Echoes of William Hung.

So this video, which we found over at AB’s spot, has gone viral.

Yeah, yeah. I know. It’s a disasterpiece.  And no, you won’t be able to get it out of your head for the rest of the day. My bust.

But then there’s this video, in which T Baby appears on a local Detroit radio station.

Now, it’s clear that the folks at the radio station are mocking her, yes? But she seems pretty oblivious to it, which raises some ethical questions, I think.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • Didn’t Thembi have this up a few months back? Still hilarious though.

  • hmmm. i didn’t see it. it is funny. but the radio station video makes me look at the original in a different, less humorous light.

  • rakia

    This reminds me of that old WB reality show, “Superstar USA.” It was a fake American Idol show, where they rejected all the good singers and praised the bad ones. Only the bad singers didn’t know they were being made fun of. The “winner” won $50,000, I think. I missed the finale when the bad singers were finally let in on the joke. But I remember feeling badly for them after the second or third episode. It was funny at first. But after too long, it seemed cruel.

  • rakia

    I had to include a link. This guy was the runner-up.

  • Steve

    This has been up for a long time Thembi had it up too but one thing that made me laugh is I had a stopover recently in Detroit and the whole time I was in the airport I could NOT stop singing “ITS SO COLD IN THE D”

  • Big Word

    Yes it’s been around for a minute. Yeah it’s certified plawful, but cotdammmit…she’s talkin about some real shit. How the fuck do we ‘sposed to keep peace?

  • Interesting…you know, it is poorly made and T Baby can’t hold a note (LOL @ “disasterpiece) but it’s also really troubling and sad – don’t you think? Watching this and the live performance at the radio station made me think about how accustomed I’ve become to people using YouTube (as well as talk shows, reality tv, etc.) to make fools of themselves on purpose. She actually seems sincere. And the photo montage of the people she has lost is really sobering… maybe I’m reading too much into this. It’s like when the viral video “Chocolate Rain” was going around. It was hilarious, but the lyrics were actually making an *attempt* at a social message.

    (Am I the only one who made fake music videos with my sisters when I was younger? This also reminded me of that too!)

    I love your site, by the way. This is my first comment, but I plan to be a frequent visitor!