A video like that, you don't fake it all at once

February 27, 2013 12:56 AM

Little pig at a petting zoo rescues baby goat. Suspicion: "This is setting off all my bullshit alarms. Seems an awful lot like a trained pig performing a trick." Rebuttal: "Is a petting zoo going to purposly strand a goat in water every day, and then train a pig to go rescue it, and not advertise? ... The whole idea of contriving small animals to be in peril and rescue themselves as a spectacle seems too complicated and beyond the expertise of a run of the mill petting zoo. This is a petting zoo you'd find in a Chuck Palahniuk novel, is what I'm saying." Reality: Not a Chuck Palahniuk novel. A Nathan Fielder series on Comedy Central.

It was created for a new Comedy Central series, “Nathan for You,” with the help of some 20 crew members, including animal trainers, scuba divers and humane officers, and required the fabrication of a plastic track to guide the pig to the goat (which was never in jeopardy). ... On “Nathan for You,” a documentary-style series that will have its premiere on Thursday, Mr. Fielder, 29, a deadpan and seemingly naïve comedian, helps small businesses execute outrageous marketing stunts devised by him and his producers.

For the second episode Mr. Fielder offered his services to a petting farm in Oak Glen, Calif., where he made a video intended to turn one of its animals into a celebrity. However, his plan to record an adorable scene of cross-species gallantry hit several snags: his chosen pig would not go in the pond and had to be replaced with a trained animal, and a track had to be built to guide it to the goat. (Meanwhile, the goat became so comfortable in the water that anguished bleats had to be dubbed in later.)

posted by maudlin to MetaFilter-Related at 12:56 AM (46 comments total)

Metafilter is not a goat.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:12 AM on February 27 [2 favorites]

This belongs on the blue.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:21 AM on February 27 [4 favorites]

I thought this was more of a follow-up on a MeFi post than a MeFi post itself (which might read as more of an ad for the CC show there, too.)

But if this gets moved or deleted, so be it.
posted by maudlin at 1:27 AM on February 27

Eh, I could go either way, but it feels like giving them more promo on the blue as a result of their fake video is not so great, though it's sort of interesting as a follow up here, if we're discussing how it was received / how we feel about unvetted viral stuff, etc.
posted by taz (staff) at 1:33 AM on February 27

Wow, that was faked? Wow.

It was so slight. To fake something so inconsequential and ... that is, I didn't really buy that the pig 'saved' the goat, I figured he was just on his way to somewhere else or who knows what pigs do but save goats I don't think is on their agenda. So I thought it was just a video of this sort of, ok, thing happens that everyone interprets as being this other thing but in fact it turns out it's an elaborately orchestrated.

That's interesting.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:17 AM on February 27 [2 favorites]

Interesting. It's not every day a network like Comedy Central decides to do a cynical sociology experiment. How bread and circus of them.
posted by Toekneesan at 5:23 AM on February 27

Why do I suddenly want a feta and bacon sandwich?
posted by HuronBob at 5:42 AM on February 27 [20 favorites]

This has destroyed my faith in YouTube!

And in the inherent charity of young pigs.

And the hydrophobia of goats!
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:31 AM on February 27 [4 favorites]

Fielder is fantastic in Jon Benjamin Has a Van.
posted by mean cheez at 6:33 AM on February 27 [2 favorites]

I wish to correct that previous remark. I meant the aquaphobia of goats. Hydrophobia of goats would be rabies, which I assume goats can contract but suspect that this goat had not at the time of the video. I guess hydrophobia in goats could also mean that they are extremely water-repellent, but this goat appeared waterlogged, so it would be unlikely to mean that.

Just to be clear.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:35 AM on February 27 [6 favorites]

...it feels like giving them more promo on the blue as a result of their fake video is not so great...

Doesn't bother me. There's a lot of fabricated things on the blue. What's the difference between this and 90% of performance art?
posted by cjorgensen at 6:54 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

There's at least 112 people who owe Sys Rq an apology.
posted by Curious Artificer at 6:57 AM on February 27 [12 favorites]

Love the title, though!
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:10 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

Fielder is fantastic in Jon Benjamin Has a Van.

Jon Benjamin Has a Van -- funny show, or funniest show?
posted by mr. digits at 7:15 AM on February 27

What's the difference between this and 90% of performance art?

For one year my little pig and baby goat produced no art, spoke no art, saw no art, read no art, and did not enter any museum or gallery.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:18 AM on February 27 [2 favorites]

You don't win friends with salad!
You don't win friends with salad!
You don't win friends with salad!

Etc., and so forth.
posted by zarq at 7:22 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

There's at least 112 people who owe Sys Rq an apology.

I never thought Sys Rq was wrong. Just like I don't necessarily think a car alarm going off is always a false alarm.
posted by mullacc at 7:27 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

I have been quoted in Metatalk, and it wasn't out of anger, how surreal.
posted by hellojed at 7:33 AM on February 27

So I was wrong, but the truth ended up being so much more absurd.

I can't help but feel slightly betrayed.

Also: Sorry Sys Rq
posted by hellojed at 7:39 AM on February 27

In the Middle Ages, that pig could have been tried in court for fraud. And perhaps witchcraft, because it floats.
posted by Kabanos at 7:42 AM on February 27 [3 favorites]

whaaaaat next you'll be telling me that baby monkey didn't REALLY ride backwards on a pig
posted by speicus at 7:53 AM on February 27 [3 favorites]

in retrospect Parry Gripp never wrote a song about it which was kinda suspicious
posted by speicus at 7:57 AM on February 27 [4 favorites]

maudlin: “I thought this was more of a follow-up on a MeFi post than a MeFi post itself...”

