{"id":661,"date":"2016-03-22T04:01:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T04:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=661"},"modified":"2016-03-22T04:01:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T04:01:08","slug":"harambe-canada-pen-pineapple-apple-pen-ppap-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=661","title":{"rendered":"The Very Hungry Bear and the Internet\u2019s Other Oddities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"container page-content\"><p><span class=\"dropcap\">T<\/span><\/p><\/div><p>his year swung between hope and hopelessness \u2013 on the internet, of course, reality was too dark to deal with. In 2016 we learned (yet again) that the web is a truly democratic arena, where everyone from a Japanese \u201cpop star\u201d to a dead gorilla can leave their mark. But the general takeaway remained the same as the years since the internet swallowed up our lives: Nothing is ever as it seems.\n\n<strong>PPAP Music\n<\/strong>The internet is a beautiful place. You can use it to learn a language or an instrument. You can speak to loved ones across continents, you can catch <em>Seinfeld<\/em> clips on YouTube in the train. Or, you can spend a precious few minutes watching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ct6BUPvE2sM\">\u201cPen, Pineapple, Apple, Pen\u201d<\/a>: A \u201csong\u201d that went so viral, former viral internet sensation \u201cThe Biebs\u201d called it his viral sensation of the year. Last we checked, the song\u2019s shorter version had more than 179 million views.\n\nThere\u2019s no point in getting into the lyrics of the song, which are those exact four words from the title repeated multiple times over. What is amazing are his gaudy clothes, his idiotic expressions, and that exceptionally catchy beat. The song\u2019s ability to crawl into your ear and lay eggs there makes it an official contender for the most annoying thing on the planet. Add in all the variations, and you\u2019re going to be humming the damn thing for a week at least.\n\nFor all the nuisance that PPAP has caused, there are important lessons to be learnt here. All advertising agencies out there trying to create a viral video of their own, Piko Taro, the song\u2019s conceptualiser, could teach you a thing or two. The internet doesn\u2019t give a fuck what you think good content is. Or how long you try and crack something. A Japanese man with weird sunglasses, no talent for writing lyrics, and seemingly tone-deaf, can go viral enough to sell his own merchandise. And that is truly what makes the internet beautiful.\n\n<em>\u2013 Sagar Shah <\/em>\n\n<strong>Bananas Over an Ape\n<\/strong><em>He died on the 28th of May\nOn a bright summer\u2019s day\nHe sat calmly in his enclosure\nWhile the crowds snapped away\nChaos ensued, a child fell into his cage\nHe tried to hurt it, or so they say\nTo save the child there was just one way\nShots were fired \u2013 motionless he lay\nHe died on the 28th of May\nHe was called Harambe<\/em>\n\nThe Western lowland gorilla will live on in our hearts and minds \u2013 or at least continue to provide fuel for countless memes panning everything from George Bush to Donald Trump. He even won 2 per cent of the popular vote in the US elections. The killing of Harambe occurred at a time when the world was literally going ape shit.\n\nThe week that the gorilla was shot at Cincinnati Zoo, 1,000 other people <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/5\/31\/11825548\/vox-sentences-gorilla-harambe\">died<\/a> attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. Around the same time, racially charged police shootings in the US were also on the boil. In that atmosphere, Harambe\u2019s death became a symbol for everything wrong with the world. He became yet another victim of the authoritarian overkill we\u2019ve come to witness in current times.\n\nOn the internet, he became an icon for the oppressed and outraged, a modern-day martyr for millennials. Who knows, next year a giraffe might get shot because it looked the wrong way at a zookeeper. But Harambe will exist in the dark corners of the internet, as a random comment or dank meme, reminding us of the time we all went bananas over an ape.\n\n<em>\u2013 Damian D\u2019souza <\/em>\n\n<strong>Legiondary Timeline\n<\/strong>There\u2019s little doubt that when it comes to global cyber punishment, Anonymous is the Internet\u2019s finest. Nobody from ISIS to the \u201cChurch\u201d of Scientology is safe from these \u201cKeep Calm\u201d meme-posting, server-crashing hacktivists. Their brand of vigilante justice wearing a Guy Fawkes mask has spurred millions of people to launch their own strain of cyberactivism. They\u2019ve also spawned one of the best TV shows of 2016, YouTube videos with millions of hits, and plenty of lawsuits. And of course, as we\u2019ve recently discovered, they\u2019ve inspired an Indian cousin with a vocabulary leeched off ScoopWhoop and a minor pot habit.\n\nOn November 30, the Chairperson of the Indian National Congress announced that he was a \u201cmemeworthy fucking f**got\u201d and proceeded to make jokes about his own intellect as well as his \u201csmall penor\u201d. While we loved the candour and appreciate the hacking for general amusement, most of us were left wanting a bit more. Was there a corruption scandal that poor RaGa was a part of, or some amazing data on Congress\u2019 dealings? Turns out, more like nope. They did for the lulz.\n\nThey did it again to the official handle of Indian National Congress and Vijay Mallya and they\u2019ve promised to do it to Lalit Modi and Apollo Hospitals next. We\u2019ve pinned a new hope on Indian Legion. For the sake of hacktivism in 2017, we hope that they create the kind of chaos that alters a democracy, not just our Twitter timeline.\n\n<em>\u2013 Nimisha Misra <\/em>\n\n<strong>Wild Wild North\n<\/strong>In November this year, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oUle-4E1qoQ\">video<\/a> of a polar bear playfully petting a chained dog surfaced. The footage was shot in Manitoba, Canada, and quickly garnered millions of views and comments celebrating the unlikely friendship. In the now-viral video, the bear gingerly strokes the husky\u2019s head, as the dog grows increasingly uncomfortable under the weight of his paw, and coolly tries to move out of the way. The entire scene plays out so naturally, that it was easy for people to mistake their behaviour for affection. The reality however, is very different.\n\nCries about how heart-warming the video was, were silenced when the owner of the husky told the Canadian Broadcasting Company that another polar bear had just devoured a husky on his property. This was within hours of the post going viral. Turns out, this is what wild polar bears do.\n\nThe news, while devastating, started a conversation on how humans apply their own moral values to the actions of wild animals. The \u201cfond\u201d petting in the video was most likely the bear sussing out its prey, a completely natural act. It was a lesson in realising that animals cannot be expected to live by the codes that govern our relationships \u2013 and that we shouldn\u2019t believe everything on the internet. The next time you see adorable pictures of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=caX24UC2lsY\">cheetah befriending a puppy<\/a>, remember who the predator is.\n\n<em>\u2013 Tanvi Dhulia <\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year\u2019s viral moments taught us that even though the web is a truly democratic arena, nothing is ever as it seems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Very Hungry Bear and the Internet\u2019s Other Oddities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This year\u2019s viral moments taught us that even though the web is a truly democratic arena, nothing is ever as it seems.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=661\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Very Hungry Bear and the Internet\u2019s Other Oddities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year\u2019s viral moments taught us that even though the web is a truly democratic arena, nothing is ever as it seems.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=661\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-22T04:01:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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