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Sunday, August 8, 2010

Antoine Dodson is an Internet Star But at What Cost??


"Hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife. They raping everyone out here" and "He's climbing in yo' windows and snatching yo' people up," have already started to become known catchphrases and the butt of jokes, the same way statements like "hood rat things with my friends" did. But at what cost?

Huntsville, Ala., resident Kelly Dodson was attacked in the middle of the night when a man climbed through her window and attempted to rape her. Luckily her brother Antoine heard the commotion, came into her room and scared the attacker away. The local news station, WAFF, covered the story and unintentionally turned Dodson into an Internet star. But should they really be proud of what they have done?



Jezebel covered the whole shebang, discussing the social implications of memes and Internet celebrity, arguing in this case that the rape has been made secondary.

"The fact that an attempted rape was pushed aside by the internet in favor of "oh my God, this guy is so funny" doesn't necessarily surprise me," the Jezebel writer says. "But it's still frustrating when one considers that the viral video angle seems to be more of a focus for the channel following this story than the actual attempted rape itself."

We completely agree that the rape has been made secondary to the Antoine's so-called "performance." We're also pretty sure that none of Antonie's 22,000+ Facebook fans are there to help the Dodson family find the rapist. But we believe the people in these viral videos, like Latarian Milton, also known as the arbiter of all things "hoodrat," are sincere. People think they're funny because they say things people don't conventionally say on TV or use uneducated language, which when you think about it isn't really funny at all. Jezebel brings up the difference between laughing with and at because, well, the people in these videos aren't laughing.

On the one hand, things are sometimes taken too seriously. People often make jokes about the most offensive stuff, sometimes it's even how we humans deal with pain. But there are real underlying social issues here, including laughing at people that are less educated and have almost been raped.

How do you feel about Dodson's Internet fame?



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