The video I chose comes from youtube and is called, “Pig rescues baby goat”. In the video a drowning goat is pushed onto shore by a pig that swims into the water to help. The cameraman’s narration can be heard at the beginning of the video when he frantically yells, “Goat in the water” and then at the end once the goat has been saved he says, “And there he is, the hero pig”. According to the video description the larger context is that the baby goat fell into a pond at a petting zoo and got its foot stuck underwater, which explains how it became trapped. The video is also filmed in a continuous wide shot, with the goat in the center of the frame and the pig appearing in the bottom left hand corner.
When I first saw this video I was captivated by it because, like the zoo spectators in Randy Malamud’s essay “Zoo Spectatorship”, I fell victim to the voyeuristic mindset and found myself interested in the video because of the element of danger that was involved. The internet is filled with video similar to “Pig rescues baby goat” in which a cute animal in peril is saved and many of them rack up millions of views because they allow the viewer gets a thrill from seeing a cute animal experiencing a dangerous situation. Malamud sums up this one-sided voyeuristic experience with the quote, “The voyeur seeks a spectacle, the revelation of the object of his interest, that something or someone should be open to his inspection and contemplation; but no reciprocal revelation or openness is conceded” (Malamud 230). Malamud’s definition of Voyeurism explains why videos like “Pig rescues baby goat” are so popular: they allow the viewer to see something not often experienced in their day-to-day lives and because of this the viewer gains an incredible amount of satisfaction by living vicariously through the spectacle that they are watching, which in this case is a potentially perilous scenario in which a goat avoids death by being helped by a fellow animal. Much like the zoo spectator the viewer of “Pig rescued by goat” is aware that the act of spectating is invasive, but the viewer continues to do so anyway because they get a thrill from seeing this rare side of the animal kingdom, the only problem is that the experience that they are presented with is entirely fabricate. The video “Pig rescues goat” was created by comedian Nathan Fielder as a social experiment to see if he could create a viral video by using a perilous scenario involving two adorable animals, and the result was a success: the video went viral within days. The comedian used apathy, voyeurism, and cute animals to entice the viewer and was so incredibly successful at doing so that the video received 9 million views. When paired with the Malamud reading it becomes clear that this hoax is no different than the entire experience of zoo spectator ship because both scenarios highlight the sociopathic tendencies that we as voyeurs have developed over time. According to Malamud zoos, “foster sociopathy” by giving people the opportunity to get pleasure from feeding animals and watching them mate and defecate. By this logic videos like “Pig rescues baby goat” also feed our sociopathic appetite because they present us with fabricated perilous situations that we ultimately derive satisfaction from because we get to experience a spectacle that is cute or rare. The hoax video is clearly manipulating the viewer’s empathy and love for cute animals, but in doing so it is able to reveal that we as human beings are incredibly voyeuristic and have a deep-rooted fascination with spectating.
Malamud, Randy. Zoo Spectatorship. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Print.
Chris, when I watched this video I was also caught up in the voyeuristic mindset and watching these animals gave me great satisfaction. However, I do not understand how this fulfills a sociopathic appetite. You stated that it may be because we are watching a perilous situation. However, I disagree because I knew while watching the video that the goat was going to be okay since the title of the video states that the pig will rescue the baby goat. If the title had said “baby goat drowning” I do not think I would have wanted to view the video because I would be worried for the goat. I think that if the video was titled “Baby Goat Drowning” it most likely would not have gone viral.
Also, the pig that they point to is “the hero pig” isn’t even the pig that rescued the goat in the water. It is a different pig. Perhaps they are referring to “Pig” as a species rather than the individual pig? Am I the only one who thinks this video was staged/the pig was trained? I do not think this is normal behavior for pigs and I think that the pig may have been trained for the purpose of creating entertainment for humans.
Hi Sonia,
When I said sociopathic appetite I was referring to the idea that we get enjoyment from watching videos of animals who are in perilous situations, even if these situations result in a happy ending. For example, a video entitled “pig and baby goat” would probably get a good amount of views but as soon as an element of danger is involved and the video is titled “pig rescues baby goat” those views sky rocket because people are intrigued by the danger and then the happy end that comes as a result of these cute animals interacting. The sociopathic aspect of this is that we are finding amusement in the perilous situations and rather than just enjoying and appreciating the animals for being what they are: cute animals. Without the danger of the goat drowning there is no popular video because the pig would have no opportunity to come in and be a “hero” pig, but once danger is introduced the pig has the chance to save the day and we as the viewer develop somewhat of a sociopathic appetite because we will want to see more videos of animals in peril that are saved by other animals.
In regard to your comment about the hero pig, you can look up a video that explains how this video was made which discusses that, as you suggested, the pig they used had been trained to save the goat for the entertainment of others.
Thanks for writing about this video, Chris. Could you post the link to the explanation you refer to above? I’d be intersted to learn more about it.
Yes here is the link for the explanation of the video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2My_HOP-bw
Chris,
I was going to use this video for something in this class when I first saw it on Nathan For You! I thought it was a perfect example of how society sensationalizes videos in which animals are the main subject. This is especially apparent when actually watching the episode of Nathan For You, where he shows news clip, comments, and other displays that show just how much of a viral hit that this video was.
Ok Chris, I understand what you mean now by feeding our sociopathic appetite. Thanks for clearing that up for me! 🙂