What other metaverse, the real world is not magical enough?
On April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, who was suffering from drugs, physical ailments and depression, committed suicide by drinking a bullet at his Seattle home, at the age of 27, leaving a legend for the world and a magical and unacceptable reality.
What is even more magical is that 28 years later, this rock star whose influence is comparable to Michael Jordan's basketball and Muhammad Ali's boxing is actually "resurrected" on the Little Red Book. In addition, he also came to China to give a concert, was inspired by "Chinese culture", and settled in Beijing. For a while, people didn't know whether to say thank you to "God Buddha, Jade Emperor Guanyin Bodhisattva", or to shout "See the devil lying in the grooves".
Of course, the most important thing to thank is that this "Li Ghost" netizen can pretend to be a foreigner to raise the B grid on social media, which is a common thing, playing such a "otherworldly" thing, it is really a master of pretending to be confused.
But he pretended to be confused, but he didn't expect that some netizens were really confused. Looking at the "Welcome to China" message below the "Latest Concert Photos", it is difficult not to feel the confusion of "what year is this night" - does this trick really work? So could I also play Jimmy Hendricks or Brian Jones?
By the way, popularize the "27 Club"
Fortunately, someone in the comments section quickly debunked the lie of "Li Ghost", telling me that the times have not changed, I am not old, Cobain really did not fake a corpse to run to Beijing to hold a concert, and our world has not yet broken away from the material basis and become a high-magic world where the dead can be resurrected. But this "Li Ghost" brother obviously has a unique understanding of "pretending to be dead", and when he is exposed, he can still say a thought-provoking word.
Forgetting is the real death, Cobain is not forgotten, so he is not dead, it is simply a "perfect" syllogism, although the benevolent brother's Cosplay is only a flash in the pan, he quickly deleted all the dynamics, and "reincarnated" into Eric Cantona - a famous player who played for Manchester United, nicknamed "The King", but his sophistry is still good enough to enter the shortlist of this year's Internet Revitalization Masters. Even his "reincarnation" to become "World Footballer of the Year" can become a perfect ending to this whole story.
On Weibo, some people say that this is the account used by Sun Xiaochuan bar brother fishing, considering the recent Sun Bar brother is keen to dress up foreigners to live, this message has a certain credibility. However, there is no search for relevant information in Sun Bar and other forums, and this elder brother has not further "operated" after "reincarnation", so this argument can only be treated as a rumor, there is no evidence to support, everyone just look at it.
However, just as the so-called "a mountain and a mountain high", the purpose of Internet culture is always "not the most outrageous, only more outrageous", when we marveled at Cobain's resurrection from the dead and reopened the concert, there was an old brother at the B station, telling us that the higher realm and income of "pretending to be dead" is from the underworld.
The older brother with Hitchcock's name and avatar is different from "Cobain", his whole work has no personal color, it is purely a ruthless cargo carrying machine, and it is quite "persistent" - since july last year, it has been quietly working and persevering, almost every day to release a cargo dynamic, until today has not stopped. Not only has he accumulated more than 60,000 fans, but he has also received more than 200,000 likes, which shows us that even if it is a whole work, persistence is also the most reasonable quote of victory, but from the perspective of his number of fans and the number of dynamic likes, he is most likely limited by the B station.
The latest and earliest pairs are panties, echoing from end to end
The Internet is absurd, and if you don't know why the Internet is absurd, then this "Cobain" and this "Hitchcock", I think, can provide some degree of explanation - in the Internet, it is difficult for you to die.
In addition to this "Coburn", there are countless "Coburn" in major social media, waiting for the body at any time.
Searching with the same logic, you'll also see countless "David Bowie" and "John Lennon."
The essence of the Internet economy is traffic, the essence of traffic is the attention of netizens, nothing has more attention than these celebrities, and nothing is more gimmicky than these celebrities "coming back from the dead".
To some extent, this "Coburn" brother is right, our common memory of a public figure, so that he can "immortalize" in the memory of the public, as long as the song of Nirvana is still singing, Coburn will continue to "resurrect" in the hearts of the listeners, such things are not uncommon, although not as outrageous as this "Coburn", but whenever a famous person dies, related things will definitely circulate in some corner of the Internet.
For example, if you search for the hashtag "#XXX resurrection is just around the corner on Weibo", you can always find the whole life of some netizens. Among them, because the fixed message reply of the famous idol Cai Xukun is "recording a new song", borrowing this screenshot of the fixed reply to the whole life is a regular visitor in these dynamics.
For example, on April 1 every year, in addition to seeing the April Fool's Day of major manufacturers, you must also see the remembrance of Zhang Guorong, the "brother" of the magnificent era, and the rumor of "Zhang Guorong's resurrection" - in 2013, Xiaosi Guo Jingming also lit a fire on this rumor, resulting in him being "inflamed" on Weibo.
