This is an amazing little video clip a friend just sent me. I think this may have occurred during taping of one of the Big Brother live in reality shows. It’s a 15 second clip of a group of attractive people sitting in a hot tub when suddenly the redhead on the left jumps up holding her stomach and there is a big cloud of diarrhea dispersing through the water around her. It’s funny, yes. It’s disgusting too. But there is something else about this clip that makes it oddly powerful and entertaining. I think it’s the fact that you can tell this really happened, that it’s not a joke, that it’s not staged. The tension on the girl’s face, her body language right before she loses it, and the other people’s reactions seem totally uncontrived and actual. It’s another one of those clips that’s undeniably entertaining in the power of its reality. Its a moment from life entirely fused with a potential re-enactment of a moment from life. And in this way, it’s not only like art, but stronger, more unified and powerful than any art we’ve yet known. To my mind, it’s little slices like this, distributed in a way that’s never been possible before, that’s actually changing the art animal as we know it. I confess I watched this like ten times, fixated on the reality of the scene and on its quick drama: the tangling of disgust and humor. Add to that the fact that it’s the pretty redhead who shits and shames herself…animalizing the princess, which adds a cherry on top.

On a side note, the volume and density of the diarrhea cloud is pretty stunning. We’re not talking Hershey squirts here, folks. We’re talking giant inky squid shots.