Insane Clown Posse and Celine Dion on Miracles

by Art Fag City on April 26, 2010 · 6 comments Newswire

“Fucking Magnets, How do they work?” Also: screw science. The former is a direct quote from the song Miracles [above], by clown rappers, Insane Clown Posse, the latter is simply paraphrasing. Not surprisingly the song has become such an Internet sensation, The New York Times artsbeat blog has a nearly 3,000 word Oral History of Insane Clown Posse Parodies on their front page today.

It’s a little much to slog through if you aren’t either already familiar with the phenomenon — follow the video links and visit Know Your Meme or the commentary will be especially boring — but otherwise it’s worth the time. In particular, the discussion on Miracles is pretty choice:

Violent J: They're not all miracles, typically. I mean, a rainbow can be explained. But who doesn't say, “Wow, look at the rainbow?”

Shaggy 2 Dope: If Celine Dion would have come out with that song, people would have been, like, “Oh, that's a beautiful song.” But because it's coming out of our mouths, all of a sudden, we're retards.

And later continuing along the same lines,

Violent J: I know the stuff isn't really miracles. I think we might have misused the word miracle. I think that might mean something that has happened with no explanation. These things we mentioned in the song, they can all be explained. But what we're doing is appreciating them. Even the infamous line, “Magnets, how do they work?” I mean, yeah, we know how magnets work. But they're still incredible. You can push something across the table without touching it. And as a kid, I found that fascinating. I still find that fascinating.

Shaggy 2 Dope: Come on, a rock that pulls metal towards it or pushes it away? Yeah, it has to do with the magnetic polar caps and [stuff]. But for real? Come on, man. You're just holding a U-shaped thing that pushes metal away or attracts metal or something. The North and South Pole makes a rock magnetic, and if you touch a piece of metal with it, that becomes magnetic? That's crazy.

Violent J: I grew up in Detroit. We don't have pelicans on every corner. We don't have giraffes walking down the street. Anybody ever stood next to a giraffe, tell me that's not a miracle? This thing that's yellow and polka-dotted, spotted, it has a dinosaur neck? If you look at a giraffe and think, “Well, they've been here for millions of years, no big deal,” that's your loss, man. I feel bad for anybody that's numb to all that.

Shaggy 2 Dope: At the Detroit Zoo now, you can feed the giraffes. Last week, I took my kids and a friend to the zoo, and it wasn't open. I was like, man, I want to feed a giraffe. Getting that close to some crazy-looking animal that only lives in Africa and Detroit? It's not every day you just get to marinate with a giraffe, man.

Naturally Metafilter has some amusing commentary, though I took special pleasure this bit of enjoyable snark directed towards Canada’s national shame:

If Celine Dion would have come out with [‘Miracles’], peopleCeline Dion fans would have been, like, “Oh, that's a beautiful song.”

Celine Dion fans calling magnetism a miracle would not be newsworthy.
posted by DU at 10:45 AM on April 26 [1 favorite]

Shaggy 2 Dope and commentor DU are clearly not aware of Dion’s 2004 video collaboration with baby photographer Ann Geddes titled “miracles“. The segment where you can see a small child imprinted under Dion’s dress? Totally CREEPY.

{ 6 comments }

Emily April 27, 2010 at 6:11 pm: That Celine Dion video is the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in a long time. Are those babies drugged? Please tell me they are just dolls. Even then it’s too creepy for words.

For the anti-Geddes, check out Diana Thorneycroft: http://www.dianathorneycroft.com/collection-doll-mouth.php
Emily April 27, 2010 at 2:11 pm: That Celine Dion video is the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in a long time. Are those babies drugged? Please tell me they are just dolls. Even then it’s too creepy for words.

For the anti-Geddes, check out Diana Thorneycroft: http://www.dianathorneycroft.com/collection-doll-mouth.php
Mead McLean April 27, 2010 at 6:37 pm: I first encountered this ICP video about a month ago, and several things struck me.

Part of what science geeks and scientists have is a wonderment at the world, and ICP’s song affirms this wonderment while denying science as the answer. It’s like they are simultaneously promoting and bashing science. (Credit @LeeBillings of Seed Magazine for this idea.)

There’s also a heavy Christian component of it, and not just because it’s about “miracles”. The desire and need to stop at the level of experience without the level of analytical thinking comes across as a faith-type thing. Some other levels are the existence of the invisible, the fact that they’re both wearing white, and the popular cult of the Juggalo with its following of displaced middle-American youth. Of course it’s also a pop-sellout that goes against everything that they’ve ever done (which is only an assumption because I’ve only listened to a few of their songs here and there). The strongest element that points to the pseudo-Christian element is the ascension of the observatory tower into the light followed by its launch into space and ending in its envelopment in the sun, all done with them smiling at the camera.

Back on the earthly, middle-American level, they come across as archetypes of the skinny redneck/fat redneck combo that you see so often down here in the south. Note that in the video, the close-up shots are balanced with far-off and full-body shots that emphasize their forms. Also note that the Celine Dion video is made up of close-up or half-body shots. The loss of individual identity and creation of a collective via face paint create a space where others can give up some individuality for a sense of belonging.

I think my favorite level of “Miracles” is that the video itself hinges on the existence of technologies that require hundreds of specialists for their use and development (e.g. green-screen, VFX, computers themselves, internet, etc., etc.). It’s the perfect situational irony to parallel the ironies of the song.

And “magic everywhere in this bitch” is the best line ever.
Mead McLean April 27, 2010 at 2:37 pm: I first encountered this ICP video about a month ago, and several things struck me.

Part of what science geeks and scientists have is a wonderment at the world, and ICP’s song affirms this wonderment while denying science as the answer. It’s like they are simultaneously promoting and bashing science. (Credit @LeeBillings of Seed Magazine for this idea.)

There’s also a heavy Christian component of it, and not just because it’s about “miracles”. The desire and need to stop at the level of experience without the level of analytical thinking comes across as a faith-type thing. Some other levels are the existence of the invisible, the fact that they’re both wearing white, and the popular cult of the Juggalo with its following of displaced middle-American youth. Of course it’s also a pop-sellout that goes against everything that they’ve ever done (which is only an assumption because I’ve only listened to a few of their songs here and there). The strongest element that points to the pseudo-Christian element is the ascension of the observatory tower into the light followed by its launch into space and ending in its envelopment in the sun, all done with them smiling at the camera.

Back on the earthly, middle-American level, they come across as archetypes of the skinny redneck/fat redneck combo that you see so often down here in the south. Note that in the video, the close-up shots are balanced with far-off and full-body shots that emphasize their forms. Also note that the Celine Dion video is made up of close-up or half-body shots. The loss of individual identity and creation of a collective via face paint create a space where others can give up some individuality for a sense of belonging.

I think my favorite level of “Miracles” is that the video itself hinges on the existence of technologies that require hundreds of specialists for their use and development (e.g. green-screen, VFX, computers themselves, internet, etc., etc.). It’s the perfect situational irony to parallel the ironies of the song.

And “magic everywhere in this bitch” is the best line ever.
FranSix April 27, 2010 at 10:44 pm: Insane Clown Posse – born again, MFs!!
FranSix April 27, 2010 at 6:44 pm: Insane Clown Posse – born again, MFs!!