Fake News 2011 Style: Bob Dylan’s Reality Shaping Song

Do you remember the song Friday by Rebecca Black? Friday Friday ooh? Back seat? Front seat? More than anything, it was one of the best marketing case studies I ever lived through.

It became a huge hit within a week of being released, and everyone absolutely loved to hate it.

Things came to ahead when someone on YouTube released an original Bob Dylan rendition of the song, claiming Rebecca stole the lyrics. The voice was right for his 1960s work. Even the cover art made sense.

Hundreds of people shared their fondest memories associated with the historical version, commenting on YouTube on their first kiss, the song playing in the background.

One shared how he feels the song lyrics capture the cold war and the Vietnam experience. Hundreds and thousands kept on sharing.

“Only a Noble Prizer winner could come up with these lyrics,” said one of the commenters, capturing the spirit of the Internet a few years later.

Thing is, it was a fake, and the Interwebz loved it.

It is one of the best examples of positive trolling, pre-historic Internet memes, and the ridiculousness the net is capable of.

The Internet, reinventing reality since 1920.

Original song (sorry):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0

Fake Bob Dylan rendition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FISHEO3gsM

w/ thanks to Tal Engel who introduced me to this phenomenon back in 2012.

Gadi Evron.
(Twitter: @gadievron, Facebook: @gadioncyber)