Well, 2010 is just about done and dusted now and I can’t think of a better way to close this decade but with some adorable pictures of kittens as captioned by a six-year-old girl.
As if pictures of kittens weren’t enough…this video also provides hilarious narration! How is this different from the mirth provided regularly by icanhascheezburger.com you might ask? Well, whilst the captioning featured in ICHC is more considered–some even featuring recurring jokes and an ongoing drama about bucket theft and ceiling cats, this is just pure stream of consciousness style humor.
For example...
I gotta tell you, this kid is priceless. And I’m not really the type that fawns over children. This might seem odd, I know. When people are around me, they always assume that I’d be just great with kids. This is because I’m an immature moron who still reads comic books and poses action figures on my desk. They think that because I’m tons of fun that I’d be absolute magic around the wee ones. But it’s for those very reasons that I don’t think I’d be a great Mom at all…or even a particularly effective babysitter. Last time I watched my god-daughter, she hit her head on furniture not once but TWICE! I’m way too easily distracted. I don’t want to share my toys. I’m easily bored. I have no child-care knowledge. And most importantly, I don’t have that biological pull towards children. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my nieces, they are both whip smart and stupidly cute…and if I’ve met YOUR kids, I probably like them just fine too. But those kids have homes to go to when they’re through visiting. I’m the sort of person who when let’s say, for instance, someone brings their six-year-old to work–whilst everyone else is cooing and asking how school is going and looking to engage with them on their level, I’ll barely look up from my desk. If anything, I’ll just hope and hope that they don’t come over and bother me whilst I’m watching The Rachel Maddow Show on my lunch break.
My friend Paul hit the nail on the head the other day when we were discussing our similarity in this area. He said that it’s because you have to change your levels of engagement. Your conversation style has to change and you can’t really be yourself anymore around kids. That, in itself, can be a bit draining. And he’s right. I can’t even use swears when I’m around them.
I think I’m destined to be the old lady who keeps your frisbee if it comes over to my lawn. Not to be mean…just so I can play with it.
But this kid can hang out for a while if she wants. It’s amazing! I’m not even related to her, so I don’t have to feign interest at all! Please enjoy this video of Maddie Kelly…a six year old verbally captioning photos of kittens from a picture book.
157. Kittens Inspired By Kittens
Am I right? What a stitch! It’s no wonder that it’s made Time Magazine’s list of “50 Best YouTube clips”.
Now how did this little nugget of fried gold wind up on the internet in the first place? Well, from what I can suss, her Dad works for an ad agency Fallon. Watching his daughter goof about with a picture book of kittens, he manages to capture her on film and he posts it for the world to see on YouTube. Fallon, of course, concerns itself in the monitoring of trends and on their own blog, they analyze the public’s delight with this clip. You may read it here:
Here’s an excerpt from their post:
The success of “Kittens…” (and hundreds of goofy vids like it) often flies in the face of much of our well-produced, branded, and strategized factory “virals”. So what gives? Is “viral” still just a roll of the dice – particularly for brands? Do we embrace the more-faster-cheaper ethos that drives the users? Do we recruit 6-year-olds to generate ideas for us? Do we get her to replicate the magic – this time for a brand? And it makes me wonder, if we had pitched “Kittens…” to a client would they ever have approved it? And if a client would’ve approved “Kittens…” would they have added too many brand mandatories that would slow down its “viral” appeal?
There’s something weird about dissecting the appeal of this clip to such fine detail. Don’t get me wrong…I get that pop-culture analysis is sort of what I do on this blog too…But, I worry about too much experimentation/social study when it comes to kids. The closest I ever came to being a Mom was with my dogs…just in the sense that I was responsible for their care. And this Fallon blog post reminds me of how I used my dog Wolfie for a science experiment in high school. It ended unhappily for both me and the dog. I had won a science award the year before for using his olfactory senses for a sort of consumer reports experiment I did with various saran wraps. I won’t bore you with the details. Anyway, all the judges loved Wolfie’s involvement and I thought I’d use him again. I had wanted to be a veterinarian at that point in my life and I had been reading in DogFancy how it was becoming more and more important for owners to take care of their pets’ teeth. So, I thought I’d test a specially marketed dog toothpaste over a human toothpaste over baking soda and water and of course a ‘control’ portion of Wolfie’s mouth where I didn’t brush at all. To start out, we made an appointment for him to have his teeth cleaned at the veterinarian. I wanted a blank slate and I was assured that it was an uncomplicated procedure. Well, didn’t he just have a heart attack on the table due to an allergic reaction to the anesthesia. I was crushed and I’m still not entirely over it.
So, I guess, what I’m saying, Mr. Maddie’s Dad Kelly is, don’t take your daughter to get her teeth cleaned. That makes sense, right?
Plus, to be honest, overanalyzing this is only standing to make it less funny.
Like the FunnyOrDie.com videos featuring Adam McKay’s daughter, Pearl…it’s probably best to cap the fervor the nation has with the wee girl before it gets out of hand. Pearl starred in a grand total of two videos. As much as I want to see dozens more of these videos by the adorable Maddie Kelly, I think McKay’s two video maximum was a wise choice. At least until she gets old enough to start and manage her own YouTube page. But, let’s enjoy the sensation of “Kittens Inspired By Kittens” while we can. This handy link takes you to some of the spin-offs that the video has inspired…and boy are there lots. Some are even worth watching!: KnowYourMeme
Anyway, Happy New Year everyone! Double head! I’m her Mom! Nooo she’s not. (I’m finding the video entirely too quotable and will continue to torture my colleagues with an insufferable amount of repetition all throughout 2011.)
