This American Life

[bigdawg363]

Wow ... that was powerful and really well done thank you for this great animation short it is now my favorite one!

[peteradaniel]

I think it's about the nature of a "radio show" being on television and how that could change it's meaning as a great piece of aural entertainment, like it changed the actions of the children, which is rare in this visually obsessed world. I'm glad they took it off the air. I don't need pictures to dictate how I should interpret sentences. Thank you Ira!

[MrBoudreaux1976]

It seems like Ira Glass and Chris Gray are over thinking the event-although I do love this show. There were at least two fights a day at the school where I went to seventh grade. The other kids always stood around and watched. Also Chris came out after it started and never goes into why it started. Sometimes people fight. Sometimes they need to. Maybe the kid getting beat up was a bully and the other kid had had enough? Now two or three on one is a different issue.

[RubberBiscuit]

When I went to Catholic grade school in the 70s, nuns could still smack the shit out of you if you weren't careful. A schoolyard fight was nothing.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why we never had outbursts of creativity like this.

[jimbojim68]

Wow

[Whetzell]

Cameras were the scapegoat to what kids would have done anyway. I am the first one to break up a fight as an adult, but as a kid in grade school? No way.

[landogstube]

Perhaps its the fact that when viewing life from the third party perspective which alleviates personal responsibility and feelings. Your "justified" in doing nothing in fact, you are doing "something".

[Kmanhindi2000]

Anyone know the song at the end?

[po1s0ned]

What podcast number is this?

[Mshine67]

I think this is more a reflection of reality, and inherent human behaviour. Similar to real TV News Reporters, they are not there to help, but to capture someone else's misery and suffering for ratings. Example, the homeless man with the "Golden Voice". The media is whoring all over this guy, proping him up, and hoping he falls so they can revel in his mess of a life. They keep talking about how we are ethralled, but I don't know anyone who is, but the media themselves.

[Mshine67]

I think this is more a reflection of reality, and inherent human behaviour. Similar to real TV News Reporters, they are not there to help, but to capture someone else's misery and suffering for ratings and popularity.

[KobraCola]

no kid would intervene in a fight anyways, no one else wants to get their ass beat by the school bully

[catra195]

wtf that wasn't funny at all

RED BAR RADIO BITCHES!

[pishandchibbs]

At least some people get the point. How obvious can it be? The guy narrating even states his thesis/point at the end of the video. People get caught up in this faux-celebrity culture fueled by social media. The school fight is merely an example...not the subject of debate.

[070erwin]

i want to ask,how is to live in america for u ppl

is it boring,awesome whatever

but i just want to know

and i live in holland btw

[pishandchibbs]

@070erwin You live in Holland--Marijuana is practically legal, the culture is rich, the people are known as the most tolerant on Earth, the food is less harmful, and efficient systems of public transportation exists. Just stay put. You got it good man.

[070erwin]

@pishandchibbs well i know that but i just wanted to ask how it is to live in america ya know :P

i smoke weed and stuff sometimes :D

im 16 btw

[TheCreator4]

its rly cute how life is depicted as a sprout :)

[Rchie5678]

i think the point is not that people act differently behind a camera, its about everyone having cameras nowadays, even in cellphones, sometimes people rather take footage of someone in trouble to post it on youtube than help.

[TheGeneticDisaster]

"People act different if their behind a camera, even if the camera isn't real."

[GBEHNCP]

The main idea is right. "People act different behind a camera."

[cha5]

Chris Ware is one of my all time favorites.

[Hupsibasse]

But it ain't Chris Ware. Ware's voice is more nasal.

[willraz]

This is a really interesting point made. I've been looking for books on either psychology or sociology behind people on cameras and what happens, anyone know of any such books?

Or books on how people change when it comes to media

[dabossman356]

the cameras have NOTHING to do with the kids watching and not helping the kid getting beat up.

haven't any of you been to middle school or high school? everyone just watches, and this was well before cell phone cameras.

[IHaveNoNameRawr]

@dabossman356 IT'S A METAPHOR. FFS.

[Innomen]

Step away from the whole school thing. This says a lot about news reporting and human duty generally. Like Rodney King. Put down the camera and help. By pointing a camera at a problem you're making it someone else's problem. You did your bit, and you may get to be famous. That's the attitude. That's the problem.

