Gangnam Style and other South East Asian Geekiness

I'm not exactly on the pace with youff culture having only recently developed an awareness of Gangnam Style which I originally thought was something to do with fashion. I can't say I've been horse dancing down the street ever since but I've checked the vid. out a couple of times.

So the idiot's guide (aimed at people like me) is that Gangnam Style is a dance song written and performed by Korean pop singer Park Jae Sung, better known as PSY.

It's topped the charts all over the world and the vid went seriously viral at the rate of 9 million views a day.  That's quite a lot. It's more than this blog, possibly.

So how come Korea has become cool all of a sudden? I guess that dictator died etc.

Or was that North Korea? Anyhow PSY isn't exactly a dude. He has the look of a pudgy computer programmer and dresses like a second rate Mariachi singer in a cheap Mexican hotel.

In fact his majestic uncoolness is the key to his success. There's cache in nerdiness these days. It seems the song was written as a satire on a blingy part of Seoul, which means little to me as I have no real conception of Seoul.

But I'm a fan of South East Asian nerdiness. I used to watch the crazy Japanese game shows as a kid and was rather partial to the British spoof comedy of Japanese game shows, Banzai.

Banzai featured a series of crazy characters like Mr. Shake Hands who would not let go of the hands of celebrities and my personal favorite Lady One Question, who would ask a celebrity one question in an interview and not follow up, leaving them dangling as in the case of a bemused Simon Cowell.

The show didn't get much exposure in the US. Asian American groups complained and it was pulled. It was big for a while in Canada. But then, so too was Celine Dion. The less said about that the better.

Place bets now.