GUHROOGAMESH!
I, like many internet trolls, /b/tards, and other people who enjoy a good laugh on the internet, tend to know something is worth mocking when I see it.
And especially when Chicks on Anime and I agree, you know it’s definitely a solid estimation.
[Click on Chicks on Anime to see them briefly describe the background info on the ad, as well see links to it on youtube.]
However my take on that Sakura-con ad was more non-confrontational. If I made a fuzz about Americans goofing up Japanese cultural concepts every time, I’d be pink and living on Sesame Street. Let’s just laugh and move on with life, right?
Until this:
So the Sakura-con ad is making its way for how ludicrous it is, on the web. A site like AnimeVice probably picked up on the parody (you can also find the creator’s LJ linked there) and since people who know people read sites like that, the parody stuff made its way and now the ad is removed from youtube. Just click on the AnimeVice link, and click on the video to see what I mean.
Of course, it’s not like you can erase stuff off the internet. You can find it on Nicovideo (among other places), as this video has garnered some attention even over there. If you are not one of those l33t kiddies and have no Nicovideo account, you can download the video directly here (lol megaupload). Anyways, I recommend you to view the video however you can, as you can make your own judgment as to the moral and ethical value of what has happened.
The takedown message on Youtube claims credit to Asia Northwest Cultural Education Association, which is the corporate identity behind Sakura-con.
In other words, Sakura-con just took down a youtube parody video making fun of its questionable ad.
This, friends and enemies, is really bad form. I might be extra-sensitive to free speech/copyright issues compared to the average anime person on the internet, but you just don’t pull down parody videos of your commercials. That’s not something anyone with a real brain does. Because any publicity is good publicity, and this is free to boot. It’s not even like looking at a gift horse’s mouth. It’s like shooting a gift horse in the mouth. This is just low. So low, that if I am going to Sakura-con (wasn’t going to anyways), I would have canceled my plans. Yes, that’s an extreme reaction, and probably emotional one that will change over time, but you don’t mess with free speech. Not like this. It’s wrong and stupid all because somebody can’t take a joke?
The inner /b/tard in me wishes this was a joke–that Sakura-con took that video down to garner negative attention from fools like myself. Well I hope this is really the case! Com’on, Sakura-con, a statement from someone related would go a long way to diffuse this stupidity.
[Disclaimer: The comments found in this post is purely informational to the general public, is not to be construed as legal advice. I make no claim to its accuracy (or even if the content within this post is even serious!) so you, dear readers, are 100% on your own in trusting the words I speak and making any decisions upon it.]
Lastly–the meme itself. It’s gold. I laughed. 7.8.
If you’d be pink, I’d be yellow.
I see nothing demeaning about the parody at all, unless being funnier than the original one is a crime.
Oh my god watching that on repeat just makes it even more hilarious than normal. I pretty much agree with everything the Chicks on Anime article said. Although, I have to think that they were trying to do a parody and failed at getting that point across as well as they intended. Because quite honestly, I can’t take anything in the whole commercial serious with that guy yelling GUHROOGAMESH! across the counter.
this…….and a guhroogamesh.
ROW ROW GUHROOGAMESH
schneider: who would be blue? ;)
Nazarielle: yea the Yugioh parody is a little tricky to get, but it’s funny in its own way.
Actually I managed to not see the original ad, but I have seen the Guhroogamesh clip. It’s sad that companies now reflexively demand that all uses of their material be removed.
I like how everyone turns to the Girugamesh guy with a nod and a smile as though they’re all fans. I guess that’s the problem with the commercial that the Chicks on Anime pointed out. No matter what each person refers to, everyone else chimes in with support as though all of the people attending Sakura-con are Japanophiles with a shared mindset.
The chef told them all to go to Sakura-con because he wanted them out of his restaurant.
So they’re real sticklers when it comes to copyright enforcement? I hope they’re not running an AMV contest…
Baka-raptor: that’s too easy of a jab… Realistically speaking, most large cons like Sakura-con are run by a large group of people. Within the management different departments do their own thing. I’m sure whoever is managing the ads is probably too stupid to realize the consequences, or don’t give a damn about it.
On the other hand if we keep quiet, they’ll just act as if nothing has happened. Would be neat if AMV.org people got upset about it.
I lost something precious after watching that video.
… GUHROOGAMESH.
Have you guys considered the possibility that the parody might be mistaken as an official video by Sakura-con’s business partners, in which case, parody or no parody, copyright issues emerge?
“ROW ROW GUHROOGAMESH”
This sounds oddly compelling to me.
What bugs me about the takedown was the fact that they took down something that was making fun of something that seemed to be making fun in the first place. I don’t know, maybe it was because Little Kuriboh’s efforts lampooned the idea better than they did.
