WEBVTT

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(Cell phone ringing)

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(Laughter)

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Hey. Sorry about that, folks.

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My friend sent me
the most adorable cat video,

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and I had to get it posted to Facebook.

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I mean, you guys know how it is, right?

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It's like you're in the middle
of doing something important,

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like work or spending time
with your children

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or giving a TEDTalk.

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All of a sudden, there's that ding
that says, "You have a new message."

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Someone's posted something
to Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest

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or tagged you on Twitter,

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and you have to drop
whatever it is you're doing

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and go check it out, right?

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I mean, it's a common problem these days.

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And the internet has gotten
a pretty bad rap for it, hasn't it?

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I mean, it's considered
the ultimate time waster.

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It's a collection of banality,

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a scourge on our society
that makes everyone less interesting,

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less intelligent, less creative,

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less social, less active.

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You've heard these complaints, right?

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That children don't know
how to make eye contact,

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and teenagers can't hold a conversation,

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and none of us can spell anymore.

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This is what the internet
has done to us, right?

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Well, check this out.

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Maybe this is a familiar idea
to some of you guys:

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the theory that if you took
an infinite number of monkeys

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and gave them an infinite
number of typewriters,

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they would eventually come up
with the collected works of Shakespeare.

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Is this a familiar idea?

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That even monkeys would
come up with something good

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if given enough time
banging away at a keyboard?

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Well, my fellow monkeys,
now we have this belief:

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the internet has finally
proven that one false.

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(Laughter)

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Yeah.

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But here's the thing:

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I don't necessarily believe that.

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You see, I'm a folklorist,

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and folklorists,

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unlike literature scholars
or art historians or music scholars,

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we don't look to the productions
of the rare geniuses of humankind

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as the only cultural products
worth paying attention to.

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We look to other kinds
of cultural productions,

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productions that I think
make the state of our digital lives

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seem a little less dire.

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You see, the problem here

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isn't with the connection
of all of us to monkeys.

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The problem is with the assumption

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that the collected works of Shakespeare
is the only valid cultural output

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that a bunch of monkeys
might come up with.

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That's the influence of institutions
on our cultural thinking,

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the idea that the stuff
worth paying attention to

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is the stuff produced by the rare talents,

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the unique minds,

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the great geniuses among us.

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What folklore studies is all about
is what all the rest of us can do,

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the stuff that everybody
is capable of producing.

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So, you know, sure, we can't all paint
like Van Gogh or Monet,

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but we can all manage
a pretty decent stick figure

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or come up with some
good bathroom graffiti, right?

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And we may not be able to sing
like Barbara Streisand

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or engineer a structurally sound bridge

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or something like that,

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but you know, we can manage
a jump-rope rhyme

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or make a mean paper airplane, right?

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That's the folk culture side of things,

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the types of artistic,
expressive, cultural production

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that everyone is capable of engaging in.

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Now, this isn't what most people
think of when they think of folklore.

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Most people think of things
like quilting or old wives' tales

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or apocryphal stories, stories
of Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan,

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things like that, right?

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In fact, when you think of folklore,
you probably think of these guys,

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Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,

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who gave us one of the most famous
and beloved collections of folklore

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that we have today: "Grimms' Fairy Tales."

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And all of these things -

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quilting and Johnny Appleseed
and Grimms' Fairy Tales -

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are absolutely folklore,

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but they're not folklore because
they're old or provincial or false.

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They're folklore because
they're the culture of everyday people.

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You see, the Grimms were unique

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because they recognized
the value of stories

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that other scholars
didn't even find worth considering,

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much less documenting.

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The Grimms knew that in order
to truly understand a group of people,

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you need to look
at the cultural productions

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that everyone is engaging in,
not just a select few.

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But let's take it to the next level.

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Imagine, for a moment, all the folklore
that the Grimm brothers didn't collect:

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all the dumb jokes

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that everyone in Germany
in the early 1800s absolutely knew;

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all the legends and rumors
shared over beer and bratwurst;

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all the incomprehensible
slang terms and swear words

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that every German teenager knew
and could use to perfection.

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How much better would we understand
German culture at that time

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if we had all that documented as well?

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Which brings us back to the internet.

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The internet has been described

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as "the world's largest,
unintentional folklore archive."

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All of our lame jokes;

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all of our rumors and legends

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about politicians
and celebrities and corporations;

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all of our incomprehensible slang

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is now being shared in a venue

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where just the act of sharing it
turns it into documented cultural data.

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This is unprecedented.

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For the first time in history,

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we are preserving our folk culture
in all its artistry,

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its wisdom,

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its insight,

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its offline manifestations
as well as its on;

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its social commentary

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as we create and share it.

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(Laughter)

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Are you capable of taking
a picture of Boromir,

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slapping some text on him
and posting it to Facebook?

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That matters.

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That is a valid cultural performance.

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Making an internet meme
or even just sharing one on social media

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is participating

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in the documentation and preservation
of contemporary folk culture.

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If we want to know how people,

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not the media, not political leaders,
not famous authors or filmmakers,

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but just people feel about something,

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we can look at our
shared cultural creations

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to understand how we feel about it.

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Anyone remember this guy?

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His name is Lieutenant John Pike,

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and he made the news in 2011
when he was caught on camera

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pepper-spraying a bunch of
peacefully protesting UC Davis students.

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He's better known online as
"Casually Pepper Spray [Everything] Cop."

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And he's the subject of a lot
of contemporary folk art.

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Some of it funny;

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some of it serious;

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all of it poignant.

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Now, if we wanted to better understand
this particular moment in history,

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we could absolutely go back

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and read the newspapers and magazines
that were published at that time;

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we could go and watch past episodes
of the nightly news or the daily show,

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but we could also look to each other
to see what we were saying,

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what we thought was important,

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what we found worthy
of passing on to others.

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Now, of course not all culture
on the internet is serious.

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Right?

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There's a lot of silly
and trivial and unimportant stuff

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on the internet these days.

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But we need to remember
that one, that's not new,

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and two, that's not unique
to the internet.

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There has always been silly, trivial,
unimportant, fun culture in the world,

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and we have always stood to gain
a better understanding of ourselves

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if we pay attention to it.

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You see, folklore doesn't get
passed on for no reason.

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If a joke or a story or an internet meme
isn't saying something,

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if it isn't poignant
or illustrative or relevant

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or at least funny,

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it's not going to stay in circulation.

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So if something is staying in circulation,
then it's saying something.

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So the next time you lose an hour
to browsing the internet,

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don't feel so bad.

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Would you feel bad if you lost that hour
browsing in a museum?

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Probably not.

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And I'm not suggesting that you
shouldn't also spend time in museums,

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but don't let yourself fall into the trap

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of thinking that the only
worthwhile culture is high culture.

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If we look at the internet
for what it's documenting,

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what it's preserving,
what it's telling us about ourselves,

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then it's time well spent.

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So before I go, we should probably
document this moment as well, right?

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Are you guys up for a group selfie?

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(Laughter)

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Alright.

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Say cheese.

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(Audience) Cheese.

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(Laughter)

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Thanks.

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(Applause)