Turning Bad Chinese Food Into Satire Spoof

I find myself bewildered by the public attention that Patrice Wilson's work garners. Starting with Rebecca Black and moving forward, he's had sensation after sensation on YouTube. He has transformed the music video and pop-song landscape by generating millions of views, based on the fact that the work is intentionally cheesy and lacking in artistic integrity.

Despite his distinct formula and trademark, he attracts the same mega-hyped publicity and video views on YouTube and elsewhere. His business model represents everything that critics dislike about the pop music genre, and he exploits young performers who don't have the chops to make it without promotion. He uses music that expresses a debased cultural view and makes a mockery of the girls in his video, who in turn gain a limited amount of fame. His latest smash song "Chinese Food," which features 11-year-old singer Alison Gold, is well on its way to 14 million views. Wilson's follow-up, "ABCDEFG," has generated close to 3 million views, attracting the same type of negative attention.

"Chinese Food" includes a racist performance from Wilson, whose squinted eyes and broken English poke direct fun at the Chinese community. On top of that, he engages in a creepy pillow fight with a young, middle-school-aged girl.

In "ABCDEFG," he leers into a young girl's window, watching her without her knowledge, and then proceeds to lure her into his van. He brings her to a club, where he drugs her upon seeing that she's having a bad time. Things just go downhill from there.

Since gaining attention with the startlingly awful "Friday," Wilson has continually lowered the bar. While it's sad to see his work gain widespread attention for the wrong reasons, it is impressive that his self-aware goofiness reliably generates Internet sensations.

So how does this apply to education?

By using some of the same tricks that Wilson does, educators can take something that has a negative impact on society and transform it into a positive experience for students. Make a music video that mocks certain elements, write a play that uses satire, or do some other type of performance piece that allows kids to express their frustration with cultural stereotypes. Perhaps you and your class could upload your work to YouTube and give Wilson a run for his money.