For reference, the fact that it's an ad aside, follow-ups on Mefi posts go on Mefi, not here on the gray. That's a change in the last few years here, I think, but that's how we do things now. Probably not a huge deal, just a thing, y'know.
posted by koeselitz at 8:07 AM on February 27 [3 favorites]

I am the only one who is still bothered by the fact that the Matt Cain Hitting Things With Baseballs video was never officially outed as a fake?
posted by burnmp3s at 8:41 AM on February 27

I have to say, I am impressed at this fakery. It's really hard to create a viral video, especially one that's faked, and especially one that serves an advertising function.

That being said, a part of me now suspects the original was real and Comedy Central went back and faked the video making it seem like the original video was faked. We're through the looking glass now, into a world of endless recursion.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:46 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

It was so slight. To fake something so inconsequential and ...

Sure, you say something like that one day. And then the next thing you know you're being quizzed by ESPN and Katie Couric about your dead fake girlfriend and you wonder how it came to this.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:54 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

Kidding aside - and I was kidding about people owing Sys Rq an apology - it's interesting that his was the only comment in that thread to even doubt the non-fakiness of the video. Perhaps everyone else really wanted to believe precisely because it was so cute.
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:06 AM on February 27

I think that the video where they explain how the video is fake, is fake.

In a couple of months they'll post another followup in which they explain that they found a real video of a pig swimming randomly into a goat that got stuck in a pond, and decided to give it a second degree of virality by doing an elaborate "making of" video in which they pretend to have faked the real video.
posted by ook at 9:26 AM on February 27 [10 favorites]

(Meanwhile, the goat became so comfortable in the water that anguished bleats had to be dubbed in later.)

That's me, that goat is me
posted by Greg Nog at 10:08 AM on February 27 [3 favorites]

Fielder is fantastic in Jon Benjamin Has a Van.

Jon Benjamin Has a Van -- funny show, or funniest show?

I am so glad to learn that I'm not the only one who loved that show. FUNNIEST show.
posted by phunniemee at 10:42 AM on February 27

mr. digits: "Fielder is fantastic in Jon Benjamin Has a Van.

Jon Benjamin Has a Van -- funny show, or funniest show?"

"That's the show's knife. That's the knife we share whenever we need a knife. Only us three use it."

On preview...phunniest?
posted by Room 641-A at 10:45 AM on February 27

It's really hard to create a viral video, especially one that's faked, and especially one that serves an advertising function

Nope, Chuck Testa.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:46 AM on February 27

MetaFilter: anguished bleats
posted by slogger at 12:19 PM on February 27 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: that goat is me
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:40 PM on February 27 [1 favorite]

I was wondering why favourites were trickling in on a comment I dropped five months ago.

And, well, um, TOLD YOU SO, YOU UN-CYNICAL NON-JERKS!!!
posted by Sys Rq at 1:15 PM on February 27 [6 favorites]

(That said, I was pretty much totally fooled by the eagle snatching the kid, so, hey.)
posted by Sys Rq at 1:17 PM on February 27

Homeboy Trouble, Jehan and dunkadunc should get a credit for recognising this fake. Blasdelb was sucked in too.
posted by unliteral at 3:42 PM on February 27 [1 favorite]

Just like I don't necessarily think a car alarm going off is always a false alarm.

In my neighborhood, sometimes it's a mockingbird.
posted by maryr at 3:57 PM on February 27

Homeboy Trouble, Jehan and dunkadunc should get a credit for recognising this fake

And junco, and R. Mutt, and cmoj, and gallois, and me: basically half of the comments in that North Korea thread were people calling out the video as fake and debating whether it was some kind of Keystone Kops attempt at a false flag black propaganda operation or just generalized art-school wankery. I guess based on that Facebook comment, it turns out it was probably the latter.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 6:49 PM on February 27

You're right strangely stunted trees, I was lazy and just did a command f for fake.
posted by unliteral at 7:20 PM on February 27

Hanlon's Pink Lady Bic With Daisies Razor: Never attribute to failed propaganda that which is adequately explained by art school wankery.
posted by maryr at 7:21 PM on February 27 [1 favorite]

I came by to suggest that the future will involve genuinely spontaneous cute animal videos being subsequently sold to corporations so they can take credit for them as elaborate fakes, but it looks like Bunny Ultramod beat me to it.

Actually, it's sort of funny how it's been a standard joke about MetaFilter for years, but no one bothers to suggest that all the Youtube videos are staged by Google employees on elaborate soundstages. Or maybe it's just the comments? I imagine it's much easier to engineer blather.
posted by nobody at 7:47 PM on February 27

(That said, I was pretty much totally fooled by the eagle snatching the kid, so, hey.)
posted by Sys Rq

For context: How “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” Ruled The Internet (and the post about the eagle video in question)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:17 PM on February 27 [1 favorite]

So they proved that people on the Internet will share anything with animals in it?

I came by to suggest that the future will involve genuinely spontaneous cute animal videos being subsequently sold to corporations so they can take credit for them as elaborate fakes, but it looks like Bunny Ultramod beat me to it.

If this keeps people from sharing them, why not? Its probably better than using sex or violence.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 8:49 PM on February 27

more of a follow-up on a MeFi post than a MeFi post itself

I'm pretty sure we stopped doing updates in MetaTalk a couple of years ago.
I'm in so much trouble now :)
posted by Chuckles at 9:58 PM on February 27

That was posted I'm September?! That was like, 5 minutes ago.
posted by lordaych at 7:18 PM on February 28