Random Musings - For Those Of You Wondering About Rain In The Poll… May 13
I normally don’t talk about non-anime related stuff, but this was too funny to resist if you know anything about Rain or popular Korean music. Time Magazine in recent years has been making a list called the Time 100 - The People Who Shape Our World. They also ran an online poll to see who people think should be #1, and the winner of that by a large margin was Rain. #2 was Stephen Colbert, and that’s what led to the above video.
jaalin at 4:15 pm on May 13th, 2007
reminds me of one of those outtakes in rush hour, when jackie is bagging on tucker for sucking at chinese “he cannot even say three words!! now you know how difficult is for me!”
rain is like… able to speak every single asian language, and im sure he does english fine (not to mention his skills at yodeling).
normally i think colbert tries too hard to be funny and fails about 99% of the time, but this clip is obscenely funny lol
Hinano at 4:16 pm on May 13th, 2007
Oh that rain. I know him as (Bi) or whatever he goes by in Korean. I never liked his songs though…I don’t know why he won that list.
YohJay at 4:29 pm on May 13th, 2007
OH MY F**KING GOD THIS IS F**KING AWESOME!!!!! dude!! nice catch there >w
Knightmare213 at 4:32 pm on May 13th, 2007
@Hanano: Apparently, a lot of other people around the world had loved Rain. I was surprised by two things with The Times’ list:
1. Stephen Colbert is not the first person on the list (like Colbert was).
2. Sanjaya is just behind him on the third spot.
That completely caught me off-guard. Him? The worst singer ever to appear on American Idol?
Ryuma at 4:35 pm on May 13th, 2007
I’m a big fan of Colbert, and think he’s funnier on average than John Stewart’s Daily Show (maybe it’s the whole deadpan “take me seriously but not” thing that Colbert does so well when he’s lampooning the news, compared to Stewart’s often annoying quirky/unfunny voice impersonations).
That said, Colbert’s jokes when it comes to Asian issues is hit or miss (one faily recent ep just went straight for the easy cop out method of making fun of Asian accents and whatnot, similar to the Office’s ep with the Benihana restaurant and how Asians look alike - speaking as an Asian person myself, it could have been a lot smarter and funnier than it could have been).
This Colbert sketch I laughed at. I’ve heard of Rain before but his popularity just baffles me. Not that he’s a bad singer, it’s just that his R&B style is just so derivative and ho-hum average, nothing special to get excited about. But there’s just something strangely funny about a white guy imitating an Asian guy who’s imitating a “black” R&B singing style.
andi at 4:43 pm on May 13th, 2007
YES!I was really looking foward to when colbert found this out. Just goes to show, a few crazy fan-gils can beat out regular fans any day. I voted for Rain like 40 times!
Kaito at 4:51 pm on May 13th, 2007
For those who live in Toronto, Canada,
Rain’s Coming
His posters are posted everywhere around Pacific Mall, lol.
Gloranor at 5:01 pm on May 13th, 2007
I nearly feel from my chair when I saw that poll.
Colbert/Stewart ‘08
Gloranor at 5:03 pm on May 13th, 2007
from laughter (obviously)
mewmew at 5:12 pm on May 13th, 2007
oh, i dunno. sanjaya had a big impact. at least he was, and is more interesting to talk about than chris richardson/blake lewis who imo are mediocre singers (richardson being less than subpar, actually) and are in large part alive due to legions of screaming fangirls. ick.
i faintly remember some korean people on youtube going nuts about this.. >.>
Fuyumi at 5:22 pm on May 13th, 2007
@ Gloranor
Colbert/Rain ‘08, hmm?
GStrike- at 5:33 pm on May 13th, 2007
@ Kaito… I stepped on a lot of those posters that day… lol
nooneofconsequence at 5:45 pm on May 13th, 2007
Wait, are we even supposed to take anything from Time Magazine seriously anymore?
While admittedly I have not listened to Rain, regardless of his talents just reading the guy’s wikipedia article he comes off as a processed pop music act that’ll fall into obscurity in about five years.
Chiu^2 at 5:50 pm on May 13th, 2007
@Fuyumi
I second that motion!
rielle at 5:53 pm on May 13th, 2007
OMG!!! THIS KILLED ME!!!!
mango at 5:59 pm on May 13th, 2007
i’m actually REALLY surprised 53% of the people who voted doesn’t know who rain is…really weird to me.
pLn at 6:21 pm on May 13th, 2007
“His posters are posted everywhere around Pacific Mall, lol.”
ROFLLLLL
NissanNut at 7:59 pm on May 13th, 2007
I love Colbert! I watched this clip last night at work. I died laughing. I’m pretty sure if it’s Colbert, he can definitely topple Rain on the Korean pop charts.
dac at 8:04 pm on May 13th, 2007
@_@ i dont know whether to be insulted, laughing on the ground at the way Colbert sang, or to be buried alive to know Rain is even on the top 100 XD.
keith at 8:07 pm on May 13th, 2007
thats my colbert lol