By now most netizens have seen the hilarious – and slightly horrific – twerk fail video.  It became a Youtube sensation, garnering over six million views in under a month and being passed around other social media sites with remarkable frequency. Therefore it was surprising when late-night host Jimmy Kimmel revealed on his show that he had staged the video with the help of a trained stuntwoman, and had released the video onto the internet, hoping it would reach viral status (the entire Kimmel reveal can be found here). Not surprisingly, given its content, it succeeded.

Kimmel’s manipulation of Youtube as a social medium brings up a crucial question about what we consider ‘real’ on the internet. As many of my friends vented their frustration (my personal favorite is my friend who told me he “felt betrayed”), I couldn’t help but think that there was nothing terribly special about a staged viral video. The medium Youtube – and for that matter any other site where users post similar content – is by its nature fabricated. It does not show uncensored events as they happen. It shows what the users choose to upload. The element of user choice is an important one when talking about social media, because choice determines online identity. In the case of viral videos, often the widespread nature of the video was unintentional, but it still represents a choice to share that content in the first place.

With the speed of the internet, information can become ‘fact’ incredibly quickly. I remember spending half an hour a few years ago thinking that Morgan Freeman had died because of a number of posts on Facebook. When it turned out to be fallacious I admit I felt some sense of betrayal. But that’s part of the beauty of videos as a medium. Whereas on sites like Facebook and Twitter we expect some adherence to the truth (within reasonable limits), a video contains content elements chosen specifically to represent something in a certain way. Manipulation is part of the creation. How a ‘filmmaker’ manipulates the medium is really up to their artistic license. Fact is not the primary purpose of such videos. Therefore, when Jimmy Kimmel tells us he faked the whole thing, we shouldn’t say he betrayed us. We should just keep laughing because really, the only thing more funny than a twerk nearly ending in self-immolation is Jimmy Kimmel running out in a pink V-neck to put out the fire.

-epn