June 18, 2005
Kitsch IdolHumor
Sometimes we run across artistic works so breathtaking that we wonder whether in all the preceding years we have actually lived. Sometimes we find übermenschen who leap cultural chasms in a single bound. These artists have an intrinsic Goodness which translates in all cultures: Márquez. Rushdie. And… Mehndi?
For your amusement, I offer Daler Mehndi’s ‘Tunak Tunak Tun’ in Flash (via Freedom Shock). There’s some charm in this badly-drawn boy (doesn’t Daler deserve a full beard?), but the original was even more craptastic. ‘East Indian,’ flying carpets and comments about bin Laden, check. Hello my crazy-eyed future girlfriend!
Here’s the white boy version, bhangra moves and all, by SUNY Buffalo. I think my family owned a buffalo by that name once. It sounds Punjabi.
Here’s a disturbing industrial version, proving that there’s nothing so saccharine that a German can’t make it depressing.
manish on June 18, 2005 04:17 AM in Humor, Music · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Thanks for those. I learned something today.
The flash version was funny, but it clearly de-Sikhify's him. It gives him short hair, a 'stache, and a random ropy bouncing turban. I found that all really annoying, like he was some generic middle eastern guy. The SUNY Buffalo kids start out trying to imitate the dance, and then just spazz out.
White men can't dance....proven again by those leeching of the state university of ny.
the video of the white guys doing the "bhangra" was hilarious. I'll give them an A for at least trying ;-)
I loved the SUNY kids - I was really hoping they'd do the "near and far" part of video, but I'll have to live with that disappointment.
Yeah, I too loved the SUNY video. Reminded me of college days. Also, it's pretty cool that they thought it's OK to have fun with that song rather than "not offend minorities". It's not possible to embrace a foreign culture if you have to keep thinking of it as an untouchable, un-mockable, thing that you can never take lightly.