Thinking Outside the “Dick in a Box”
Conspicuously absent from Sunday’s Emmy Awards were Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake, winners of this year’s award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. Although the duo was rumored to appear, their song — an R&B craft project that's now the sixth most-viewed video on YouTube — was ultimately deemed too hot for primetime.
Their Emmy represents more than a new age of obscenity for television awards — it represents an important moment for designers. DIY has officially trumped mass-produced, and nowhere is that more apparent than with the widespread embrace of heartfelt how-to “Dick in a Box.”
The song’s premise isn’t that different from that of ReadyMade or HGTV or what we might see elsewhere online. Last month, Chicago designer George Aye used 3D-modeling software, a laser cutter, and foam core to create an elaborate proposal to his girlfriend, viewed by more than 300,000 people. “Absolutely brilliant, the most amazing and unique way to propose!” exclaimed one of the hundreds of comments on Aye’s blog.
If a song about DIY can win an Emmy, designers should have no trouble winning hearts. Aye even offers some advice: “If your woman starts hinting, get sketching.”
Alissa Walker is editor of the design blog UnBeige and an avid crafter. Erik T. Johnson is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Minneapolis. His drawings and comic art can be seen in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and the upcoming Nozone XI.
Remarks 15 total remarks were added before the post was closed.
alexB
Maybe these events will finally shut Andrew Keen (author of 'The Cult of the Amateur') up. And yet, mass media is strong as ever. Are we on the verge of an uprising from a future socialist-web liberation front?
sixtoe
Maybe I'm a bit in the dark on the backstory, but I don't think I'd categorize Samberg and Timberlake's project as "DIY." It was an SNL skit, with a team of professional comedians, musicans, camerapersons, producers, and editors. Not many of us have free access to that sort of equipment, talent, and professionalism (not to mention one of the biggest musicians on the planet).
Jason Santa Maria
I often wonder how much media shifts from year to year. As much as mainstream media is the stuff we are bombarded with the most, there will always be a reactive movement towards something different. There was a time when reality TV felt fresh, not necessarily good, but new, and now it's tough to find fake TV.
As the playing field becomes flatter, it gets easier for everyone to be a writer/director/filmmaker. Punk becomes New Wave, what's independent becomes mainstream, and the cycle continues. Something new will jump into the spotlight, waiting to be exploited.
Ricky Irvine
sixtoe -- The song was inspired by this shirt.
Alissa
sixtoe: I don't think the production of "Dick" was DIY. I do think Ricky Irvine's link to that t-shirt illustrates my point beautifully.
nlio
Alissa,
Now I'm confused. From your original "message," I understood you to mean that the video project itself and the fact that it won an emmy illustrated your point that DIY trumped the produced. If the production of "Dick" wasn't DIY, then how does this video as DIY trump the produced? Please enlighten ... thanks.
Alissa
nilo, it's not about the production of the video. It's about giving a gift that's from the heart. JT and A-Sam sing about using your creative skillz to show someone you love them. Who needs fancy cars or a house in the hills to show affection when it obviously means more to do-it-yourself?
Erik T. Johnson
I was looking up references to the video and came across this very funny Ikea-style instructional. It's a great mash-up. (Of course Ikea would have probably named it the “Dikna” Box).
Margherita
Sharing something that should be very private is creative? and on youtube? Mah!
agrayspace
wait wait wait. Your saying the significance of "Dick in the Box" is that fact that it supports DIY ethos. WTF?
It's comedy, though a little machismo and mysoginistic, still funny. But nothing more.
To say this is a shining example of a DIY gift from the heart (a dick in a box) over the produced (meaningless diamond or something) is wrong headed in sooo many ways. Seriously?
Neil Brown
I believe I have to agree with agrayspace on this one. And in addition to his comments, the comparison of George Aye's amazing efforts in his proposal to the individual with whom to spend the rest of his life, is in no way viable. The mysoginistic statements in Dick in a Box should not, in any way, be aligned to the awe-inspiring proposal of Aye.
And, I can't image "Dick in a Box" won an Emmy based on the merit of DIY.
Chris
I think the main confusion here is that DIAB is perhaps too loose of an association (or perhaps too crass) for most people to make the obvious association with DIY. I imagine HGTV or ReadyMade won't be creating an illustrated How-To do other things with your Dick.
Perhaps a better thesis would have been: If an internet phenomenon about making a box for your dick wins an Emmy (and earns countless imitators) and George Aye has to suffer through the often indignities of being an underpaid designer, perhaps we should head the warnings that Andrew Keen's book iterates.
As an aside, what's interesting in reading both this post and the comments that follow is that the countless ways to mock, mash and manipulate media continue to blur the origins of ideas and shifted what we think as ownership and authorship. Ricky - The songs wasn't inspired by the shirt anymore than Busted Tees "More Cowbell" shirt inspired that skit.
However, the irony that the same company that owns Busted Tees, produces their own sketch comedy at College Humor, shouldn't be lost here. I'm sure sooner or later they won't need SNL to generate revenue ideas.
felix sockwell
Erik,
You dirty bastard. Did it have to be a self potrait?
celeb note: went to GQs 50 anniversry party here in NYC last week (Fred Woodard & staff tore it up) and spotted Adam Sandberg in the photo line obsessing over how messy his looked.
There was box all over the joint. But Kanye West? C'mon.
Betsie
The only thing even remotely *funny* about Dick In A Box was the fact that there were 2 guys singing it -- together? to each other?? -- and even that wasn't really funny, just *peculiar*~{{;>}~!!!