Srs philosophical question . . .

[promethia_tenk]

Why is it all fanvids are adoring? I mean, let's face it, there are basically three varieties of fanvid: shmoop, awesomeness, and emo. [/generalization]

Where's the critique?  Where's the snark?  Where are the vids that take the hero down a peg or two, or at least slap him about the head a bit?  Where's the mockery?  Where, in other words, is the vid about the Tenth Doctor set to this song:

Little Jackie, "The World Should Revolve Around Me"  (Sorry, embedding disabled)

I mean, look at some of this:

Ain't nothin' gonna get between me and my flow,
Ain't nothin' gonna come between me and my afro . . .

I've had a lot of failed relationships
I don't get involved 'cause I'm not equipped
I believe that the world should revolve around me
I don't see the point of a partnership
It won't be long until I start to trip
Yes sir-ee, the whole world should revolve around me.

There's only one me in the galaxy:
I am an endangered species
This kind of flower don't grow on Earth
Just lettin' ya know, for what it's worth
This kind of knowledge can cause a depression,
So I bide my time with philosophical questions:
Not for nothin', but what came first?
The chicken nugget or the Egg McMuffin?

Tee hee.  And it goes on, in deliciously bouncy, trenchant fashion.

VIVE LA SATIRE!

Or am I just an evil person?

Comments

[alt_universe_me.livejournal.com]

You're not evil! I am not a vidder, or I would offer :) But then again, I like Ten for a lot of reasons, but I wouldn't call myself his fan.

Also, you haven't seen the Handlebars vid for Ten? I think it's definitely a critique, certainly not very nice to him, although I wouldn't say it's bashing either, because it just rings so true:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly-Vhw1fevM

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

That vid is so eerily on-target for Ten. I second this rec.

[promethia_tenk]

Awww, thanks! I'm no vidder, either, or I'd make it myself. And I can't really say that I hate Ten. He's often quite entertaining to watch, but man had issues. Actually, I gained a lot more compassion for him towards the end when he was obviously way off the deep end--I rather liked the end of his run, myself.

I have seen that one! In fact, I'd just remembered it and was watching it when your comment popped up. Yeah, harsh but fair that one. And the always awesome Tenth Doctor: The Musical gets some jibes in in parts.

Little Jackie is just so deliciously bouncy, though.

[stick-poker.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent, excellent.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

There are a LOT of really critical vids out there. Check the past Vividcon playlists for some prime examples.

[promethia_tenk]

Good to know, thanks. I'll admit vids aren't my usual area of fandom, so naturally I'll jump right to the sweeping generalizations . . .

[owlboy]

i made a video of Ten once to Team America's "I'm So Ronery" [so ronery and sadry arooonnee...] which i thought was completely hilarious, but doctorwho wouldn't accept it because it was "racist".

hmph.

[promethia_tenk]

Oh, god, I know that song! That would be hilarious.

Yeah, a little bit racist, but . . . if you're watching Ten instead of Kim Jong-Il?

Yeah, hmph.

[owlboy]

Well here, it's still in my youtube thingy, unlisted. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KG0hkPW1-g

everyones a little bit racist sometiiiimes o/~

[rumpelsnorcack.livejournal.com]

Not that I'd go looking for hate vids or anything *looks shifty* but I have seen a couple 11-era ones (mostly Amy and/or Amy/Rory 'critiquing') so I know they must be out there. My favourite of those was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHcoRTG46RM (I love the random 10 inclusion and bonus Doctor/Rory shipping and the Amy hate rant in the author's comments). I also like this one (don't agree with it, but I think it's a definite critique): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6wkTJn1hPg

[promethia_tenk]

Tsk. Don't do that; you know it's bad for you! ;-)

LOL--ok, that first one is hilarious, and really the kind of thing I'm looking for. Second one . . . yeah. I like my critique with humor :-\

(I'm caught in a revision loop on this post *grrrr* It sounded wonderfully flippant in my head, and now I'm reading it and it seems all hate-y McHater pants, which is not really the case. Edit, edit, edit.)

