The agony of defeat, personified by David Archuleta fans
Nov 11, 2008, 08:51 AM | by Chris Willman
Categories: 'American Idol', Viral Video!!!
Thanks to David Cook, I have a new favorite YouTube video. I hadn't been able to locate it by the time we first posted his comments about it in a Q&A last week. Fortunately, some Cook fans who had seen the cult video (embedded below) he confessed to loving quickly posted links to it on various message boards, causing it to suddenly catch on. (When I first saw it last Thursday, it'd only been viewed about 4,000 times in the months it had been up, but now it's already at over 10,000 views.) It’s footage of six girls who look to be in their very early teens watching the season finale of American Idol, and their reaction when their idol, David Archuleta, fails to be coronated. As Cook put it, “My name gets announced [as the winner], and...these girls said something that's so funny, to me: ‘How could they vote for that guy? He doesn't even shave!'’ I love that.”
I’m not sure Cook even does justice to the utter hilarity of this video. The full range of despairing emotions the girls go through in their moment of spiritual desolation is so great, you almost wonder if this is a fantastic put-on, performed by young actors. The moment when one girl drops to her knees in disbelief at The Great Injustice of 2008 certainly couldn’t benefit from any better comic timing, though really the whole thing is a kind of accidental genius.
As I’ve e-mailed friends with the link for this video, I’ve gotten an interesting range of reactions back, ranging from “hysterical” to “another good argument against pubescence.” I'm going with "adorable," myself. Even if you can’t relate to the Idol phenomenon, surely anyone who was ever truly and devotedly a fan, or, better yet, still is one, can relate just slightly to the concurrent worship and anguish in this clip. Who among us doesn’t weep, gnash teeth, and rend garments a little, if not quite this demonstrably, when our heroes fail to get the due and universal acclamation that's coming to them? Can anyone who truly invests himself or herself in artistic excellence fail to feel torment over the travesty of pure suckage prevailing, even when our belief in that greatness is predicated on even more substantial stuff than the presence or absence of facial hair? I have been there, my friends, and I suspect you have, too, even if you never pummeled the couch in your parents’ basement with a pillow in front of all your friends.
As for the notion that we might ever really grow out of this, I direct you to this Washington Post video about the atmosphere among the crowd at John McCain’s concession speech last week. Forward toward the end and you’ll see the reaction among some of McCain’s supporters when their candidate, waxing gracious, tells his followers they need to support the new President-elect. Some boo; others shout out comments like “Never!” Another man tries to hush one of the hecklers, saying, ”Take the high road.” “I am taking the high road!” answers the indignant anti-Obama yeller. These grown politicos are being impossibly rude, of course. But the little girls understand.
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