• Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    picture of a similar box with liquor inside it

    Wikipedia’s description: A duplicate box Biddle ordered online following his investigation, complete with actual spirits.

    that’s a great pun, Wikipedia should have more humorous asides on non-serious subjects, like the old description of the song “baby got back” that they unfortunately got rid of.

    • ClathrateG [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      In the opening verse, Sir Mix-A-Lot professes his affinity for large buttocks and his inability to conceal this fact from others. He goes on to describe other desirable physical attributes such as a trim waistline, tight fitting garments, and unblemished skin. Though the song does not contain a distinct narrative, the author does visit upon recurrent themes such as, female body image as depicted in media, male attitudes towards dating and relationships, and the author’s own sexual prowess.

      In later verses he expresses his exasperation with the entertainment industry’s portrayal of the ideal female form. He soundly rejects the notion promulgated by fashion magazines that smaller diminutive buttocks are more desirable. His critique of the women that appeared in contemporary music videos was particularly scathing, likening their appearance to those of prostitutes. To further illustrate his point, he stipulates the purported ideal proportions of 36-24-36 (measuring the bust, waist, and hip diameter respectively) would only be pleasing on women with a standing height no greater than 63 inches.

      Mix-A-Lot also briefly touches upon the rolls that ethnicity, nutrition, and physical fitness play in determining the shape and size of the female buttocks. He recommends that any exercises performed should be limited to the abdominal area. He cautions against a fitness routine strenuous enough to diminish the heft of the gluteal muscles. Though he offers no broad dietary guidelines, Mix-A-Lot contends that the dish “red beans and rice” is an important food staple for maintaining a healthy buttocks.

      Various lyrics address the fact that some men find no intrinsic value in large buttocks and consequently feign disinterest. Mix-A-Lot makes clear that he would eagerly strike up relations with any woman overlooked or discarded by such men. The remainder of the narrative is fleshed out with the author’s various attempts to entice women into enjoying a ride in his luxury automobile, presumably in exchange for sexual favors.

      It’s an accurate description, wiki fascists spoil our fun

      • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        I remember not long ago seeing a video essentially doing this same bit but for Love Sosa; it was a vertical short form video of this skinny blonde white lady reading books in various spliced shots, voicing over with a really long and overintellectualized analysis of the lyrics. It stuck out to me that someone commented that it was distasteful as a genre of joke because it boils down to “this art that Black people made is stupid, wouldn’t it be funny if we treated it like it isn’t?” but then I thought about it for a bit and I think that’s overtly uncharitable. Why can’t it just be treated as art that is worth dissecting with that level of granularity? Sure, there’s a humorous element to doing that because of how different the tone of the analysis is from the piece itself, but that doesn’t mean it’s a derisive or denigrating engagement. If irony can help break the barrier of taking something seriously, why not? I mean, not that there hasn’t been lots of scholarship on hip hop semiotics and its political implications, but you have to find a way to communicate that info to the masses.

        Maybe it’s my pathological overthinking to go through about 3 steps of dialectical synthesis just from seeing a short video. Apologies for shadowboxing under your comment, I don’t mean this to be an argument or anything I’m just recollecting.