Mall rat philosophy in Charlie White's cartoon OMG BFF LOL

Two mall-shopping girls discuss the meaning of life in Charlie White’s cartoon OMG BFF LOL. More here and here.

[#1 posted by jonathan_v , March 19, 2009 4:39 PM]

I saw this at the Volta show a few weeks back

http://ny.voltashow.com/5067.html

[#2 posted by hokano , March 19, 2009 4:56 PM]

Thank you. That made me feel much better about the impending collapse.

[#3 posted by franko , March 19, 2009 4:58 PM]

OMG, LOLWUT?

[#4 posted by starcadia , March 19, 2009 5:08 PM]

This is sadly a highly accurate representation of 95% of American girls/women under the age of 40. I'm so, like, tired of them all, like, speaking in, like, that voice.

[#5 posted by desp , March 19, 2009 5:18 PM]

KILL IT WITH FIRE

[#6 posted by zuzu , March 19, 2009 5:34 PM]

Kinda accurate but kinda annoyingly moralizing, just like Captain Planet.

This is sadly a highly accurate representation of 95% of American girls/women under the age of 40.

Do you by any chance live in southern California? 95% seems unlikely for the whole of the United States.

(Though I am kinda sad about how many girls respond with "shoes" when I ask them what gets them excited in their lives. But at least that's probably more honest than the Gen Y girls who parrot some vapid "social justice" response to the same question.)

Thank you. That made me feel much better about the impending collapse.

I feel that way about Shaun of the Dead, where a real crisis will separate the wankers from the people with basic problem solving skills.

That doesn't mean any hubris about rising to become some great leader or anything. Just that you're even moderately competent at assessment and strategy.

[#7 posted by ral8158 , March 19, 2009 5:36 PM]

haha perfect. My coworkers all love this cartoon.

and we work in fashion design. so we're basically employed by those girls. and we are those girls.

[#8 posted by Anonymous , March 19, 2009 5:37 PM]

Philosophy was the only standout part of this. The satire and parody that made up the rest has been a staple of the mainstream for years now. Just leave the preps alone already, we beat them to death, then started on the emos, and I think I probably got bored of them at least a year ago as well.

[#9 posted by Boeotian , March 19, 2009 5:42 PM]

"OMG, Tara, that is so..." Fucked up

I'd like to see that.

[#10 posted by thequickbrownfox , March 19, 2009 5:44 PM]

They're doing their own version of The Arcades Project, like whatever.

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BENARC.html

[#11 posted by Marcelo , March 19, 2009 5:55 PM]

"Do you by any chance live in southern California?"

Hey now, let's not accuse someone of generalizing and then generalize some more.

(socal represent)

[#12 posted by Antinous / Moderator , March 19, 2009 6:20 PM]

We scorn them because fanboy culture is so obviously superior.

[#13 posted by Takuan , March 19, 2009 6:22 PM]

like listening to lunching lawyers talk about the next boat/golf membership/cottage.

[#14 posted by dculberson , March 19, 2009 6:30 PM]

Or like gearheads talking about pushrod versus overhead cam engines... or front versus rear wheel drive. (recognizing the frivolity of my own hobbies)

[#15 posted by zuzu , March 19, 2009 7:01 PM]

More here and here.

Woah, those other two are way way better. Like the valley girl equivalent of the speechless Aeon Flux shorts that aired on Liquid Television.

[#16 posted by Smoakes , March 19, 2009 7:33 PM]

I don't know. A guy making fun of how brainless (these) girls are kind of makes me uncomfortable. And also feels a lot like football fans laughing at SF/F geeks.

[#17 posted by oscar , March 19, 2009 7:43 PM]

Wait - the same Charlie White that did those tableaus with that profoundly creepy Joshua puppet? Wow. Actually, that makes perfect sense the more I think about it.

I'd be surprised if anyone doesn't know about Joshua, but if you don't here's a link:
http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/features/2002/june/white/

[#18 posted by t3hmadhatter , March 19, 2009 8:02 PM]

SMOAKES: And also feels a lot like football fans laughing at SF/F geeks.

Except that geeks are much smarter, and more likely to be successful. What your saying is a larger force making fun of a smaller one. We are a smaller force attacking a much, much, larger one.

[#19 posted by Lauren O , March 19, 2009 8:06 PM]

This is sadly a highly accurate representation of 95% of American girls/women under the age of 40.

Spoken like someone who doesn't know very many girls/women under the age of 40.

Not that I'm implying you live in your mom's basement and can't get laid, but...actually, yes. That's exactly what I'm implying.

[#20 posted by Daemon , March 19, 2009 8:12 PM]

Actually, "those girls" are almost the entire population, regardless of age and gender. Make the mall a metaphor for life, and it's a perfect fit.

For example, the first part explains the recent economic implosion.

[#21 posted by Antinous / Moderator , March 19, 2009 9:13 PM]

Except that geeks are much smarter, and more likely to be successful.

And football fans are more likely than geeks to get to breed with females of their own species, right? As long as we're making absurd generalizations.

[#22 posted by devophill , March 19, 2009 9:14 PM]

Shopping is a feeling.

[#23 posted by eustace , March 19, 2009 9:29 PM]

That was, like, so Romy & Michelle. Tres nineties.

[#24 posted by eustace , March 19, 2009 10:31 PM]

...which I love about it, in case the tone of voice didn't come through...

