and...CUT!

February 1, 2007 1:26 PM

Unhappy with her hair style, a bride flips out just hours before her wedding. Sobbing and screaming, she goes into the hotel washroom, rips apart her coiffure, and cuts her own hair. The episode is caught on video, posted to YouTube, and Farkalarity ensues. But the plot thickens. It turns out the bride is 22 year-old aspiring actress Jodi Behan, and the film was made by Toronto-based Ryerson University grad Ingrid Hass. It's a hoax, designed to put a lock on their film careers. We'll see more from these girls. Thursday on the Tonight Show, for a start.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium (63 comments total)

Um...who would have seen that and not thought it was staged?

Interesting that this got so popular. I love a good hoax, but as hoaxes go it's far from the best.
posted by django_z at 1:33 PM on February 1, 2007

I dunno, it seemed kinda realistic to me, although not really captivating. I liked this video response for the few seconds a the beginning where it seems to be intended in earnest.
posted by grobstein at 1:34 PM on February 1, 2007

When I start hearing discussions about discussions of someone's 15 minutes of fame (completely missing out on the actual 15 minutes) I become somewhat disillusioned.
posted by geoff. at 1:37 PM on February 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Which one is this Vanilla Ice?
posted by hal9k at 1:38 PM on February 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow, that bride was a terrible actor. I can't believe that anyone would think that was real.
posted by mckenney at 1:44 PM on February 1, 2007

I saw this the other day and said, "Well, that's both fake and stupid."

Then, I saw it on the Today Show this morning. Way to go, factcheckers.
posted by ColdChef at 1:45 PM on February 1, 2007

Should've taken an expert's opinion first.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:45 PM on February 1, 2007

For their next act, maybe they can put some LED signs up all over a city and call in some bomb sightings. HI-larious!
posted by briank at 1:46 PM on February 1, 2007

You could say it was a buzz cut.
posted by Shecky at 1:47 PM on February 1, 2007

I'm embarrassed about this, but that really made me laugh.
posted by crackingdes at 1:49 PM on February 1, 2007

I tried to watch the video yesterday and couldn't make it through the whole thing.

The only thing worse than her acting is this post.
posted by justgary at 1:50 PM on February 1, 2007

This is just where filmmakers ought to take the art of storytelling: it's neorealism at its very best, a convincing and compelling journey to the very depths of banality. I kid of course. This sucks.
posted by bukharin at 1:50 PM on February 1, 2007 [2 favorites]

lonelygirl15 is the Canter and Siegel of the video internet.
posted by ardgedee at 1:53 PM on February 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

I really really wanted it to be real. :(
posted by thirteenkiller at 1:54 PM on February 1, 2007

My heart goes out to the aspiring filmmakers and actors out there who spend hours staging shots, working over in their minds how what the point of the scene is and how best to present it, how to best portray the character and their struggles. I imagine them arguing over details, stand like this, emphasize than, and then they get an email titled "OMG bride freaks out LOLZ!!!".

So many films on youtube, you'd think there's be at least one budding Kubrick.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:55 PM on February 1, 2007

"Um..Esther!"

Lasted about 9 seconds before the shitty acting and staged casual conversation gave it away completely. As fake as Capturing the Friedmans.
posted by fire&wings at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2007

I think this video appeals to the female demographic, because for me it was boring and then it felt like pulling teeth.
posted by bhouston at 1:59 PM on February 1, 2007

You wil see more on Tonight show. I won't.
posted by Postroad at 2:06 PM on February 1, 2007 [2 favorites]

Okay, I'll admit it -- I fell for it. Sucks to be me.
posted by Bookhouse at 2:06 PM on February 1, 2007

Appeal? Come on, it appeals to the extremely overdeveloped sense of schadenfreude we, as a culture, have. If you don't get that, you're missing out on a key insight of humanity; a feature of ours that's been around for ages.

As far as real vs hoax, I thought the entire scene was completely plausible. The phenomenon of the "bridezilla," the stressed-to-the-breaking-point woman trying to create the picture perfect wedding day, is well known and documented. If you told me this was not a hoax, I would have no problem believing it.

