Analysis of the BadgerBadgerBadger flash animation

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this site, which features a flash animation along with an accompanying song (consisting almost exclusively of the words "badger", "mushroom", and "snake" repeated over and over) The popularity of this site is astronomical, and everyone who visits it either loves it and must pass it along to others, or they just flat out "don't get it." I was one of the ones who loved it, and my wife was one of the ones who didn't get it.

This presented me with a dilemna, because I was suddenly forced to explain why something so non-sensical was so darned addictive and appealing. It took a few days to finally come up with an adequate explanation of why. I figured I'd share it here as well, hence:

My Analysis of the BadgerBadgerBadger Flash Animation

The BadgerBadgerBadger Song (henceforth referred to as Bx3) gains its appeal from the subconscious recognition of the strong symbolism inherent in the video and song.

We begin with a single badger in an empty field standing on two legs, arms outstretched, bouncing up and down in place at a fast pace. As we watch, in each instance of the word "Badger", a new badger appears, and like the ones before it, bounces up and down in place. Soon the field is rife with bouncing badgers.

Let us examine the badger itself. The choice of this animal is curious, as it looks like a cute, fuzzy little critter, but in fact is capable of violence so horrific as to drive off even bears from its habitat if cornered. The anthropomorphic stance it assumes in the video immediately associates it with mankind. The choice of coloring is excellent, as the black and white stripes imply no dominant particular coloration, and the lack of eyes implies a certain blindness, or hidden character behind the mask. Thus, the badger itself is a representation of humankind, a curious and aesthetically pleasing animal with a viscious mean streak, that does lots and lots of moving about, at a very frantic pace, but never really gets anywhere specifically, and overpopulates the area in the process. The monotonous, stead, rapid pace of the chanting of badger is symbolic of our own hurried, droning daily existance.

Suddenly there is a perceived threat: a mushroom, spoken in an ominous and threatening tone, then repeated in an even more dramatic fashion, along with a closeup. The symbolism here is on several levels. The mushroom plays upon mankind's now inborn fear of the mushroom cloud, the result of a nuclear device being detonated. Yet in reality, it is merely a mushroom, safely off to the side, and not really a threat. The gravitas with which the announcer says "mushroom", then repeats it with greater urgency, and is later joined by many other voices repeating the word "mushroom" in progressively more foreboding tones is an emulation of yellow journalism, and their tendency to overbroadcast and rebroadcast an otherwise sensationalized non-threat. The fact that this happens this happens three times, seperated by more of the droning existence of badger life, represents the regularity with which we are bombarded by false threats to interrupt an otherwise dreary existence of bouncing up and down frantically in place. The badgers are able to see the mushroom, but otherwise go about their daily lives, perhaps concerned, but otherwise unchanged.

All comes to a head though when the snake appears. Panic breaks out. We are shown a visual representation of a cry of alarm "argh!" followed by a snake cooly slithering across the desert. The snake is an alien entity to the badgers: it has no arms and legs, it does not hop up and down in place, it moves about freely, coming from a place unseen and disappearing into a place unseen. The snake stares at the viewer, cooly challenging them to try and stop it. The snake scene is representative of threats in faraway lands. The badgers and mushrooms subsist in the same climate, a rather plain, utopian meadow of blue skies and green grass. The snake, however, slinks across a harsh desert land under an unforgiving sun over a lifeless and barren land. This is how humans tend to view any third-world nation: a hostile and barren godforsaken place. The snake is representative of the rebel or terrorist underground element that is capable of disappearing from the public radar as quickly as it appears. Like the snake, the terrorist lays in wait until its prey is close enough to swiftly attack. It could happen anywhere, anytime. When the snake element suddenly rears it's ugly head and rampages across the landscape, suddenly the voices lose their gravitas and become genuinely concerned, worried for the lives, panicky, then with each repetition of the word "snake", it becomes a little less panicky, a little less urgent, a little less interesting, until finally the snake is once again off the public radar, and the badgers return to their daily existance of hopping up and down in place.

Thus, the Badger Song is a very clever and symbolic representation of mankind and its relationship to current events in the media, and the unrelenting and frantic rhythmn to which mankind has consigned his life.

Thus, the Badger Song is a very clever and symbolic representation of mankind and its relationship to current events in the media, and the unrelenting and frantic rhythmn to which mankind has consigned his life.

While I can see where you're coming from on this one. I also feel that maybe you have a little too much free time. You need to take a leaf out of Grady's book and take up golf or something

The animation itself is excellent and I have forwarded it to all my peeps.

It stands to reason that if you keep looking you will find something... art is mostly subjective. Political and subjective. Snakes and mushrooms can both kill badgers, but if we all stand and dance together as one 'aware' badger then we shall overcome all manor of mushrooms and snakes.

Originally posted by ChiKeyMonKey
While I can see where you're coming from on this one. I also feel that maybe you have a little too much free time.

Would that that were true. I actually have almost no free time these days, with the baby on the way, the home improvement projects, normal house maintenance, refinancing negotiations, etc...

I think writing stuff like the analysis of badgerbadgerbadger is a way for me to ignore all that for a few minutes before going back to bouncing up and down in place frantically.

I am actually amazed by how much effort you put in and the amount you actually produced for this. maybe you could start explaining all the random stuff out there and then maybe the world would be a happier place because everyone would just be laughing so much at all the random things we see in everyday life. Orrrr you could do an analysis on a jean claude van dam film, for some reason i find them hilarious i don't know why. actually if you are ever bored and wanted to do a scene from one of his films i'm almost certain i wouldnt be able to stop laughing. cheers, peace!