I tried really hard to avoid watching Rebecca Black’s music video “Friday” but somewhere around Twitter/Facebook status number 75 or so, I finally gave in and watched it. I am not going to lie–I laughed … alot.

The video was posted on Youtube about a month ago and has since received 87,944,639 hits, 1,760,908 comments, and countless parodies, dubs, and remixes–many of which have also procured a staggering number of hits. Late night comedian Jimmy Fallon jumped on this phenomenon in an effort to raise money for struggling schools by challenging Stephen Colbert to come to his show and sing “Friday” if Fallon could raise $26,000 for Donors Choose. That goal was reached in less than 36 hours! There are certainly a number of lessons to be learned here, not the least of which is the astounding popularity of viral videos, but I just want to ask a simple question on the ethics of charity. Does the goal of charity justify mocking someone on national TV? Do the ends justify the means in this instance?

Don’t get me wrong, “Friday” is awful and I honestly don’t know how anyone could watch it without snickering at least a little. If you claim to have watched it straight-faced, you are probably either lying or are far more sanctified than I am.  That said, I do think there comes a point where a joke needs to be dropped. We do this with our friends–we know how to tease them and most of the time we do this as an expression of friendship. I try not to tease people I don’t know that well, but teasing between good friends can be fun and even healthy. When done the right way, it can even be a sign that we have become good friends.  We all know, however, when we cross a line and a joke clearly went too far. We feel it in our friend’s response–they tense up or give a fake laugh or respond sharply.  In that moment, if we care about our friend, we know its time to drop the joke and perhaps apologize.

I am well aware that Colbert’s performance of “Friday” is a much more public example of mockery than what I am describing. But does there not come a point when mockery, even from a public standpoint, goes to far? About the time the video had gotten roughly 35 million hits, Black appeared on Late Night with Jay Leno where she was actually quite charming and Leno was kind.  She seemed like a normal 13 year old and she seemed to be taking the whole ordeal pretty well. She said the proceeds of her song were going to be donated to Tsunami victims in Japan and to her school. She even agreed to perform part of her song live. It seemed as if Black had buried the hatchet and was ready to move on. It would be nice if the public would follow suit. However, right at the moment “Friday” seemed to be wanning in popularity, Fallon and Colbert stepped in.

We know what the Bible says about our speech–“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Certainly this principle was abused on the comment thread of Black’s Youtube video (don’t go there unless you are in desperate need of evidence of human depravity). But did Colbert and company cross a line by reinvigorating a joke that was on the cusp of dying?

Is it ok to mock someone for a good cause? You might say that Colbert and Fallon’s tribute is mild in comparison to the average Youtube parody but does their celebrity not exacerbate the force of the joke? It’s clear to me, at least on a personal level that there comes a time when our jokes are no longer imparting grace but instead are damaging the hearer. I think the end rarely justifies the means.

What do you think about this? Do the ends justify the means? After all lot of money was raised for a noble charity and even more money is being raised through Colbert’s cover of the song. Does that justify the potential damage that was done by further mockery? Does the public nature of Black’s video change what is appropriate? Perhaps I am missing something or being too sensitive.  What do you think? I think its important that we not elevate the needs of many over our responsibility to decency but I am willing to be proven wrong.

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Drew Dixon

Drew Dixon is editor in chief of Game Church. He also writes about videogames for Paste Magazine, Relevant Magazine, Bit Creature, and Think Christian. He hosts the Christ and Pop Culture podcast The Digest with Tyler Burns.
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6 Comments

  1. I think what you’re asking here is if there is an ‘absolute moral’ answer in regards to speech. ‘Absolute morality’ only comes from actions that aid both ourselves and all others. We can’t just put ourselves as more worthy than other parties. If one person’s gain comes at a cost to another, then there is no absolute morality to be found.

    Decency is a social convention, and may or may not include ideas that are ‘absolutely moral’. We should be aware of the difference between ‘social conventions’ and ‘absolute morality’ if we’re going to apply our ‘social conventions’ to what is ‘absolutely moral’ in outside social groups. We should be aware that our ‘social conventions’ may not be more worthy than the ‘social conventions’ of others, and that by forcing our views we restrict the freedoms of others to practice their own views.

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  2. I don’t really think the fun of the Colbert cover comes at Black’s expense, especially since she didn’t write the song herself. I think we can agree that the majority of the awful about the original video is not Rebecca. She’s not a great singer, but the humor is in the inane lyrics and the weird production, neither of which was her responsibility. Similarly, I think the fun of the cover is in the huge production and enthusiasm around such a blatanly so-bad-its-good song. I see where you’re coming from, and Rebecca might be tired of the publicity, but I think in some ways the Colbert incident is moving the focus off of her and just having fun with it. I think it’s more like an inside joke among friends that starts off about one person’s less-than-perfect moment and becomes just a joke, detached from the person.
    There is no excuse for the youtube comments, but I don’t think the Colbert/Fallon publicity made a difference on that either way.

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  3. @Bethany – that is a fair comment. And obviously Colbert/Fallon are not responsible for the horrifying comments that ended up on that meta. Your comment caused me to think about how hard it is to know when we have crossed a line when things are so public like this video. Its really hard to know–as I reflect on what I have written here, I will admit its difficult to pinpoint whether this song was mocking Black or the song itself (which, as you intimate and I agree, would be fine).

    Sadly I think the average person hears a song and assumes that its written by the person singing it–spend a minute reading those nasty comments and you see that clearly most of those folks think she did. Perhaps the late night crowd is a bit more savvy than that, but Fallon/Colbert gave a boost to interest in this whole ordeal.

    Anyway, thanks for the comment, it certainly has made me think.

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  4. I watched 3 seconds of that video and it was more than enough. Seriously. My wife watched the whole thing at least twice. I told her the difference between her and I (and any viral video) is like a restaurant. I eat something bad and say, “Boy is that awful, I’m not eating here again.” Others take a bite of something and say, “Boy is that awful, here try it.” So from the outset, I understand I am not like the majority of our culture who loves and shares these mini events, loving the hating of it, and then moving on to the next event like a fad. I am not saying there is a right and a wrong or better and worse, but I simply have to preface my comment with this to give some foundation to where I come from and how I perceive things.

    There is an appropriate way to make fun of something or somebody, and even circumstances. I can see making fun of Friday, and in fact laughed hysterically when my wife commented that she ripped off Sesame Street with the Friday not Saturday, Front seat or Back seat. But I personally don’t want to ride that further than it needs to. I think I should build people up with my words, not tear them down. Sure, there is good fun and even a charity event making fun of the song would be fine in my mind if it received the singers blessing (kind of like how Weird Al wouldn’t make a parody without asking or being asked first). I didn’t see the Fallon/Colbert event so I can’t condone or condemn it, but people said it was funny and I can see it being funny and also appropriate. I can also imagine it being funny and inappropriate as well though.

    But the line that gets crossed in my mind is when a culture embraces the destruction of a person. A gazillion people have united together to tear this song and young girl apart for their own amusement. Sure it is awful. Horrible! I watched the snippet I saw and said I see nothing good in this except that her dad must love her a whole lot to blow money to make his little girls dream come true…at least for 15 minutes. And yes, my own statement was indeed mocking it in my overly sarcastic form. Yet I don’t chime in, or at least attempt to restrain from chiming in, when the mob starts to form with pitch forks and torches.

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