[METALIST1989]

well dunno about america, any time there was a fight in my school everyone would just gather round and watch it (in later years even teachers)

[whycantibefree]

its so true ppl are so weird.. i love this show .. man the one where the kid starts to barter lunch bag food for a "cake" that his mom was going to bake. it turned into a huge ponshy scheme lol so funny or the one where the dude walks out of the brookland zoo with a rare parrot and ends up selling it to a couple who are chain smokers and the bird has a lung disease crazy story i love this american life

[kais3rz3r0]

I kinda get the idea, but not personally

[MooseLodgeFilms]

The formal abstraction of the shapes is a powerful method of conveying this. Instead of seeing an actual fight we see circles beating circles.

It's almost more powerful.

[joakimmaa]

How halirious:P

[hmoy24677]

great job!

[Michaelbee]

Amazing! I just read about half of your comments, and it didn't occur to a single ONE of you to even mentioned the naked truth about kids (and adults as well) just plain being potentially cruel to each other. There ARE kids who break up fights and others who don't, there are kids who go and tell and teachers who interrupt the fight, and some don't. The camera is a useful analogy that links the issue to our media society, period. It's just a point of view to get you going, and it did!

[Neuroelectronic]

Oh, I "got it" I just think what "it" is, is absolute bullshit. The camera has NOTHING to do with the way the people are reacting.

[sagiras]

what is the song in the background ?

:}

[sleepingchild]

I don't know if I would say that this is only an American problem; people do this all over the world. I'm especially thinking of Asia, but it happens anywhere someone has a camera phone.

That said, it is a sad problem. I don't know what we can really do about it though...

[Rockscod]

There was actually a fight today at school, and kids just say there and taped it, until eventually posting it on youtube.

[Bittermanscolon]

People have been lead to believe that everything is a show. A show for YOU. A show for you to watch, nothing really happens to you.......until it does....

Life has been made a thing to watch go by and to not at all be a real part of. All the things that are real important, the things that shape our lives go floating past and we just simply say "Oh look what's happening now.....my freedom is being trampled on....etc etc" Not enough people see its critical to participate.

[citizentube]

very interesting... is there something about media that makes one a more likely bystander? if it gives you a sense of "purpose" - documenting the scene - that is different than the purpose you should feel - stopping the violence, then i'd say yes....

[kaffir2]

being a celebrated eyewitness takes no real effort. it's fun and fashionable to be a tragi-porn groupie.

ordinary people doing the right thing on a daily basis doesn't get the ratings.

It's not the media, per se, I think.

Leonardo da Vinci could have painted Mona Lisa's Armpit but he selected something else.

He loved life and respected certain virtues, so naturally he chose what he chose on that basis.

The word 'pimp' wasn't always synonymous with 'fashionable', either.

[Neuroelectronic]

this video is fucking stupid. since when did kids need play cameras to simply watch a fight?

[landbridge]

You really didn't get it, did you? It's not about watching a fight dillweed, it's about the idea of 'spectacle' in the media and what media actually is. By the way you're a retarded homo.

[14ledzeppelin14]

you are fucking stupid actually, and you missed the point.

[Brickcaster]

Kids watch fights anyway. They don't need cameras to act like unhelpful jerks.

The important part is not 'censoring' everything by destroying the cameras, but encouraging moral behavior. Those that watch or 'film' should be frowned upon, but not punished.

[WhiteBuffalo81]

what does he say at 3:10 when he's referencing the scene? sounds like "Ballen's Russia"

[fatandslat]

Stalin's Russia.

[stanthewolf]

Stalin's Russia.

[jchechile]

Does anyone know who did the animation?

[splinteredlight]

jchechile: Chris Ware is the animator.

[jchechile]

cool thanks,

I didn't hear the whole episode and wasn't sure who he was.. the story is cool and the animation is even cooler.

[gravelbar]

Brilliant.

[patricianungaray]

so cute

[kimistirednow]

A-men.

[hitogoroshi]

genius

[cVlman]

i dont think there's some wise old analogy to this, i just think it's something to think about.

[gatometalico]

m_) so true.........as sad.

m_) brilliantly animated.

m_) Thanks for sharing!

m_) Metalmadcat

[robotkage]

the point is that the fight was not stopped until the teachers noticed. none of the other kids bothered to help the kid getting his ass handed to him because they were to busy reporting the news, they cared more about reporting then helping this poor kid. that's the message at any rate the rest of you people commenting have a point, students are not always the first to step in when a brawl occurs and i think that is the real issue : ( also i think it said allot about trends

[gcarmenc]

OK kind of good till the end. The idea that it was because of the camera that they were watching the fight is just stupid. When two kids got in to fights we always stood around and watched and even chaired. No camera was around. It's what kids do.

