Can a Librarian Enjoy a Fart Joke?

I recently received an e-mail from Martina Kominiarek, executive director of our county library system, regarding my candid-camera style “Farting in Public” video. Seems a library patron complained to her about the video, which has been viewed more than 1.7 million times on YouTube. You can imagine the sinking feeling I had when I received her e-mail (which I first thought was a practical joke). Turns out she wasn’t angry about Spencer’s farts or my hidden camera. In fact she’s invited me to speak at the library!

Here’s an excerpt of an article that ran today in The Morning Call.

‘Gone with the Wind’ it’s Not.
Lowbrow Doylestown auteur finds YouTube fame a real gas.
 By Brian Callaway of The Morning Call

Doylestown has long cultivated an upscale, respectable image for itself courtesy of museums, boutiques and an imposing county courthouse. That reputation may be a little tainted now thanks to a video, a Web site, and a kid with what sounds like dreadful flatulence.

The short video of an adolescent boy walking through Doylestown using a hidden machine to simulate the sounds of passed gas and to shock passers-by has become a hit on the Internet’s popular site YouTube. The boy breaks wind on Main Street. He cuts the cheese in local stores. He blats his way through the Bucks County Library Center.

And while some people are raising a stink, not everyone’s upset about the video.

”I am not a particular fan of that style of humor,” said Martina Kominiarek, executive director of the county library system. ”But I do love humor that involves putting people in unusual situations and seeing how they respond.”

She’s taking that grudging respect one step farther, inviting the video’s maker to speak at the library.

”It’s Doritos for the brain,” he said of the concept. ”It’s low-brow, it’s self-deprecating, short humor.”

John Davis, Doylestown’s borough manager, hasn’t seen the video and said he doesn’t want to.”It’s not an achievement that I think I’m eager to embrace,” he said. ”It’s not as though I feel that there’s a dignity to this community that I think has been violated. It just sounds low-brow.”

”What the video shows is that we do treat library users with respect, even under duress,” Kominiarek said.

Nalty hid his camera in a rolled up magazine or behind bookshelves, and didn’t ask to shoot in the building. The county library system’s board of directors has now asked for a policy that would address surreptitious filming.

”He was afraid we would be offended, and he was surprised we weren’t,” Kominiarek said. ”I love that we have a presence on YouTube, because the fact is, it’s one of the most powerful media outlets that there is right now.”  For full article see The Morning Call.

I’ve been called a “Viral Videologist,” “Borat of the Internet”and the “Auteur of the Awful.” But I quite like Brian’s “Lowbrow Auteur” line. Sums it up nicely.

Maybe I need to edit this Nalts listing on Encyclopedia Dramatica I just discovered last night.