If you don’t know who PSY is or what “Gangnam Style” is, I’ll give you a moment to scrape the frost off your eyebrows and emerge from your stasis tube.
…
All good? Welcome to December 2012. Yes, we’re stuck with Obama for a while longer. I know. I’m sorry to be so blunt about it.
Here, this will cheer you up. It cheers everybody up!
What wacky fun! With the horsie dance, and then he’s yelling at the lady’s bottom, and oh, just all manner of frivolity. No wonder this irrepressible cherub has gotten over 900 million views on YouTube in the last 5 months. This South Korean pop star is now a big hit in America.
Hey, did you know he used to want to kill us? Slowly and painfully?
During a 2002 protest concert against the presence of 37,000 American troops in Korea, PSY took the stage in gold face-paint and, with the crowd egging him on, lifted a miniature “American tank” and smashed it on the ground to massive applause. UPDATE: The performance was inspired by the recent death of two Korean school girls who were run over by an American tank in South Korea. The soldiers driving the tank were acquitted by a US military court.
And then in 2004, a Korean missionary was captured in Iraq by Islamists who demanded that South Korea not send troops to aid America in the war in Iraq. Seoul refused to negotiate and the missionary was beheaded. The result: massive protests throughout Korea against both Muslim extremism and the U.S. military for indirectly bringing this fate upon a Korean missionary.
As part of the protests, PSY and several other popular Korean musicians put on a live performance of a Korean rock band’s song “Dear American.” When PSY’s turn came, he rapped:
Kill those f***ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those f***ing Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully
Wow. Criticizing American foreign policy is one thing, but holy crap.
Well, this won’t hurt the guy’s image among the Blame America First crowd. In fact, now he has even more cred. Take that, George Bush!
It remains to be seen whether his White House invitation still stands, though. Tampa Bay Times:
As with Psy’s Gangnam Style video, there’s a lot to process in this news.
The Korean pop/hip-hop star had been booked to perform at the 93.3-FLZ Jingle Ball on Dec. 9 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. But according to the station, Psy has been forced to withdraw from the Jingle Ball lineup for a most unlikely reason: He’s been invited to perform at the White House. That’s right! President Obama is jacking Tampa’s Gangnam Style! Can you believe it?
I can now. He and Barry will have plenty to talk about…
(Hat tip: Katie Pavlich)
P.S. How long until somebody subtitles “Gangnam Style” with what he’s really saying?
P.P.S. So far he’s made over $8 million from the song, about $3 million of it from the people he once wanted to kill. How does it feel to get rooked twice in as many months, America?
P.P.P.S. PSY’s publicist might need a refill on that Xanax prescription. NYDN:
Psy apologized in a statement to the Daily News, adding that the song in question is from nearly a decade ago, and was “part of a deeply emotional reaction to the war in Iraq and the killing of two Korean schoolgirls.”
“While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self, I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted,” Psy said in the statement. “I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused by those words.”
“While it’s important that we express our opinions, I deeply regret the inflammatory and inappropriate language I used to do so,” he continued.
“In my music, I try to give people a release, a reason to smile. I have learned that through music, our universal language, we can all come together as a culture of humanity and I hope that you will accept my apology.”
“It was a long time ago, I’m sorry for what you think I said, just please please please don’t stop the steady rain of American cash.”
I’d accept this as a genuine apology if not for the “how these lyrics could be interpreted” part. Is there some sort of nuance that’s lost in the translation of “Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers / Kill them all slowly and painfully”? Am I interpreting that too literally?