This move does get more people to know about them, but not in the way I would think they would like to be known. :/
I hate Sakura-Con’s commercial. It’s despicable for all of the reasons already mentioned here and on Chicks on Anime, and I can’t believe that the organizers of the event would create something like that.
The parody was created by someone named Little Kuriboh (LK), who’s known for making fun of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime in his own short videos. LK’s parody was called GUHROOGAMESH!!!1 and it was awesome because of the attention it drew to the real commercial. It made other people who might not have even bothered with the commercial to consider the consequences of speaking ill of other people and cultures that they supposedly cared about. Since it’s appearance, a lot of people have ventured over to the real commercial to write criticisms in its comments (though most of them have been removed or drowned out by cries of “guhroogamesh”).
After the parody was removed by the Asia Northwest Cultural Education Association, LK actually uploaded a new version of the parody, creatively called 1!!!HSEMAGOORHUG. The only difference in the new version was that the audio was censored so that any mention of “Sakura-Con” couldn’t be heard. Unfortunately, this new version was also removed from YouTube. I can’t find it anywhere!
So apparently, not only has that organization removed the parody, but it removed a censored version of the parody that didn’t even mention Sakura-Con. It’s unbelievable.
More people need to speak out against these Sakura-Con-organizing lowlifes. Their contemptible commercial and their attempts at free-speech suppression is horrid.
Miha: Sure. But it still is infringing on free speech. A lot of ad parodies on the web are more… incognito than this one in respect to the subject they mock, so this takedown is really just an attempt to clean up stuff that might paint a negative image of Sakuracon (probably any parody video that mentioned porn or tentacle rape will get targeted).
By the way not all parodies of that ad were taken down. Like those GUHROOGAMESH videos.
That is not a copyright issue. If LK were to go to court he could win easily as non-infringer because his work is fair use, even if it’s not 100% clear-cut. It’s just that DMCA takedowns do not require investigation into the accused infringement. It’s up to the guy who uploaded the thing to raise a ruckus.
Also, look up Communication Decency Act for something possibly relevant.
Being a cultureless white devil, I looked at the original more facepalm-y than offensive, although I will agree that their analysis of it is pretty accurate.
But honestly, who does this?!? What makes the takedown so, so stupid is that their original commercial is all about reducing fandom to soundbites, and that’s what the Yu-gi-oh video does. “I love yaoi!” vs. “I love GUHROOGAMESH!”, etc. If the commercial basically says “Come to Sakuracon, where you can run around yelling about Pocky!”, a parody video says “I want to run around yelling GUHROOGAMESH!”
I mean, I can’t make the mental connection as to how a group that could be as tone-deaf as to make that original ad and think that it was a good ad, yet then see the parody and think that it reflected badly on them.
Dude forget the whole censoring hubbub. The point is that seeing the ORIGINAL commercial is enough to remind me why I hate anime cons and I wouldn’t be going in the first place lol!
[…] Yu-Gi-Oh parody that Sakuracon took down manages to make the video look really dumb by stripping out a lot of the context. For example, yes, […]
Let’s make all anime fans look like retards! ORE WA SAKURA-CON IKIMASU DESU WA SUGOI GIRUGAMESH.
[ID SOJOURNER]
In my opinion….
ROW ROW GUHROOGAMESH! Sakuracon is jealous that the parody is riding on its advertisement’s fame.
why are so many people writing about this
GLUEGLUEMESS
[…] What would have tickled my bones, that I wish it was in Japanamerica? More on 2ch, for example (it introduces it briefly, in respect to Train Man). Or more on doujinshi culture (also briefly explained). It talked about porn (focused on manga) but not enough about eroge (it does mention Rapeplay, to its credits) and that emerging form of visual culture (hi Aoi Nishimata!). Well, basically, this “Japanamerican,” “Mobius strip” concept (mutual cultural remix-regurgitation) is rather vast and it includes from airsoft to seeing Nicovideo comments about Ronald McDonald crossplaying. It’s vaaaaast. It’s deeeeep. It’s nuuuuts. It’s GUHRUUGAMESH. […]
Alex Leavitt did a good write-up on this, now that’s over.
http://doalchemy.org/2009/04/girugamesh-sakuracon-copywha/
The parody was different enough from the actual commercial that the copyrights of the commercial should not have been infringed upon. The problem came when SakuraCon and sakuracon.org were mentioned at the end of the parody. It is the rights to use those things that the convention and its parent entity could get their panties in a twist about, I think.
Well, if you wanna get technical, it would be that the parody is an infringement but there is a fair use defense against it.
I don’t think there are any legal recourse Sakuracon people have that’d protect them against a parody that played by the rules like this one. Even if they trademarked Sakuracon or sakuracon.org (which they did not) they couldn’t do anything legal to take the video down. Maybe if it was slander or libel, but that’s a big stretch. Not to mention there are good reasons to believe, sadly, all the claims in the parody are true.