Chris Crocker: “Leave Britney Alone!”
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- Premiere: 9 / 10 / 2007
- Length: 2:11
- Budget: Low
Leave Chris Crocker alone! No, that’s the last thing this self-proclaimed “edutainer” wants us to do. Made famous for his defense of Britney Spears’ comeback performance at the 2007 VMAs, Crocker was known to millions before as the southern belle (beau?) who used his gender-bending, attention-getting lifestyle to preach tolerance from the basement of his grandparents’ Tennessee home. Leave Britney Alone!, an impassioned attack against gossip columns and other public criticism of Spears’ private life and career pushed Crocker to hysteria of Streetcar-Named-Desire proportions. Crocker’s breakdown brought in over 2 million views in its first 24 hours and has more than 19 million to date on YouTube. The web site described it as its fastest-growing video in history. Orphans only wish their tears were this addictive.
Although the video has been accused of being an insincere and transparent attempt at fame (indeed, the “Internet celebrity” parlayed the attention into interviews on CNN, Fox News, The Today Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! as well as a deal with 44 Blue Productions for his own TV show), the response on the web has done more justice to the phrase “gimme more” than Spears’ lackluster lip-sync ever could. The breadth of parodies and mashups showed that not only did the world watch Crocker, but it cared enough to imitate him…over and over again. Remember, it is the sincerest form of flattery. Really, you’re nobody until you’ve been mauled by a panda on South Park.
Despite the acclaim the video earned, especially for being just a man under a sheet throwing a tantrum in his grandma’s mascara, Crocker lost for “Best Commentary” in YouTube’s 2007 awards. Don’t worry, Chris, I am sure 2008 will bring another celebrity train wreck for you to champion.
Now living in L.A. — he credits wanting to protecting his grandparents from from unwanted attention — Crocker took a break from regular vlogging to develop his reality TV show (for the moment called 15 More Minutes). One only hopes that when those extra 15 are up, Crocker will be lucky enough to have a fan like himself to ask the world, for once, to look away.
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Comments
Leave Barack Alone: “Chris Crocker” Gets Political - NewTeeVee Station, August 4, 2008 at 9:10 AM
[...] responsible for Leave Barack Alone. The clip is an appropriation of the much-mocked (and imitated) Leave Britney Alone, with Chris Crocker’s voice taken out and Beam’s voiced dubbed [...]
Sundae, August 30, 2008 at 9:42 PM
…. God, you guys make me.. well. sick, Ya’ll nedda lay off chrissay! .. like now. because ya’lls jealous of him, so you ATTEMPT to down him. but u
Sundae, August 30, 2008 at 9:43 PM
But you TRY. is the end. but u faild.
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[...] much of his earlier popularity was built on his championing of alternative lifestyles, ever since Leave Britney Alone! Crocker has abandoned his message to instead focus on self-promotion. Who are the people who now [...]