Ben Folds Chatroulette Piano Ode to Merton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfamTmY5REw

by MikeCapone • 16 years ago

219 59 16 years ago

gkefalas• 16 years ago

His old band, Ben Folds Five, also were an early adopter of cybercasting some of their concerts back 'round the turn of the millennium or so. I can see why Bam's where he is in this video-I would probably crap myself as well if this is what I was greeted with while using Chatroulette...

brandnewlow• 16 years ago

Over on Reddit it was pointed out that "Bam" was probably a masturbator who was too chicken to do it in front of 2000 people.

kareemm• 16 years ago

This makes me appreciate how awesome Ben Folds is.

Specstacular• 16 years ago

I've seen Folds live about 10 times over the past decade. He's always had crazy improv skills. It's great to see him getting coverage and recognition of this beyond his rabid but small fan-base...

jeromec• 16 years ago

I admit to not knowing who Ben Folds was until a few years ago when I stumbled onto an entertaining site called improveverywhere.com which did a prank imitating him, which of course somehow drew the attention of the real Ben Folds, and the prank was scaled up to include him... http://improveverywhere.com/2006/11/19/ben-folds-fake/

MikeCapone4• 16 years ago

For the original Chatroulette piano improv video by Metron, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60

mawhidby• 16 years ago

When I first saw the Ben Folds video, I thought it confirmed my belief that Merton is Ben Folds, but after thinking about the title "An Ode to Merton", I'm confused. Are Merton and Ben Folds different people, or the same?

wfarr• 16 years ago

They are different people.

mcdowall• 16 years ago

I think I prefer the Youtube dumbed down (ie no cocks!) edit of Chatroulette.

gridspy2• 16 years ago

There is only one reason I would log into chat roulette - and that would be to 'chat' with Ben Folds.

andrewljohnson3• 16 years ago

I think I prefer this on Reddit where I first saw it. This is only vaguely topical here.

earcar• 16 years ago

It's interesting how two identical comments are at the top and the bottom at the same time.

boucher• 16 years ago

People downvote duplicate posts all the time to express displeasure (and hopefully to get the author to delete the duplicate).

It's not more significant than that.

andrewljohnson3• 16 years ago

I think I prefer this on Reddit where I first saw it. This is only vaguely topical here.

blhack• 16 years ago

Agreed. I think there has been a mass exodus from reddit in the last few weeks. The quality of content there has gone down, and the quality of content here has slid as well as reddit's users bring their brand of news to the site.

RossM• 16 years ago

Must be Erlang time again.

petercooper9• 16 years ago

Agreed. I think there has been a mass exodus from reddit in the last few weeks.

To where? People don't tend to just quit their social media addictions en masse. I'm asking mostly because I don't want to miss out if there's a new cool site on the block ;-)

As a regular Redditor, I'd say the quality of stuff hitting the front page/the "reddit.com" reddit has been a bit lower these last few weeks, but the more mature individual subreddits have remained pretty good.

gridspy2• 16 years ago

Note that the poster "MikeCapone" has been a HN user for over 750 days - the counterexample to your thesis.

arnorhs• 16 years ago

I whole heartedly agree. If links like this one keep getting to the front page, HN will suffer because of it.

jaxn• 16 years ago

It's the weekend. The front page is often a little more light and off-topic on the weekends.

MikeCapone4• 16 years ago

I posted it here because there has been a lot Chatroulette entries in recent weeks (most of them either about the business/startup side, or from the "let's hack chatroulette" angle). People on HN seem to keep voting for these stories, so there's definitely some interest among this crowd.

Personally, I think this kind of improv mixed with real-time video technology fits HN just fine.

jey• 16 years ago

The chatroulette stuff that's posted here should be posted not because it's "something related to chatroulette", but because it's "something related to hacking/startups".

On the other hand, maybe the high score of this submission indicates that I have a minority opinion.

sheldonwt• 16 years ago

Agreed. It represents a trending technology use in mainstream culture. It's these kinds of little events that can lead to brilliant start up ideas. Let's stop being such pretentious 'hackers'.

Jasber• 16 years ago

If you think content is inappropriate, make sure to flag it.

gojomo• 16 years ago

We're watching the real-time evolution of a new net-mediated interaction style -- randomly-grouped video chats -- that will probably spawn a number of new businesses.

We're seeing people experiment with the medium to create new emblematic characters, and artists with other talents -- Merton/Ben Folds -- use it to find a new challenge/audience. (At the same time their arrival pushes the creative envelope in some ways, it will also moderate the behavior in others -- you might become part of a live show in front of thousands, or a YouTube video viewed by hundreds of thousands! That will police the behavior more than any 'flagging' functionality.)

I find it intensely interesting, with lessons about how technology changes social interactions and creates new collaboration/entertainment opportunities.

krschultz• 16 years ago

Sometimes we get a little different content on the weekends, and thats OK by me.

sh1mmer• 16 years ago

Right. It's not like Hackers have a sense of humour.

While I like HN's mostly tech/startup stories, something that occasionally make me laugh isn't a bad thing. It's just getting the right mix. Reddit is more about that HN which is fine for them. It doesn't we have to be some kind of spartan counterpoint.

scott_s• 16 years ago

Then flag it and move on.

rythie• 16 years ago

This video represents an important milestone showing the evolution of the platform as celebrities adopt it.

I personally want to see more stories that indicate further milestones (probably some funding and a recommendation engine/filter I'd expect)

hunterclarke• 16 years ago

This guy is absolutely genius. The fact that he can think that quickly in front of a crowd shows a lot of skill. No doubt he will become an internet superstar.

zmmmmm• 16 years ago

He's amazing at improv stuff - another example where he just wanders into a studio and creates something out of nothing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KI78874qbU

petercooper9• 16 years ago

He did even better than that. Before his last studio album was released, he went into a studio and recorded an entire fake album in 24 hours then leaked it to the net.

Funny thing is, a few of the "fake" tracks are better than the real ones that ended up on the album, such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKRckEmKZQ#t=0m22s (a user created music video for the fake "Dr Yang" - the real version kinda sucks)

Another prime example was "For Those of Y'all Who Wear Fanny Packs" from the Naked Baby Photos album. It's a totally impromptu 6/7 minute "song" performed totally on the spot by him and his band. No prepared lyrics, music, or anything - they just riff off each other.

whatwhatwhat• 16 years ago

That was excellent!

Ben Folds Chatroulette Piano Ode to Merton

Related Stories