The Cream of the Crap: YouTube Poop

I find it very interesting to hear your opinion on this matter. As an artist and a pooper this was a read I'm glad I didn't miss.

Cool article. Wish I had your writting style.

James

Thanks for the comments! Some responses:

@Full Metal Kiwi:
I'm glad I was able to introduce you to the subject of Dada! It's really fascinating, and if you find the subject worth pursuing you should consider learning about Dada performance art. It's also a bit ironic you use the "random hat" example. Supposedly, Dada's name came from Tristan Tzara picking a random word from the dictionary. Great, by the way, that you're using Poops to hone your editing skills! Sure is better than flipping through some manual.

@neetnoces:
In many instances, art finds itself saddled with unintentional meanings. Here's a radical example: if a painter never saw the swastika, but somehow managed to paint one, that symbol might seem pretty to him. But to a lot of other people, it'd appear a bit more intimidating, huh? Art can have a different meaning for everyone, even if the thing in question was never intended as art.

Thanks again for the comments.

Well, Conrad might see poops as a form of media desecration but, I see them as a way to manipulate video to make people laugh. I make them and I'm not looking to necessarily distort media and such. I have inside jokes with my friends and it is pretty darn funny to hear Froggo from Histeria! talk about the size of his rear end. lol XD

I haven't heard of "Dada" before, and in a way, it really does sound similar to Youtube Poop... but it's kinda like shaking up the hat of words and then peeking when you grab a word. We knowingly use certain clips for our own purposes. We constantly borrow ideas from eachother (certain clips, lines of dialogues, music montages) in a way that all YouTube Poop is very uniform.

Reading the article, it reminds me of something my film professor said (who was paraphrasing someone else) and that is "Either everything has meaning, or nothing does." Either all poops ever made have a message, or none of them do. And I honestly don't know which is which. When I make a poop, I don't think "Hahahah, in your face, society, look at my funny video." Mostly I think "I wonder if viewers will like this new style I tried, or new clip I used." I find it kind of ironic that my poops that mention anime are way more popular than some of my "better" poops. And that in itself is also making fun of YTP itself, in that more people will watch "parody" than something they don't know what it is.

I really didn't have a clear goal in posting, but just wanted to give separate points of view of how I view things. I constantly change techniques and styles and adopt styles from other Poopers. In a way, the best way to grasp all poop is to subscribe to almost the entire Poop community!

(PS- I'm also a film student in college looking to become a film editor in the future, so YTP offers me a chance to practice and improve my editing skills.)

You're very welcome, Alex.

I think it would be quite nice for poopers to know about Dadaism, but as you said, it's certainly not necessary. In fact, I tend to enjoy both "worlds" of poop, from poopers who make videos with artistic intent and those who don't.

The trouble is exactly what you were talking about in the art world: artists thinking of themselves as artists instead of people who happen to produce something called art. That's when poop - and all of art - starts to break down into phoniness.

I'll admit this too: I have a history of agreeing and disagreeing with Conrad Slater. I'll leave my comments about him at that, however, since it's a pretty hectic time in the poop community at the moment, and much of the drama has to do with his policy and beliefs.

Continuing about the talking out of my ass bit, I couldn't agree more with you there. It's all about the dialogue, and there should be no mistake that there is nothing concrete at the end of the line.

As for "heavy" analysis, I'd like to think that a bit of review never hurt, and in fact we have a history of reviewing each other's techniques and styles in the poop community. But I can say that if anyone were to try and make too much sense of a poop, they would be asking for trouble.

The nostalgia and sentimentalism of the media we use has been a big motivator for making videos since the beginning. As a pooper myself, I've been known to take that sentimentalism to an extreme in fact. I don't hold the oversight against you, though, as it's a detail one might easily confuse if under the impression that most, if not all, poops were largely destructive.

If you'd like to know more about us, our community, our attitudes, our history, our memes, and anything else, feel free to drop us a line at youchewpoop.com. You're even welcome to join the forum... as soon as we resolve this damned server issue that's been plaguing us for months.

Thanks for your answer!

-RabbitSnore

Hi Rabbitsnore,

Thanks for replying with such a hefty post! I appreciate your interest. I'd like to respond to a few points you made.