For example, the "China Kobe" Cosplay movement that recently exploded on short video platforms such as Douyin, you can see countless people trying to "reincarnate" Kobe Bryant into the Chinese countryside.
Image source: Kobe Bryant
But such "immortality" is not a good thing, it is quite a matter of opinion, if these things are just the whole work circulating among netizens, it is at most an innocuous joke, and it will not really be pushed to the front of the stage and become a public event. But obviously, in this era where traffic is king, everyone's remembrance of celebrities is destined to meet the "big companies" that are ready to harvest the feelings of fans.
Take the "dead man" eyeball thing, netizens are doing it when they are alive, but the real fun of this piece is to cooperate more with these people, and the "companies" that make works for them - the way they consume "dead people" is glamorous, and the appetite for traffic is also deeper.
Advances in modern technology have made the virtual Internet more and more real and more omnipotent, and with the development of CGI technology, it is not impossible for "dead people" to complete their work before they die.
When we see Bruce Willis, who is difficult to travel because of the epidemic, through the technology of AI face-changing, completed the advertising shooting cooperation with the Russian mobile phone operator MegaFon without participating in itself, and took millions of dollars in performance fees, we should realize that the "resurrection of the dead" is already a taboo that is destined to be broken in the modern film and television industry.
In "Fast and Furious 7", Paul Walker, who died in an accidental car accident, finally borrowed the mature CG technology with the help of his two younger brothers to complete the filming work he took over before his death, and there are still quite a lot of scenes in the film.
In "Star Wars Story: Rogue One", peter Cushing and Kelly Fisher, who have died long ago, also got the opportunity to re-stars governor Tarkin and Princess Leia through mature CG technology, making this movie that follows the plot of the previous game more expressive.
A more famous example of the same approach is Black Panther 2.
Chadwick Bosman, the actor who played the main character in Black Panther, died of colorectal cancer before the filming of Black Panther 2 began. Perhaps out of respect for the role played by Bosman, or considering that the series of sequels to change the protagonist will cause a huge public opinion storm, in the end Disney decided not to change the protagonist, through CG technology to "create" a "T'Challa" played by Bosman in the movie.
But if these examples above, these CG man-making techniques, are only forced to use when the shooting project has been started, to some extent in line with the "film and television ethics" in the public perception, then some production companies in some other works show the "eating", it is a bit ugly.
Three years ago, a movie called "In Search of Jack" caused an uproar in the film industry at the time because it featured an actor that everyone expected, James Dean. It is normal that the judges should not have any impression of this actor, although he was voted the 18th greatest male actor in a hundred years by the American Film Institute, but this person died in an accidental car accident in 1955.
A person who has been dead for more than sixty years is suddenly pulled out to play the main supporting role in a movie, and no one can guess it, which is undoubtedly suspected of "eating human blood steamed buns". Although the film said that "this complex role is difficult to find an actor to control, and James Dean is the best candidate", a person who has been dead for many years obviously has no ability to nod or shake his head.
This incident caused a collective opposition in almost the entire film circle that year, and Chris Evans, the actor of the famous superhero beauty team, directly mocked the filmmakers on Twitter, saying, "This sucks, do we want the computer to draw a new picture of Picasso, or write a few new songs by John Lennon?" This behavior is shameful. ”
But there are not many "shameful" things that production companies have done, in addition to the "dead man starring movie" incident that shocked the world, in the advertising industry, there are many examples of "dead people" to bring goods.
In 2013, a whisky maker called Johnnie Walker, after obtaining the authorization of Bruce Lee's descendants, used CG technology to let the great "Bruce Lee" shoot a well-performing advertisement for them.
Also in 2013, Dove Chocolate aired a commercial entirely produced by CG and starring Audrey Hepburn, causing a huge reaction — ironically, Audrey Hepburn had barely ever shot a commercial during her lifetime.
Many times, we want to see the works of these famous people in the real world because we want to feel their creativity, personal charm, and the complex humanity mixed with good and bad in it, and living people are the premise that we respect and love them.
But it's clear that technology can't replicate that — at least not now.
These "big companies" brought dead celebrities back to life, not to let them do this, they wanted nothing more than to let the "Uranus superstars" climb up from the mansion and give them "meat muffins".
The essence of all celebrity advertising and bringing goods is to sell meat muffins
If you don't say that this world is magical and absurd, "Cobain" who has been dead for more than twenty years can come back to open concerts, "Hitchcock" who has been dead for more than forty years can bring goods at Station B, and "James Dean" who has been dead for more than sixty years will be fished up and "starring" in a movie.
So don't talk to me about the metaverse, the real world is already illusory enough.