NEWS: Newlyweds and Their (Annoying) 15 Minutes of Fame

CULTURE: Newlyweds and Their (Annoying) 15 Minutes of Fame

I know you're going to say, "SleepyLady, this story is relevant why?" But I'm turning the question around on you. Please answer this for me. Why is America fascinated by (and rooting for) John and Michelle Brubaker, the couple who danced to "Baby Got Back" at their wedding?



The newlywed Brubakers have appeared on "The Today Show" and "The Ellen Degeneres Show". Strangely, the Brubaker's are becoming media darlings and receiving rave reviews each and every time they reenact the "funny" moment from their wedding on television.

My friend got married last year. The bride and groom chose to play "Let's Get it Started" by The Black Eyed Peas as the music to walk into the reception too. It was silly. It was toe-tapping. It alerted us all to the fact that the bar was open. That's it. No one thought it was so special that it must be YouTubed or televised. I can't imagine a scenario where my friend gets a call from a "Today Show" producer the next day saying, "We heard about how you were introduced at your wedding…."

Let me get back to the Brubakers. First of all, they don't really dance that well. "Baby Got Back" is an awesome song but it's sort of awkward and embarrassing watching white people dance to it. My point isn’t to sit here and criticize two crazy kids who were just trying to spice up a boring and predictable tradition. I'm just so surprised that it's such a popular human interest story. I was shocked that all of the YouTube comments for this video were mostly positive. Everybody thought it was just so hilarious.

I wish anyone well who decides to get married and these two seem like they have a good time together. But if I found out that the Brubakers were moving in next door to me, this video would be all I need as proof that I probably don't want to have them over for dinner.

This couple just seems like the personification of "the funny guy" at the office who always repeats Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" monologues around the office or the funny girl who has a bumper sticker in her cubicle that says, "Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings." Why aren't people more annoyed with them as a whole? I think the embracing of this mediocre dance causes me to be more disappointed in America than the re-election of George W. Bush.

However, there is still hope. I've read on certain message boards that this couple blatantly stole this number from an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" even though Michelle Brubaker claims that she made up the dance herself. Once we impeach Bush and Cheney and get to the bottom of the Valerie Plame scandal, we can expose the Brubakers for the frauds that they really are.

p.s. My vote goes to this couple. Their dancing sucks but at least they admit they stole their wedding dance idea from "Everybody Loves Raymond" and they have pyrotechnics!

I hope the groom got a chance to find that juicy double.

Agree'd. I saw a few of my coworkers watching this the other day. I thought it was just another youtube video. I can't believe it went to the Today Show. What is America doing? Anyone can get 15 minutes apparently.

"Born Into This" by Bukowski should be required viewing before this banality. Also, it helps to explain why we see garbage like this.

I think the reason people turn to stories like these are simply due to the fact that they are starved for real entertainment.

99.9% of TV is total crap.

Almost all the movies that come out these days are remakes (or equally uninspired drivel).

And half the population wouldn't know great music if it came up and kicked them in their metaphoric ass.

Don't get me wrong... I like the occasional funny video as well. But the shit that passes itself off for entertainment these days is just so poor it makes me fear for the future of humanity. Seriously. If this is all the creativity we can muster we're fucking doomed! One step away from becoming mindless drones. How dull a life do you have to lead in order to find "Reality TV" entertaining? How artistically inept do you have to be to produce reality TV?

There's a great line from Macbeth:

It is the perfect description of modern media. Just a lot of noise with no meaning or signifigance. (Please note: Macbeth was a tragedy).

Bring back REAL artists. Real entertainers. And do it before this new wave of "do it yourself" media takes over everything and leaves us trapped in a world where everyone has a voice, but no one has anything interesting to say.

When you're getting high and mighty about the dumbing down of culture, it might help your case if you could get the quote right.

". . .sound and fury. . ."

This is nothing new, unfortunately. Brides and grooms have been finding new and "improved" ways to attention whore for a good amount of time. Case in point - Wedding Thriller, anyone?

*feels like an ass*

Teach me to rely on memory....

I'll go stand in the corner now.

Yup, that was the first one I saw, and they got dragged all over daytime TV and then "And finally..." stories on local news from what the youtube leads me to believe. And then there's these guys, who can also dance surprisingly well (and dude has totally scored a hottie out of his league; +10 XP!):



And then these guys who also pulled something cool out of the bag:



Mmmmmmm, Afrika Bambaataa.

I don't get why the Baby Got Back video, in which they've obviously used the least imagination and spent the least time practising, is the one getting the most exposure.

Also, I'm probably spending way too much time watching other people's wedding videos, huh?

EvanX and I did introductions with KaBoom KaBoom by Marilyn Manson playing.
That was much more fun.
Of course my processional was also The Jesus and Mary Chain so yeah.

they had fun. people enjoyed watching it. way too cynical.

hey its ok. this is the happiest time in their lives. let them be. knowing the american divorce rate is quite high, i'm guessing 3 years at most. .

I'm pretty sure there's a deep level of irony to people who keep heavy handed, morose journals on a soft core porn website and elevate the "local" talent to superstar status mocking other people's Internet foibles.

I don't understand why we're surprised by this. We are at a cultural point where American's fear free-thinking. Other countries have gone through this too. Individual liberties are sacrificed for a perceived 'common good.' Artists, educators and philosophers are exiled or murdered. The economy fails to climate shifts, a natural disaster or world war and a new pecking order is established.

It has already started. Look at attacks on teachers. Heather Weathers, Tamara Hoover, Stephen Murmer and Jason Brenner to name a few, were fired for artistic expression done away from their schools. No one is outraged. Quiet settlements are made and the stories are swept away.

Lack of quaility entertainment is something we'll have to get used to. Move along folks--Nothing to worry about, it's just the natural order of things.

These people are my favorite. They kick way more ass then those chumps..

I definitely agree with what you say about it just being a rip-off of Everybody Loves Raymond. When somebody forwarded me the link, it had the subject line "Best wedding dance ever." When I started watching it, I was thinking maybe the guy gets an erection he can't hide or something. When they started doing their dance, I didn't find it entertaining. I knew I had seen the same thing on Raymond, so this was nothing special and not the Best Wedding Dance Ever.

I didn't know they were appearing on talk shows because of it.

The best wedding dance ever was my friend Aaron's wedding dance because they only danced until the pictures were taken. Whole dance was over in less than 30 seconds.

I think it's cute what they did, but there's obviously a lot of other couples doing the same thing, if not better.

This is what happens when people meet at Sorority/Fraternity parties.

You know there's a war on?

My thoughts exactly.

Yeah, I think the imagination from the entertainment communtiy dried up somewhere in the 80's.

Although I might be cynical my beef is not with the couple. I think I clearly stated that.
"My point isn't to sit here and criticize two crazy kids who were just trying to spice up a boring and predictable tradition. I'm just so surprised that it's such a popular human interest story. "

Also, I know there is a war on....if that question was directed to me. But if you'll notice I'm not a political editor on the site, so you'll have to get commentary and information about the war other than in my articles.

Christ, way to sound as old and lame as possible. So, the generation when you were a kid was the last good one? What a coincidence, every dumbass thinks that!

You're wrong, dude; Shakespeare got the phrase from that great novel - you know, The Light and the Sound by Faulkner.