Poopers do not need to know all the incidental artistic brouhaha that surrounds the subject; it's clear that great works of Poop can be made without any forehand artistic knowledge. But I do think it helps to know a few extra bullet points concerning Poop. Poopers certainly don't need to know Dada, but it can't hurt either. It may, at least, help stylistically.

I am not calling for Poopers to become artists. Indeed, if anything is breaking the artworld it is artists becoming more concerned with their roles as artists. If Poop is to ever be recognized by a wider audience it will probably need an even mix of those who do it for the art, and those who do it for the fun; just like any art.

Poopers should actually disregard "heavy" analysis. When postmodernists start dissecting videos one by one, then it's probably a sure fact that Poop is in trouble.

And as for you "talking out of your ass," I wouldn't worry about that. That's pretty much any discussion of creative pursuits at its core. If anything, art and artistic response is a dialog between two asses. Is it art? Is is not art? Does it matter? Not really, but at least it gives us something to read. Healthy discussion is crucial to finding whatever meaning there may be in art or, well, just about anything.

Regarding the Mario/Nintendo comment, this was an oversight on my part. You're obviously more acquainted with Poop than I am, so I'll keep your critique in mind.

Once again, thank you for providing such a fine reply!

Alex Joseph

I'm glad to see people writing about poop. It's refreshing to see more talk about poop in terms of art, but I cannot stress enough that the idea that poop is art is not the result of the original intent... It's an idea that evolved with the style of remixing itself. I should emphasize that there is no reason to think that most of what poopers do is intended to art. Most poopers, even the better known poopers, are doing this for their own enjoyment, not for any artistic expression.

I myself am of the opinion that poop is art, but it is mostly art as graffiti on subway tunnel walls is art. Few of us make poop with art in mind. It is art as a consequence of existence, not of intent.

The video recognized as the first poop was meant as nothing more than an in-joke to a small group of friends... I can't say that it would be better to have more people with artistic intent, and I really can't say that it is altogether unfortunate that there are not more artists. We get along just fine with the quirky artists we have, while the rest merely enjoy drawing penises on the walls of public restrooms. Certainly, it may be nice to have more artists, but saying that we need more is just as bad as the great drama we have in our community, largely centered around whose idea of what poop is is most valid.

In fact, poop is just a word. A clumsy word at that... It's a word that means so much that it means nothing at all. I'm not even sure poop is about the destruction of meaning. It isn't about anything, really. All this talk of art seems like there's some greater artistic pool into which all the poopers are unintentionally pouring their work, and for all I know, there could be such a pool, and one day, perhaps it will be recognized as an art form by larger society.

But the day all of us cease to be vandals for the sake of vandalism and fun and all of us become artists is the day that poop will die, if you ask me. You'll be left with a grim shell of what the art was. You will still have what looks and feels like poop, but the variety will be dead and the spirit of youth and fun that surrounds the media will be lost, and that will be the great tragedy of trying to make poop art instead of letting it be art on its own, in its own right.

Thank heavens, I don't think that will ever happen though.

"In this regard also, Poop is Dada. By using material lauded so highly by their peers, Poopers invalidate the sentimental and nostalgic definitions attached to Poop. It’s really a big “Eff you” to Mario and Nintendo."

That's not true, I'm afraid to say. Reading the interviews of poopers on YouChew as well as talking to many poopers will show you that most people use material that they enjoy. A "big 'Eff you'" is far from the intent. If anything, pooping is the further validation of nostalgia and sentimentalism, but for an exclusive audience. Paradoxically, poop often vandalizes fond memories and makes them even fonder thereby.

Ah, I should not raise such wide objections. It was a fine read, though I don't agree with a lot of what was said. Like anyone else on the subject, I could be merely talking out of my ass and not even know it.

-RabbitSnore, Editor-in-Chief of YouChewPoop's news page

Thanks for getting the word out!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Thanks for getting the word out.

Awesome article

Splendid article, Alex. The world of YouTube Poop indeed needs more appreciation because, as you said, it is an art form. It's a shame that YouTube hounds on the likes of skewered clips, but barely enforces the posting of music and full-length movies.