(Plus, banal conversation and poorly-acted fake banal conversation can be difficult to distinguish.)
posted by knave at 2:09 PM on February 1, 2007

Not only did I hate the acting and know it was fake 30 seconds before I started watching it (through latent psychic ability), but I actually traveled to Toronto to murder the filmmaker. So clearly, I am much more hardcore than all you guys.
posted by TypographicalError at 2:11 PM on February 1, 2007 [4 favorites]

Everything is fake or staged or viral marketing idiocy, except the UFC.
posted by fenriq at 2:12 PM on February 1, 2007

knave wrote:
Appeal? Come on, it appeals to the extremely overdeveloped sense of schadenfreude we, as a culture, have. If you don't get that, you're missing out on a key insight of humanity; a feature of ours that's been around for ages.

I can get schadenfreude if the bride was someone well known and pompous but she is just an average 20-something bride for all we know. It's not like she's Ashley Simpson or some other overpaid vapid celebrity. It's hard to get schadenfreude in this situation unless you are against the general demographic of the young and soon-to-be married...
posted by bhouston at 2:13 PM on February 1, 2007

I tried to watch it for about 3 minutes when it was going around a month ago and couldn't take the mock drama and shitty acting.
And why did you post it here when you know it's viral garbage?
posted by 2sheets at 2:16 PM on February 1, 2007

Painfully bad.
posted by koeselitz at 2:20 PM on February 1, 2007

There's no schadenfreude if it's staged like that.

Ad btw, when will those two Cartoon Network imbeciles be making their network talk show debuts?
posted by wfc123 at 2:20 PM on February 1, 2007

Most of the people saying "I knew it was fake" are lying.
posted by Potsy at 2:21 PM on February 1, 2007

yeah, looks real to me. *shudders*
posted by nola at 2:27 PM on February 1, 2007

Pastabagel writes "So many films on youtube, you'd think there's be at least one budding Kubrick."

Well, yesterday we talked about a budding...I dunno...Kaufman, maybe? Great stuff there. Much, much better idea and execution than this.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:31 PM on February 1, 2007

The women of southwestern ontario at their most annoying! (just their peculiarly ontarian accents)
posted by growli at 2:32 PM on February 1, 2007

I like how one of the articles described "her character, also named Jodi."
posted by chococat at 2:35 PM on February 1, 2007

I read this thread before I watched it, but I still thought it was real. The actors really sell it.
posted by mullacc at 2:46 PM on February 1, 2007

It turns out the bride is [an] aspiring actress

I figured that out when i saw the first sentence of the post on my RSS feed. Not something that would happen in real life. Not something anyone would be there to film if it did.

I'm not lying.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:52 PM on February 1, 2007

I'm really glad to hear it's a hoax. I was horrified that her friends would be so flippant about the whole thing. I saw this yesterday thinking it was real, and could not believe that not one person sat this poor bride down and told her that everything was going to be okay, deep breaths, put the scissors down. I think this feeds into my own experience with dealing with anxiety attacks, which is probably why I didn't have the same "omg what a crazy bride!" reaction as other people.

But, yes. hoax. I'm glad.
posted by kindle at 2:53 PM on February 1, 2007

Anyone who wonders why people could believe this to be real clearly hasn't spent enough time around girls who are actually insane like that.
posted by taursir at 2:57 PM on February 1, 2007 [3 favorites]

Pastabagel writes "So many films on youtube, you'd think there's be at least one budding Kubrick."

No. Not unless it's a 10 year old kid. No, for the same reason that you won't find the next Mozart on "American Idol."

Serious musicians are busy making music; serious filmmakers are busy making films. Sure, people could put a trailer for a real film on Youtube, but in general these venues are the "get rich quick" schemes of the arts. People who care more about their art and less about quick fame at any cost will generally avoid them like the plague.

"You" are not the person of the year and "you" are not the next Kubrick. "You," 99.999% of the time, are a rank amateur with little interesting to say beyond "NOTICE ME GIVE ME MONEY PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NOW!"
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:57 PM on February 1, 2007

What IS the etiquette for having been stupidly fooled - and having stupidly passed the link on?

Do you come clean - or hope the not-very-youtube-smart recipients never know the truth?
posted by Jody Tresidder at 3:01 PM on February 1, 2007

if it was real, they'd have shut off the camera
posted by dopamine at 3:01 PM on February 1, 2007

after 52 seconds she still hadn't flipped out, I gave up
posted by matteo at 3:02 PM on February 1, 2007

and now that I actually watch it, the "bride's" performance is hideous. Wow.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:02 PM on February 1, 2007

I actually traveled to Toronto to murder the filmmaker.