[pswoods]

The idea that the camera acts as an intercessor for the photographer is of long standing in the aesthetics of photography. Read "On Photography" by Susan Sontag. Or just be an obnoxious, ignorant internet expert on everything you ingest - either way...

[JustinPM]

@gcarmenc But it's not limited to kids. It's a known effect called the Bystander effect. If you ever want to look up a pretty well known example of it, look up Kitty Genovese.

[pishandchibbs]

@gcarmenc I saw it as more of a metaphor for people using anything to grab attention. The kids might as well represent the people (of any age) who live their lives on social media. And the two teachers probably represent forms of authority, who generally are relied on to solve the problems that could have easily been stopped way earlier. The point I see is that social media fuels narcissism the most. "People act different if their behind a camera, even if the camera isn't real."

[lalalalovely1000]

@gcarmenc But he's not saying they watched because of the cameras. He's just saying that the fact that there were cameras there, however fake they were, changed their behavior. They were so caught up in "reporting" the news that it never occured to them to do anything to stop it. I think that's a reflection of the real world. You sometimes see reporters in third world countries talking about the starving child beside them instead of helping it.

[MichaelBValse]

@gcarmenc its about the bigger picture nublet. its pushing the point that mass media "impersonal communication to a large audience," has desensitized us to violent acts and that every body else just watches and believes its okay not to act unless a moral authority steps in, which is a pretty legitimate point in my opinion.

[BCKBCK]

@gcarmenc They would watch and cheer, they would not "report" it.

[AMAURIS966]

@robotkage casting the news as in getting out a cell phone and recording.

[afterthebeep]

Yeah i see the point.. but don't fights happen all the time at school? And isn't it usually teachers who break up the fights anyway. I get the analogy and the point being made but i think that it's flawed...

[laowhy]

does anyone know the name of the accordion track that plays in the background of this?

[thedonraja]

kids don't break up playground fights, camera or no camera.

[borriblejones]

yeah, I agree...I still think this is a great little segment, but you don't see a lot of 5th graders taking the moral high-ground and stopping a fight. The best you could hope for would be someone sneaking away to tell a teacher, usually.

[cVlman]

still shows a good point of what's in the better interest of people

[ChindaOTilson]

This is great!

[campusmapp]

Who needs humanity, when we have entertainment?

[WildkatPublishing]

That was a very strong message. it's so true.

[Tommyidol420]

Scary, isn't it.

[bitzeepapa]

when the big companies (who put industry before artistic integrity) see that alternative comics are so great and so deep, they inevitably unload their meaningless bullshit movies to the mainstream to make sure that the mass populace still can't differentiate comic books from superheroes.

[kingd00mKha0z]

so true..

[womblt]

This is not Chris Ware talking about his life. This is Chris Ware's animations of someone's story.

[faykname]

Brilliant story, fantastic visuals.

[jnbuben]

Who's Ira Hayes? You mean Ira Glass? He's great. I know someone who used to date him.

[pursuitofinjustice]

this american life is brilliant. ira glass is the businezz. the animation is badass too

[cheekychen]

nice animation and story.

[jcphoto]

being behind the camera stinks. being in front of it feels amazing. so why am i always behind it still?

[JessLeeNYC]

Yep. The same kind of behavior is displayed on YouTube everyday; young girls kicking each other's asses while everybody stands around.

The camera isn't authentic. It's a phone.

[enossified]

It's a phone? Do you mean 'it's phoney'? I like it being a phone better, tho. You've got a great bumper sticker there.

[hoyle1911]

That's so beautiful. I didn't know Chris Ware handled this animation. I hope Ware makes a feature length film with this.

[54spiritedwill54]

Great story-telling.

[superbaddeathmachine]

Wow, that was really good.

[porkstamina]

This isn't Chris Ware talking...it's Ira Glass and some guy named Jeff. It's a great clip, though - just so well done. Saw it on Slate originally but it was taken down - thanks for putting it up here!

[tomfaria70]

its like you can get a story out of anything and make it sound great. thats what he did. very nice!

[lastangelman]

this clip alone is worthy of a short subject Oscar

[zeljkowsky]

tnx for sharing

[BenVers]

This is sooo... kool!!!

I really love this style :-) And I like the music.

Greets, Ben :-)

[comicbookboy89]

Great story-telling.

[olahula]

Truly touching

[NeoMikey]

This animated clip is simply fantastic, and with a really awesome message! =)

[indieabby88]

TAL is pretty much awesome, and so is Chris Ware. It's like a buffet of awesomeness!