial expressions,made me wonder who thought this would be effective.

I'm Not Sure said...

Dems have trouble recognizing satire from The Babylon Bee, so there's that...

chuck said...

who thought this would be effective

Someone who understands Althouse. One of the reasons I read this blog is that her reactions provide a view into a different world. For instance, the influence clothing has on her perceptions of people. I hardly notice what people are wearing.

Joe Smith said...

My wife was watching TV so I played if w/o sound.

Stepford-like and cult-ish just from the body language alone...

FullMoon said...

She has a GIF on Redditt "Bigger than you thought"

No singing. Much better.

gilbar said...

But then again, it could just be the Dems marketing to their base.
Ann Althouse

gilbar said...

Serious Question
Does Ann's neighborhood look alot (ANY?) different than the crazy lady's?

William said...

I was waiting for a surprise ending. It didn't seem possible to be that sunny and banal in a sincere fashion. I guess that was the surprise ending. She really meant it....There's a series on Netflix called Behind Her Eyes. It plays like a soap opera with some annoying incongruities in the plot. But then right at the end, there's this sudden revelation and it all makes sense. It's a really neat twist ending.....I thought maybe the camera would cut away and we could see that this was what was going through this deranged woman's mind as she was smoking crack and picking scabs off her track marks.

John Richardson said...

Someone has been stealing her kid's Ritalin again.

gilbar said...

'competent leaders'

Could Somebody, show me SOMETHING that the Biden-Harris Administration has done Right?
Anyone? Anything?

They seem (to me) to be setting a level of f*ckedupidness that is Really Quite surprising
I'm not saying that i disagree with What they're doing (believe me, i AM disagreeing)
I'm saying the WAY that they're doing it
example: Cancelling the XL pipeline and halting oil leases. Now they OWN high oil prices

Lucien said...

Anyone who gets chills from this probably fell for the “Daisy” ad that Bill Moyers did fooLBJ in ‘64, too. Or fell for Christine Ford’s shtick.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Her demographic is too distracting. Oooh, lookie here, skinny rich housewife in a million dollar neighborhood with dozens of free hours to spend on little projects like this. If you’re not that person, you’re annoyed by that person. So no I am not sensitive to her “message.”

Night Owl said...

If it is satire and she used a Disney song, then it's brilliant, since Disney is all about selling fairytales and fantasies.

Ken B said...

Eek. Pants and I are making pretty much the same point.

Known Unknown said...

She's a former somebody at Media Matters, so ...

Narr said...

Finally looked at the Japanese vid. I found it inscrutable.

Narr
I didn't recognize the lady's tune, apparently

Known Unknown said...

If not satire, another example of the Cult of Rich White Women. Those who must invent boogymen and crises to add drama to their otherwise completely safe and cossetted lives. They have to create fear around causes because without, what purpose would they have? Their appeals to overwhelming authority help foster a sense of increased safety that they neither deserve nor need.

These are the same women who hear an anecdote about a child kidnapping 50 miles away from them and now think that their children are at immediate risk of being taken from their lily-white liberal safe enclaves. COVID has helped accelerate their fear tenfold and seems to be the driving force behind lockdown mania. They also feel impending doom about horrible white racists in their midst despite not associating with any minorities in their daily lives.

You'll also notice that at BLM events in the summer it was the young version of the CRWW who screamed insanely the loudest at black policemen and women.

These women and their male allies are the true domestic terrorists.

mandrewa said...

I'm troubled by the disconnection from reality. We owe a great debt to Donald Trump. I think he's a huge part of the reason we have these vaccines now. It's not that Trump is a biochemist or immunologist or understood most of this. What he did though was push for a solution.

And that's not something you can take for granted. There is quite a list of world leaders that failed to do that -- just look at Europe.

We are so fortunate, on multiple levels, that Biden or Hillary Clinton were not in power when this epidemic happened.

Quaestor said...

Althouse writes: "she has the eyes of a deranged drug addict" Evidence that it's humor.

There is such a thing as unintentional humor, Ed Wood's horror movies for example.

Think of the video as Plan 9 from Outré Pelosi or Dementia 1600

Mary Beth said...

Ridiculous isn't the same as humorous. Maybe the humor is more obvious if you make it further into the video than I did.