Meetup time!
posted by GuyZero at 3:04 PM on February 1, 2007

I guess Warhol was right. Enjoy your fifteen minutes ladies, and don't quit the day jobs.
posted by vagabond at 3:29 PM on February 1, 2007

don't quit the day jobs.

The very phrase "aspiring Toronto actress" indicates that she has nothing to lose.
posted by GuyZero at 3:31 PM on February 1, 2007

That video has over 2 MILLION VIEWS. Almost 3 million. DAYAMN!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:31 PM on February 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

How could people believe this was real? No woman would keep videotaping her sister if something like this really happened.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:37 PM on February 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is Google paying contributors yet? If so, that changes everything. Real? Fake? Who cares. Someone's getting a nice little vacation from a 3-million-view-job.
posted by diastematic at 4:08 PM on February 1, 2007

Whoops. I meant YouTube/Google.
posted by diastematic at 4:08 PM on February 1, 2007

This was posted on Something Awful's message board a few days ago. I thought it was real, and part of why I liked it was precisely because of the fake bridesmaid who kept the camera rolling and kept laughing at the bride.
posted by MegoSteve at 4:30 PM on February 1, 2007

People are dumb, and will believe anything.
That's what YouTube has taught me.
posted by nightchrome at 4:31 PM on February 1, 2007

But the plot thickens.

Thickening the plot dilutes the schadenfreude.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 4:49 PM on February 1, 2007

She’s a MAN baby!
*austinpowersfilter*

cue stolen sex tape in 3...2...

Man, I miss Vanilla Ice’s chick’s surf shop.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:17 PM on February 1, 2007

I saw this linked a few days ago on a site without the high posting standards of MeFi.

Anyone should have been able to tell it was fake within the first minute.

For those who thought it was real, I wonder how they get along just in day to day life.

Seriously, it was horrendously bad, amateur and OBVIOUSLY fake.
posted by Ynoxas at 6:07 PM on February 1, 2007

I feel kinda left out; I've never even seen this before.
posted by Target Practice at 6:15 PM on February 1, 2007

I'm kind of disappointed they didn't push the joke further. They could have been 'tracked down' by the media, posted fake wedding photos, etc.

Also, that way many of the posters in the thread about it could have bragged how they knew it was real all along and how you'd have to be an idiot to think it was fake.
posted by Adam_S at 6:25 PM on February 1, 2007

Obviously fake or not, does anyone have a new link to the video? It's been removed from YouTube.
posted by pwb503 at 6:47 PM on February 1, 2007

ThePinkSuperhero writes "No woman would keep videotaping her sister if something like this really happened."

You clearly have never met the women in my family.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:08 PM on February 1, 2007

Video is gone... can we delete this FPP now?
posted by chef_boyardee at 8:14 PM on February 1, 2007

I actually traveled to Toronto to murder the filmmaker. So clearly, I am much more hardcore than all you guys.

Depends... how did you dispose of the body? Did you use wussy-assed methods like scarabic might, or did you just tie the filmmaker's still-twitching corpse to your car and try to cross back over the border (assuming you're Merkin) with a breezy "What body, officer?" like a real man would?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:27 PM on February 1, 2007

15, 13, 11, 9....

*Warhol fame clock counts down at twice the normal rate*
posted by three blind mice at 8:53 PM on February 1, 2007

I was just considering that this might be a hoax, but I decided it wasn't. I was wrong. "Stupid enough to be real" is usually a good rule of thumb for judging these things, but evidently it's not infallible.
posted by MrBadExample at 9:43 PM on February 1, 2007

I saw this a week or two ago and guessed it was fake about half way through. It was too well filmed.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:38 AM on February 2, 2007

From the first article:
When asked if he thought the video was real, Toronto film director Norman Jewison told the newspaper on Wednesday that he suspected the video was staged. But he said he'd give her a job in an instant.

"Wouldn't you hire her as an actress? I sure would," Jewison said. "If she's not one, then maybe she should become one. It's hysterical."
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:02 AM on February 2, 2007

Was lame then, is still lame now.
posted by stephantual at 5:04 AM on February 6, 2007