PPAP Singer’s New I Like OJ Song Is Boring! Why Is It Going Viral?

‘I like OJ’ is unbearable. But the song is already a viral hit. What does this say about us?

Has social media dumbed us down?

My first brush with a ‘viral’ video was Dhanush’s ‘Kolaveri Di’. While I did not understand the language, the beat was refreshing and I hopped on to the bandwagon.

Little did I know that ‘Kolaveri Di’ would change my video consumption habits forever. Four years and countless ‘viral’ videos later came ‘Pen Pineapple Apple Pen’ (PPAP). The trajectory from ‘Kolaveri Di’ to the PPAP song has been disappointing, if not dreadful.

Watch the ‘Pen Pineapple Apple Pen’ song:

Here was a man clad in bright animal print, repeating a set of nonsensical lyrics. The song became a hit because of the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

DJ Kosaka Daimaou, the man behind the song, became an instant sensation for his caricature of Piko Taro – the face of the video(s).

My social media feed is usually inundated with all sorts of content. Some trends go on to become classics while others die a natural death.

But it appears as though anything Daimaou touches turns into gold. Here’s his latest contribution to the internet:

Daimou’s ‘I like OJ’ is unbearable, to say the least. But the song has already garnered countless shares on social media and is on the brink of becoming another sensation. And this brings us back to my first sentence – has social media dumbed us down?

The video is about a person who wants a certain type of juice but can’t seem to get any of it.

‘I like OJ’ is identical to PPAP in almost every way. They are both low on aesthetics and high on the so-simple-it’s-confusing factor. Hey Daimou, what exactly is it that you want your audience to take away from this song?

Is the video aimed at holding up a mirror to our diminishing originality? Does the video mock our bad ideas or their poor packaging? Or does it reflect the fact that viewers will settle for anything because we live in a world where we are constantly inundated with content. A world where anything that is unfamiliar is frightening.

So what do we do? We stick to the familiar content, killing our creativity in the process.

“You’ve lost the game the minute you turn to look at your opponent”. You may have heard of this sporting adage before.

This can also be applied to social media platforms. We’re all stuck in one room, echoing each other’s sentiments. We’re all comparing the digital facades we’ve created for ourselves. It’s almost like watching a game replay that only shows the goals. It’s not the whole picture.

We know all this to be true, but we continue to source information and ideas from the endless resource that is social media. Will it be pumped with renewed energy or will it continue to dumb us down? Only time will tell.

Till then, I shall get back to my Facebook feed.