I looked at their website - Red Wine and Blue, their Twitter, and their Facebook. I don't see anything that makes me think that the organization or Katie Paris is trying to do humor.

mockturtle said...

Althouse writes: "she has the eyes of a deranged drug addict"

That's the 'deranged' part of TDS. The term is not used lightly.

Known Unknown said...

Red Wine and Blue: Not political? No problem, in fact, it's perfect.

There, you can buy a Momala for Kamala shirt or That Woman From Michigan shirt.

Not political? Sure. Whatever.

Harnessing the power of suburban women into the Cult of the Rich White Woman.

Yancey Ward said...

If I were going to make a video that mocked Biden supporters in a satirical way, it would be this. Is it parody? Who the fuck knows.

Yancey Ward said...

The more I investigate this, the more it looks like a product of an authentic Biden supporter.

Wow.

MartieD said...

I think it’s satire, but I can also see many of my coworkers (Biden voters) agreeing with the message of the video and identifying with the woman. They would share it on their FB proudly and without irony.

Texan99 said...

Nope, couldn't make it to the 15-second mark. Seriously, there are voters who can stomach this? No wonder this is where we are.

Bilwick said...

Like Winston, she loved Big Brother.

Narayanan said...

nice trolling by the singing lady -

Nicholas said...

What is the origin of the video? Whether it's tone deaf cheerleading or rather cheesy satire can surely be determined by finding out where it came from.

Rusty said...

Blogger Meade said...
"Kamala Harris, sea witch, has a cackle that gives me chills. And probably nightmares."
Tsk, tsk. That's no way to talk about our national succubus.

David Begley said...

Ann:

How do you feel after listening to Idina Menzel?

Don said...

There is a big problem with Liberal White Women in this country. FIFY.

Biff said...

Disney uses certain musical formulae because they work.

Every few years, a new Disney movie comes out, and it seems that every little girl (and every little girl's mom) in my extended family and network of friends' families gets entranced -- for years -- singing the treacly new Disney princess song that sounds to me exactly like the last Disney princess song.

I'd be a little careful about casting a Biden in the romantic prince role, though.

Todd said...

I made it 31 seconds. The inanity of it all is there for ANYONE that has a clue as to what IS in this boondoggle of a bill. The "princess" music is to lull the womyns into a feelz mode and not a thinking mode.

More "food" for the faithful. Nothing more.

Gravel said...

Are you kidding? That video is idiocy.

PM said...

That is laff-out-loud funny. A Shogun Warriors toy spot from back when. Brilliant.

Birches said...

I saw a video yesterday that reminded me of this one but it was a guy talking about vaccines. I honestly think I could listen to the song and roll my eyes, but their facial expressions are what make me turn it off. It's unseemly.

Here it is. It's vaccination day

Jupiter said...

Takes me back to my youth. Because, about 15 seconds in, I found myself staring at her tits. Pretty nice rack, in a restrained sort of way. I wish she'd lay off whatever the fuck she's singing about and undo a couple buttons on that idiotic shirt.

This is how a guy comes to find himself dick-deep in crazy.

PM said...

Oh. The intended watch - that lame pos - is a pos.
More Mazinga!

M Jordan said...

Pajama Boy and those Obama era Karen PSA's (or whatever they were called) were terrible because they were delivered straight up. This one is highly effective because it is delivered with irony, humor, over-the-topness.

In summary: Althouse has it right. Posobiec and Adams are dead wrong.

Jupiter said...

Wow. If you turn the sound off, she's actually pretty hot. I bet I'm not the first guy to notice that.

Jupiter said...

You want over the top? Here, try this one!

bagoh20 said...

If I implied the kind of things Althouse often does about women, some would call me a misogynist, and they would be right. Or maybe the things are just true. Either way, very insulting. If you say something negative about someone, and it's true, is it still an insult.

bagoh20 said...

As for the over-the-top Trump stuff like that Japanese commercial, us Trumpers find that stuff hilarious. We know it's ridiculous.

As to the question of if this woman is committing humor, do you think Biden supporters find it funny and ridiculous, a political hit job, or do they believe it is accurate? I can assure you that nobody thinks Trump's head grows out of trees like cherry blossoms.

the dude said...

Stoical distancing? Seriously. This is North Korea like propaganda. Where is your objectivity?