YouTube Poop

YouTube Poop (often called YTP for short) is a type of video mashup, created by editing pre-existing media sources for humorous, confusing or shocking purposes and often containing mature content. YouTube Poop videos are traditionally uploaded to the video-sharing website YouTube, but may be mirrored or uploaded on other video sharing websites like Newgrounds.

Techniques

In a typical YouTube Poop video, visual and auditory effects are used to alter the underlying work. Some of these videos may involve completely or partially repurposing sources to create or convey a story, while others follow a non-linear narrative or contain no storyline at all.[1] Alternatively, a YouTube Poop may consist solely of an existing video repeated in a slowed or remixed loop.[2] In many cases, YouTube Poops utilize a bizarre sequence of elements that may, depending on the viewer, entertain, confuse or irritate.[1] Associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University Michael Wesch has defined YouTube Poop as "absurdist remixes that ape and mock the lowest technical and aesthetic standards of remix culture to comment on remix culture itself".[3]

Media sources of YouTube Poop may include television shows, movies, cartoons, commercials, video games, and other videos obtained from YouTube or elsewhere. There is no generally accepted limitation as to what kind of source material may be used for a YouTube Poop. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture notes YouTube Poop having a particular fascination with "low" Saturday-morning American cartoons from the 1990s such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog as well as anime series, videogame cutscenes and videos from YouTube itself.[4]

Sources include videogames Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Hotel Mario, I.M. Meen, and Team Fortress 2; clips from Pixar films (as well as from Disney's Beauty & the Beast, Shrek, and Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame); commercials (namely for Volvic and McDonald's in Japan); music videos; cartoons featuring Dr. Seuss characters and Colgate character, Dr. Rabbit; the works of Billy Mays, JonTron, The Angry Video Game Nerd, and Michael Rosen; and television series including King of the Hill, SpongeBob SquarePants, Mega Man, Arthur, Caillou, Steven Universe, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Donkey Kong Country, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Peppa Pig, Thomas & Friends, The Simpsons and Sesame Street, among many others.

YouTube Poop is often derivative in the sense that the work of one artist (or "pooper") is frequently used as the underlying work for another video. Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, referred to this behavior as an example of "call & response" within a remix culture.[5]

Copyright and fair use

Due to the use of copyright materials and the manner in which these sources are depicted, YTP videos are frequently removed from YouTube following a DMCA complaint. However, political scientist and author Trajce Cvetkovski noted in 2013 that, despite Viacom filing a copyright infringement lawsuit with YouTube in 2007, YouTube Poops such as "The Sky Had a Weegee" by Hurricoaster, which features scenes from the children's television show SpongeBob SquarePants (in particular, the episode, "Shanghaied") and a satiric caricature based on Nintendo's Luigi as he appears in the educational video game Mario Is Missing!, remained on YouTube.[6]

The law in the United Kingdom does allow people to use copyrighted material for the purposes of parody, pastiche, and caricature without infringing on the copyright of the material.[7] Copyright owners are only able to sue the parody, pastiche, or caricature creator if the parody, pastiche, or caricature contains hateful or discriminative messages. If the case is then taken to court, it will be down to a judge to decide whether the video meets these criteria.[8]

Individual responses

Individuals involved in YouTube Poops often make efforts to take their videos down due to the mature and defamatory content prevalent in them, especially if they have a large audience of children watching their work. Children's poet Michael Rosen (who claims to have "become a cult" among YouTube Poopers[9]) initially attempted to take his videos down, but after a few frank discussions with YouTube Poopers, he decided to allow the videos to stay online.[9] Rosen issued a warning on his website, saying that:

Quite a few people have fun taking my videos and making new versions of them, known as 'poops' or 'YTPs'. Many of these are not suitable for young children. I am not responsible for either the words or pictures of these.[10][11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "YouTube Poop: Memes and Community". Yale University, Law and Technology. November 3, 2012.
  2. Van Damme, Tommy (November 8, 2013). "Slow TV: Youtube doet het op zijn manier". De Morgen (in Dutch). Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  3. Electronic Frontier Foundation. "In the matter of exemption to prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems for access control technologies" (PDF).
  4. Burgess, Jean (2013). "YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture". John Wiley & Sons. p. 53. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  5. Lessig, Lawrence. "REMIX at Computer History Museum". Archived from the original on 2015-08-04.
  6. Cvetkovski, Trajce (2013). Copyright and Popular Media: Liberal Villains and Technological Change. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 175. ISBN 9781137172372. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
  7. "The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014". legislation.gov.uk.
  8. "Parody copyright laws set to come into effect". BBC News.
  9. 1 2 LitUp666 (29 May 2011). "Michael Rosen discusses the poop debacle". YouTube. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  10. Rosen, Michael (29 May 2012). "News - For Adults". michaelrosen.co.uk. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  11. "artificedesign - YouTube". YouTube. Michael Rosen. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
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