I’m sure that in the past, I have written about 2 Girls 1 Cup. But during my Thanksgiving trip, the subject came up, as I will discuss shortly. I have, for the first time, done a bit of research on the video. That is to say, I looked at the Wikipedia page on it, because that is about as close as I ever want to get to it. For those who may not know, it is a short film featuring two young women who apparently defecate into a cup (glass, actually), drink it, and vomit it back into the other’s mouth.
I was introduced to it by some young men I worked with at a startup. They really wanted to show it to me — as was quite common at the time (late 2007 — when it was still fairly new). I asked them, “Is it scatological?” That was said right as the video started. One of them said, “What is ‘scatological’?” At that point, one of the young women defecated into a glass. I immediately stood up and as I walked away, I said, “That is ‘scatological’!” So I only saw the first few seconds of it. The young men filled me in on the complete narrative later.
It turns out that the video itself is just the trailer for an hour long Brazilian fetish porn film called, Hungry Bitches. There has been much discussion over the years as to exactly how “real” the whole thing is. One thing I noticed in my brief encounter with it was that the feces of the one woman was either fake or she was very ill indeed. The porn industry seems to have perfected the art of the enema, so I don’t actually have much difficulty seeing how the whole thing could be faked. Clearly doing any of that is something that would be truly disgusting for a normal person, but for a professional, well, whatever.
(It is worth noting that I know a few people who are what we might call connoisseurs of pornography in its many forms. When I asked them about the video, they were lackadaisical about it. 2 Girls 1 Cup is not at all a new thing. Similar films have been around since at least the early 90s. So this particular video becoming a big deal is due to the vagaries of society — most especially the recent proliferation of video streaming services.)
What I learned last week is that there is a genre of videos which record people’s reactions to 2 Girls 1 Cup. Clearly, there are people who find scatological material erotic. It’s a small percentage of the population, surely. But human sexuality is broad. And I am not one to judge when it comes to such matters. But clearly, the video did not go viral because people found it titillating; it went viral because people found it disgusting. So shooting people’s reactions to the video was quite normal. I haven’t actually seen any of them, because even that is too close to the original.
Hungry Bitches was released in January of 2007. According to Wikipedia, “Around mid-October 2007, video-sharing sites including YouTube were flooded with videos depicting others’ reactions to watching the video for the first time.” By mid-November, comedian Adam Ray came up with his own scripted version, Kermit the Frog Reacts to 2 Girls 1 Cup. I actually hate the idea. Kermit is a hero of mine. But I did check it out. (Note: it has some foul language.)
There are a number of things that impress me. One is that the puppetry is rather good. The voice isn’t bad, until it gets too loud and outraged. And Adam Ray is the kind of comic who pushes jokes too far. He doesn’t allow the joke to end with the appearance of the hand lotion. Instead, we get Kermit masturbating under the table. Is it pedantic of me to note that frogs do not have penises but rather cloacae? Probably so, but it is something of a matter of honor.
Following this two weeks later, Ray released, Kermit Shows Rowlf the Dog 2 Girls 1 Cup. It is the better of the two. (Note: it has some foul language.)
Again, I think Ray pushes the joke far past its breaking point. All he needs to do is note that Rowlf is, in fact, a dog. But it works. I think they both do, and they are creative. It’s all rather interesting. The producer of Hungry Bitches, Marco Antônio Fiorito, even said in an official declaration, “I have already made fetish movies with scat/feces using chocolate instead of feces. Many actors make scat films but they don’t agree to eat feces.” That’s a lot of creativity to create the fantasy that some people desire. I respect that. But I hope the subject never comes up again in my life.
“Hungry bitches” by Source. Licensed under Fair use of copyrighted material in the context of 2 Girls 1 Cup“>Fair use via Wikipedia.
I laughed way harder than I should have at this article.
I showed both videos to Will, and I have to admit that they are funnier with someone else. But he agreed with me that the guy pushes the jokes too far. Still, there is something funny about hearing Muppets curse. I enjoyed writing the article — mostly because it made me read the Wikipedia page about it, and that clarified the whole thing. For example, I had no idea that the video was just a minute long. Oh, and Will told me that a big thing years back was people filming their mothers watching it. I have to say, that is even more disgusting than the video itself. I mean: it’s you mom! Jesus!
The videos are funny, but I wouldn’t have any idea what they were about until you explained it. I agree the Kermit solo one goes too far. Peter Jackson milked this “dirty Muppet” thing with “Meet The Feebles” as far as it can possibly been milked. I disagree that the Rolf one goes too far. I thought it was perfect. Not everyone realizes that dogs eat poop, so the explanation is fine.
Typing this makes me think the Kermit one would be funnier if — instead of lubing up for human scat eating — he switched to a video of frogs having sex and THEN started lubing up. Interrupted by a human coming in the room and asking “what are you doing?” Kermit says “nothing” and the human catches him watching frog sex, saying, “OMG, that’s so graphic!” And Kermit looking so ashamed.
This all made me think of James Burke’s paeon to the Internet in “The Day The Universe Changed” (and I really enjoyed Burke 20 years ago, still do, he’s fun):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIwcqOBo7NA&feature=youtu.be&t=2m13s
Oh, dammit, man, the Internet is for porn. Good try, though.
Your Kermit video sounds really involved. And it does have the problem that he seems to be more into pigs.
Re: Burke: I clearly remember that one. It’s funny because it is so idealistic. I remember a lot of people in the 90s very excited about things like direct democracy and so on. They are still out there. But I think everyone knows that what hinders us is not in our technologies but in ourselves. Fascism is a very clear example of what we are. It’s just we have gotten better at keeping it in check. But I’ve been predicting fascist America for years and it is looking more and more likely.
That’s much better. Have Kermit click away from the scat video and show a two-second clip of pig sex, then end clip.
I’m also fatalistic about fascism, much more than I used to be. That Burke clip is funnier every time I watch it!
Oh I was laughing because I was imaging your reaction to the first video.
The mothers reactions depends on the generation of mothers though-my mom and stepmother (baby boomers) would have been horrified. My oldest sisters (Gen X) would have laughed at it. My generation will probably just be all “eh, worse than lemon party, I guess but no Human Centipede.” I gagged at it when I first saw it oh so many years ago now but I have seen worse things.
Now watching reaction videos to “Five Nights At Freddy’s” is fun and much more entertaining.
Ah yes, Human Centipede. I’ve research the series in some depth. I might be willing to watch the first if I could get Andrea to watch it with me. There is no way I would ever watch Human Centipede 2. As for Human Centipede 3, it seems that it just confirms that it is all just pornography, although I do like the postmodern elements.
I agree with James about the Rowlf video. I don’t think Ray went to far at all with that. What I thought was, “Yeah, dogs do eat their own poop.” I’ve seen it. It’s disgusting!
It serves a purpose — dogs could hang around human encampments and digest things in doo-doo humans couldn’t. It helped humans domesticate dogs (and the other way around.)
Still, it’s gross. Nothing like when you’re at someone’s home, a dog eats poop, then jumps on your lap to lick your face. (Perhaps the worst part of this is that dog owners inevitably laugh. It is pretty funny — it’s also quite gross!)
Thanks for that image, James!
Maybe I just don’t like being reminded of that in Rowlf.