[rumpelsnorcack.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't worry, haha. I got that it was flippant, I just chose to inflict srs bns hate vid on you :D

I like the second one because I can see where someone would maybe get that reaction from though I absolutely do not agree *puts shiny hearts around Rory* but the first is like my crack hate vid. I watch it every now and then because it makes me laugh.

By the way I may send you another random email because I noticed something in one of my old fics that I need to ~*share*~ and you win the sharing for this one :D

[stick-poker.livejournal.com]

(I'm gradually working my way through these as well because this post contains much win, and that first one is proper lol-worthy. Ah, Emo Eleven wanting to steal Rory away...)

[cosmiccoz.livejournal.com]

This just sounds like Ten bashing. Where's everyone else?

Is it his fault so much shit happened to him? Is it really that funny?

Really, why is it that everywhere I look on my River flist, there has been the same sort of negativity. I get enough grief on the Spoiler Song chatroom for my love of multiple Doctors. . .

[promethia_tenk]

>>This just sounds like Ten bashing. Where's everyone else?

From comments above:

There are a LOT of really critical vids out there. Check the past Vividcon playlists for some prime examples.

I have seen a couple 11-era ones (mostly Amy and/or Amy/Rory 'critiquing') so I know they must be out there.

I look forward to your contributions.

[cosmiccoz.livejournal.com]

Still a notable lack of listing Eleventh Doctor/other bashing vids. This isn't fair play.

And the rest are shipping/companion wars set to music. That's not even proper criticism.

The last thing I want to do is to contribute. At the heart of this sort of fandom behavior is bullying, and a need to assert superiority (especially with their "chosen" Doctor).

[elisi]

You mean you have not seen Marble House? It's not snarky, though - it's more a pretty devastating look at the Doctor, but from a different angle than Handlebars (which we of course got in canon with Waters of Mars). This one is utterly, painfully gorgeous, manipulative AS HELL, and just... devastating. I wrote meta about it!

It's early morning here, so I shall see if I can dig up some snarky ones too! :)

ETA: OH! Above and Below by di_br. The Doctor and Jack and oh... (You've seen CoE, haven't you? Otherwise this one won't make much sense.) Also pretty harsh I'm afraid.

Um, OK, let's see what else I can find... There is Anything the Doctor Can Do..... (Doctor Vs. the Master), mostly silly.

What We Had. Martha, Mickey & Jack. V. harsh, but gorgeous.

Oh and Common People - Doctor/Rose and if you know the song, the vid should be obvious. Although again, it's very harsh.

Hmmm. There does seem to be a lack of satirical vids. Well, there is I'm Gonna Buy Me a Dog and Heat Dies Down, which are pretty fab, but not satire...

Anyway - that's all for now, I need to get dressed!

ETA2: Actually, thinking about the snark/bashing etc, and why there are so many vids about Ten dealing with his dark side (often harshly) then I think it comes from the fact that Ten was a very problematic character - which is one of the things I like about him. He has that dark edge, the ability to snap, the whole God-complex, and I adore it. Esp because RTD went and tackled it head-on. I am ALSO glad that Moffat has taken Eleven back to what the Doctor was, which is probably why there are fewer critical Eleven vids. (Plus, less footage of course. *g*)

[promethia_tenk]

^^^^Knew you would be a real vid wellspring, of course. Thanks for all those. Watching is going to have to wait til I've gotten some substantial sleep in me (damn insomnia *grumble, grumble*), but I look forward to it.

I think you're right about Ten and the dark side and the snark compared to Eleven. Well, and with Ten I actually liked him more the more unhinged he got. Earlier Ten mostly felt immature and self-indulgent to me; later Ten was compelling in that twisted way, as you say, and he was so obviously broken I was really feeling bad for him. "End of Time" is actually one of my favorite RTD scripts.

Eleven, comparatively, is so much more self-aware and self-correcting (and presented with so much less heavy-handed-ness), that he's much harder to mock in any hard-hitting way.

