However, today I will depart from this pattern. There is one video that has been hyped by my friends that did not come close to delivering the expected laughs when I actually got to see it. That video is Tourette's Guy.A few of my friends claim that the video is so good that belief in Tourette's Guy, pictured at left, has become one of the basic tenets of their religion. I don't see why that would ever happen. The videos on Youtube that I find to be funny are ones in which the characters are either acting funny or being funny. That is to say, it's clear whether they are being themselves or just putting on a show. For instance, in Unforgivable, Hodge Stansson is obviously putting on a show. This fact shines through when he and/or the cameraman interrupts the filming because they're laughing too hard. On the other end of the spectrum, Corey Worthington is all too plainly being himself. If anyone tried to act that obnoxious and arrogant, I don't think it would be funny at all. But since it comes so naturally to him it is quite amusing.
This is where I have a problem with Tourette's Guy. During my first viewing, I thought this was a man who legitimately had Tourette's Syndrome. It isn't too rare of an occurrance for a person to dismiss it as a possibility, and for most of the video there is no evidence to suggest that Tourette's guy is, indeed, acting. I was convinced that he honestly was suffering from Tourette's.
However, at the end of the video, he slips up. He laughed at himself for the first time. It was then that I started getting mad. How could he fool me like that? I trusted and believed in him, only to learn that he was a big, fat fake. Just like Santa Claus.
At first, I was pissed off. I didn't know what to think. Deep down, I still wanted to believe that was really how Tourett's Guy was, and he wasn't just acting. However, everyone I talked to about it said that they knew he didn't really have Tourette's the whole time. Apparently I was the only one who fell for it. I was so angry that I held a grudge against Tourette's guy for a long time for fooling me. In fact, I held a grudge until writing this blog forced me to take one more look at him.
As it turns out, I wasn't really mad at Tourette's Guy. I was mad at myself for being fooled. Watching the video knowing that he was just an actor made it a hell of a lot funnier. Maybe because it brings a huge moral issue into play by having him pretend to suffer from a condition that many other people are truly forced to live with on a daily basis. Maybe I was just able to accept it for its face value and not try to read into it too deeply. Whatever the case, Tourette's Guy has found a place in my collection of favorite Youtube videos, though it's not quite yet on the level where I'm thinking of incorporating it into my religion.
2 comments:
Wow Brett, fooled by Tourettee's Guy? I was let down by the video but for a different reason. All I had seen were photos of Tourette's guy and they looked hilarious. I without a doubt thought that this was going to be the funniest youtube video ever. Though it was insanely funny it did not meet expectations. My favorite part was when he said Don't Talk shit about total. That was ridiculously.
As far as you being fooled I find that hard to believe. Maybee it is because I have taken psychology courses and I know a little bit a bout th tourette's disorder but I never for a minute would have taken him for a real sufferer of tourette's. Most people have only motor tics and their vocal tics are squeels or yells, not curse words. This guy is obviously just too fake and that is why it's soo funny.
I'm also kind of surprised that you got fooled by this video. To me, most of his outbursts seem like he knows what he's saying and is saying what is most likely to shock/offend and thus be funny.
Aside from that, though, I really didn't find any of the tourrettes guy stuff funny. It's not that i find it offensive, since me and my friends swear all the time, and I don't really care if the guy is making light of a real condition. It just failed to make me laugh. I'd heard about these videos, and i was expected a good bit more.
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