[#25 posted by Kieran O'Neill , March 19, 2009 11:39 PM]

Lol at the other two. Rated "V" for implied bulimia?

[#26 posted by Kieran O'Neill , March 19, 2009 11:51 PM]

This vid, also by Charlie White, is pretty good, too.

[#27 posted by Frank W , March 20, 2009 1:03 AM]

So much piety! You have to watch porn to hear the name of God invoked more often.

[#28 posted by Takuan , March 20, 2009 1:27 AM]

very talented that White. Thanks Kieran. Funny how they never show the dark side of them at the age and time. Starts out all flowers and poetic on the hillsides and then you find yourself tearing through the gorse pell mell, shredded to ribbons with "Eloi! Eloi!" and bloody panpipes in the air.

[#29 posted by Max Lieberman , March 20, 2009 1:41 AM]

That was a lot like the fashion club from Daria.

[#30 posted by Trevour , March 20, 2009 2:07 AM]

These were animated pretty well, Flash-wise. I like the Jem-esque colors.

[#31 posted by 13strong , March 20, 2009 5:34 AM]

I found that really dull and unfunny, FWIW.

My rating:

MEH

[#32 posted by ral8158 , March 20, 2009 5:57 AM]

I found it more of a celebration of mall girls than an attack. I mean, holy crap, the dialogue about wax paper is just amazing.

T3hMadHatter: Has it occurred to you that being picked on in high school doesn't actually reflect on your intelligence or how good of a person you are?

[#33 posted by Anonymous , March 20, 2009 7:21 AM]

"I don't know. A guy making fun of how brainless (these) girls are kind of makes me uncomfortable"

Agreed. Yeah, people (of all genders) like this do exist... but I'm really sick of this stereotype. Mostly because of idiots who see things like this and say, "This is sadly a highly accurate representation of 95% of American girls/women under the age of 40."

Yeah... no. Not even close. Did you know that 95% of American boys/men under the age of 40 are obsessed with football and drinking? What? You mean that the dominant cultural stereotype of a gender doesn't accurately represent the vast majority of a population? Man, like, that would like, require thinking. Let's go shopping.

[#34 posted by TroofSeeker , March 20, 2009 7:33 AM]

When foreign explorers excavate our desolate planet thousands of years from now, I hope they find this video. It strikes me as a very accurate depiction of a thick slice of Americana.

[#35 posted by JJR1971 , March 20, 2009 8:24 AM]

Commodity fetishism, reflection on the nature of desire and the wages of excess.

Vapid characters, yes, but far from hopeless.

--Sorry, been reading lots of Neil Postman lately.

[#36 posted by blueelm , March 20, 2009 11:30 AM]

Our female chidren are what we make them.

I found this nauseating and a trite pile of cliche of the younger members of my generation and gender, but who am I to disagree with what other people want to say about me? I'm sure enough glib characterizations of women will lead us out of this recession and pave the way to brigher futures!

[#37 posted by CastanhasDoPara , March 20, 2009 2:51 PM]

Known too many girls (and dudes)like this to totally discount the accuracy of this commentary. I would like to think that most people are not this vapid but unfortunately I know better, and it's not just the US. The world needs to see things like this as a wake up call to reality. Our rampant and thoughtless consumerism as a whole is what is on trial here. And the verdict is that we all need to stop being so retarded and start looking to the future. Education is a good start, and common sense is most likely what should be taught (if such a thing can be done). So get it together people and stop acting like morons.

[#38 posted by FrancescaVeitch , March 20, 2009 5:05 PM]

#16 - I agree. I feel really uncomfortable with the entire skit.

Point # 1, almost too obvious to bear typing - Sure, we all knew some of those girls in high school, but they were just kids trying to fit in like the rest of us. This doesn't even kind of represent women as a whole, teenage girls as a whole, anyone as a whole.

Point # 2 - I for one know that I'm not like that. As a 20-year-old female who primarily hangs out with (shockingly) other 20-year-old females, I can also vouch for a lot of my friends. We shop, mostly at vintage and thrift stores. We text, with full sentences and proper punctuation. We eat cookies as well, sometimes in wax paper and sometimes without. I haven't really compiled any data on that last point.

Point # 3 - Young women born in the late eighties to early nineties did not: invent the cell phone, texting, or acronyms such as LOL, we did not popularize hanging out in shopping malls (in fact, I'd say there's been a sharp decline in the number of Mall Rats since Gen X's teenage years), and we most certainly didn't cause the economic crisis.

You gave us this technology, this suburban existence, and these values and now you mock us for the (supposed) results? Shove it!

[#39 posted by ral8158 , March 20, 2009 5:34 PM]

#38: It's unfortunate that you read it as a mockery, but I don't understand why you think White is using these characters to represent womankind as a whole. I don't really understand how you think the whole wax paper exchange was supposed to mean something about eating cookies with waxed paper being a stupid thing to do? Maybe I'm reading into your comment too deeply (I know I'm getting way too deep on this entire thread)
You're putting way more words in White's mouth than he's saying. Note that the animation was part of an art project, and not some kind of comedy show. It is humorous, but only because it so carefully deconstructs the entire idea of teenage girls from a documentary-esque viewpoint. Watch the other two videos, which are part of the whole project, and it makes much more sense. (It seems from how they're cut that they are supposed to happen chronologically before the two girls meet up at the mall)

[#40 posted by LOSERKID , March 20, 2009 8:37 PM]

FTW i think i just lost 10 IQ point