Jordan Peele may not be interested in acting any more, thanks to The Emoji Movie, but we just got one last dose of just what we’re missing out on.
Peele busted out arguably the best Obama impression in comedy this week for an unusual reason: a sort of public service announcement about fake news.
“We’re entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any time,” says “Obama”, adding that those things could include him saying “[Black Panther villain] Killmonger was right”, “Ben Carson is in the Sunken Place” or “President Trump is a total and complete dips**t”.
The footage then goes to split screen, showing Peele doing Obama-voice, to highlight the ruse.
It’s a technique that’s been available for nearly 20 years. In 1999 an Australian ad agency produced a TV ad for cancer research foundation The Centenary Institute “starring” Steve McQueen, where the legendary actor spoke straight to the audience, using words he’d never actually said: “I died in 1980. There wasn’t a cure for cancer then and there isn’t now. But they reckon it won’t be too long before one is found….”
The ad was produced using the same digital manipulation that made the animals look like they were talking in Babe.
That was for a good cause, though, and was done with the express permission of the McQueen estate, using footage from The Cincinnati Kid where he spoke directly into the camera. Now basically anyone can pull something like that.
Peele and his brother-in-law Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti collaborated on the video to raise awareness about how easy it is to manipulate real footage into fake footage, thanks to software like FakeApp. The software has been used to create a kind of incredibly creepy porn, called deepfakes, which Reddit and Pornhub has already moved to ban, and
The average person is probably aware this can be done, thanks to some combination of actual digital literacy and vague techno-paranoia about What They Can Do With Computers Now.
In fact, a number of very clever people were all over it as soon as Buzzfeed tweeted the PSA.
Complete fake. Too nasally & not in keeping w his disposition. Funny tho.
— Ms (@nofreealliances) April 17, 2018
That's cuz it ain't a REAL video of Obama saying that. It's fabricated.
— edBeaty (@edosan) April 17, 2018
Not Obama’s voice or words!
— Vicki Deyton (@DeytonVicki) April 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/ManWithIssues_/status/986344280049573895
It’s possible that one or two of these are Weird Twitter wannabe comedians sockpuppeting in that earnest baby boomer internet tone, but for the most part the kneejerk idiocy is just too banal not to be real.
That is not President Obama's voice on the video. Listen carefully.
— Ellen Garrity (@garrity_ellen) April 17, 2018
It’s a reminder of how guileless, credulous, quick to judge and unwilling to read past headlines or watch past the twenty second mark most internet users are – as well as the lack of understanding about how this is a new level of fakery, and one more people than ever before have easy access to.
What’s more, there are people on both sides too deeply embedded in their own allegiances to trust media that contradicts their beliefs and ideological priorities, or to doubt media that undermines the people they think of as the enemy.
Something is wrong with this video. I don't believe Obama would say those things.
— Janet Reynolds (@Janetvr1) April 18, 2018
Look at how increased awareness that “fake news” is a thing has actually gone for us in the past two years.
People still believe conspiracy theories (like that whole Pizzagate thing) because they want to, MAGA die-hards are able to pretend or believe that the “grab them by the pussy” audio was a hoax, and there’s been a cheapening of the term “fake news” to the point where it’s ultimately meaningless. It swiftly went from referring to actual faked news i.e. entirely bogus news sites and articles deliberately made to look legit to spread misinformation, to clickbait and headlines that exaggerate a point, to any legitimate reporting Trump doesn’t like.
Obama trying to get ahead of the real videos that are about to drop about him, Hillary and all their friends. He will claim they're fake. Wake up people!
— Stef?? (@GodBless_Trump_) April 17, 2018
This doesn’t mean it’s not important to make people aware how convincing a fake video can look, and to encourage a healthy scepticism about crap you find on the internet.
But trying to teach the internet at large critical media literacy is already a lost cause. You might not be able to fool all of the people all of the time, but it’s easier than ever to fool some of the people some of the time, and often, that’s all you need.