[promethia_tenk]

You mean you have not seen Marble House? It's not snarky, though - it's more a pretty devastating look at the Doctor, but from a different angle than Handlebars
I'm new to Who fandom this season. Unless you've pointed them out to me, I've probably missed most of the classics of the RTD era. I'm gonna have to give that a few rewatches. It's obviously quite rich, and I can tell I'm not getting half of it yet.

(You've seen CoE, haven't you? Otherwise this one won't make much sense.) Also pretty harsh I'm afraid.
I haven't. I know the basics, mostly; it's been hard to avoid picking up plot points and reactions. So, I got a little out of that, but yeah . . .

There is Anything the Doctor Can Do..... (Doctor Vs. the Master), mostly silly.
<3333333 The silly, it pleases me. A new favorite.

What We Had. Martha, Mickey & Jack. V. harsh, but gorgeous.
Oh . . . .

I did not know I needed that until I saw it. Amazing. Oh, Martha. *huggles*

I think the Doctor has a tendency to reward dramatics. Any character who will take it on the chin and keep going sooner or later is going to get taken for granted.

There does seem to be a lack of satirical vids.
I knew there was a gap here. I remember reading something once about fan culture and about how (at least under US copyright) typically "male" expressions of fan culture are usually protected under fair use because they tend to be satirical (like the many, many Star Wars parodies), while more "female" fan culture (like shippy vids) is seen simply as infringement without any sort of critical eye behind it and thus gets subject to threats and takedown notices.

Thanks so much for all the recs!

[stick-poker.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. As another non-vidder I'd wondered where the darkness and satire were too, so all these recs in comments are ace.

The only vid idea I ever had was quite emo. It's for a song that starts 'If I'm having fun, sympathise because it's easy to get bored' which has a lot of clattery drums in it and would feature moments the Doctor loses it, including Eleven whacking the WWII Dalek with the giant spanner and Ten drowning the Rachnos and, and, companions' faces looking at him like 'what is wrong with you?'

[promethia_tenk]

Ah, excellent. I knew I couldn't be the only one looking for something different.

Your vid concept sounds compelling. And Eleven with that Dalek is certainly worthy of some commentary.

[elisi]

PS. Another vid: O Fortuna. The vidder has flocked the post, so I uploaded it for you, because it is gorgeous. Not quite sure how to describe it though. I guess it's about the magic (and fatefulness) of meeting the Doctor, the otherwordliness of him, and the way in which history repeats (the editing is incredible) - Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy: This has happened before and will happen again.

[promethia_tenk]

Thanks for that. That is indeed lovely.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

It seems like you got a lot of great recs already, but I'd also point towards this vid which is perhaps interpretable as emo rather than critical, but there is certainly a fair amount of critique in there -

http://kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com/186109.html

As to the wider question, as many have noted, there's actually a fair amount of critical and/or snarky vids out there, but I think there are a few reasons you don't see so much of them (and I don't blame you for missing that they're around). Firstly, they're not as prevalent. Basically because they're a bit harder to make. It's easy to write critical meta or fic because you manufacture the content from a common point of origin. But with vids, you're generally (exceptions like Signed, the Doctor aside!) limited to footage from the show and the contexts that fans will always have in mind. As such its a bit harder to explicate a critical intent, though it's easiest to do with juxtaposition to appropriate music. Another element I think, is that vidding takes energy and emotional investment. It's a lot easier to maintain for something you love than for something you're angry at - though if you're very angry, there's very little more cathartic than rage.

But I think for both these reasons, most vids tend to be (and a majority of vidders tend to start with) vids about things they love, that roughly align with canon.

Another issue is - and here we're beginning to talk about my personal perception - that very oddly, Doctor Who isn't a really big fandom for vidding. Vidding fandom is kind of fragmented in that there's a centralised "vidding fandom" which focuses on vidding and lots of the participants are very multifannish about their vidding practices, and then there are vidding fandoms within various fandoms - so for instance, I started vidding in "BSG vidding fandom" which had some overlap with "vidding fandom". And for whatever reason, while Doctor Who gets a reasonable amount of attention from "vidding fandom", "Doctor Who vidding fandom" seems much, much smaller than I would expect for a fandom so large. I mean it's quite big by virtue of the sheer massive size of Whodom, but given that, I'd expect it to be one of the more active pockets of vidding fandom (like, say, Supernatural which has an enormous enclave of vidders), but it's not.

As a result of that, I'm a bit hardpressed to point you at any really hard, angry, critical vids regarding Doctor Who specifically. I don't think you ever watched the new BSG, but if you did, I could list you a ton of critical pieces on that. One vid that might serve as an example of the kind of metacriticism that does occur in vidding fandom and that you might be able to appreciate even not knowing the various sources, as it's a multifannish vid commenting on media tropes rather than criticising an individual text (though those exist too), is Stay Awake by laurashapiro, which is about the scifi's creepy obsession with knocking up women against their will.

Oh! I do have one vid you might be interested in which I don't think anyone's linked yet. Again it's not really critical in the way I think you initially meant, but it's certainly dark rather than emo and a very interesting example of reappropriating footage to tell an alternate story, which is something often not attempted in fanvids as you have to not only reappropriate the footage but convince your audience to abandon its original intepretation of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tox9x5HJIE

eta: from reading other comments here I can tell you're also looking more for snarky/crack critique as opposed to straight critique, but most of what I said still applies - i.e. it's easier to make a joyful crack vid than an angry one (though snark often straddles this gap), but also there is some brilliantly sarcastic and critical crack out there, though I'm not sure what fandoms we share the I could rec for you. :)

[promethia_tenk]

Thanks so much for your insights! I'll admit my involvement with the vidding side of fandom is pretty minimal, so it's great to hear from someone with an insider view.

I'd also point towards this vid which is perhaps interpretable as emo rather than critical, but there is certainly a fair amount of critique in there
I'd call that critical. I'm not sure how much I agree, but an interesting watch none the less.

Basically because they're a bit harder to make . . . But with vids, you're generally limited to footage from the show and the contexts that fans will always have in mind. As such its a bit harder to explicate a critical intent, though it's easiest to do with juxtaposition to appropriate music.
I can see how that would be, yes.

And for whatever reason, while Doctor Who gets a reasonable amount of attention from "vidding fandom", "Doctor Who vidding fandom" seems much, much smaller than I would expect for a fandom so large.
Huh. Very interesting. My last serious fandom was so tiny as to have practically no vidders at all, so I have very little sense of what constitutes an expected level of activity.

I don't think you ever watched the new BSG, but if you did, I could list you a ton of critical pieces on that.
It's pretty much my favorite show of all time, although I was never really involved in the fandom for some reason. I'd love a few links if you have them, though.

it's a multifannish vid commenting on media tropes rather than criticising an individual text (though those exist too), is Stay Awake by [info]laurashapiro, which is about the scifi's creepy obsession with knocking up women against their will.
Oh, that is fantastic and chilling. Thanks for that.

Again it's not really critical in the way I think you initially meant, but it's certainly dark rather than emo and a very interesting example of reappropriating footage to tell an alternate story, which is something often not attempted in fanvids as you have to not only reappropriate the footage but convince your audience to abandon its original intepretation of it.
That's quite impressive. I see how that can be very hard to make work.

from reading other comments here I can tell you're also looking more for snarky/crack critique as opposed to straight critique, but most of what I said still applies
Eh, it's all been interesting and frankly much, much more than I was ever expecting to get out of a pretty flippant, off-hand musing I just decided to post. I've been inspired to wade in deeper :-) Thanks for taking the time to put together such an in-depth response.

I'm not sure what fandoms we share the I could rec for you. :)
Going by your interests on your profile, I'd say BSG, Heroes, Dexter, Star Trek, Star Wars, LotR . . .