Seniors, eclipse and hallucinations: the viral video splitting social media
A viral video of seniors hallucinating during the eclipse divides social media: parody vs degradation. Brian May's surreal theory adds fuel to the fire.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The video of seniors 'hallucinating' during the eclipse that is dividing social media
A video of a group of seniors during the eclipse has become the day's entertainment. In it, several elderly people react with confusion and laughter at what is happening in the sky, though no one is quite sure: hallucinations, a performance, or simple confusion? What seemed like a tender moment has turned into a battleground between those who see it as a brilliant parody and those who consider it degrading.
The Brian May theory
Things spiral out of control when a user claims that one of the grannies is none other than Brian May, Queen's guitarist, who had travelled to Spain as an astrophysicist to watch the eclipse. The claim, linked to a 20 Minutos news story, has given the video another twist: some admit they proposed marriage to the elderly woman in question before learning her real identity.
The deeper debate
It's nothing new: the line between laughing with someone and laughing at someone. Some argue the seniors were just trying to understand what was in front of them, and that turning them into a meme is in poor taste. The opposing camp replies that it's a perfect parody, and that taking it seriously is outdated. The argument goes unresolved, but it leaves an uncomfortable question: why is laughing the first thing we do with something we don't understand?
Politics always finds its way in
As expected, the video eventually turned into score-settling. One comment brought up the management of care homes during the 2020 and 2021 pandemic, with harsh criticism of the Spanish Government and the death toll. The astronomical anecdote then faded into the background, but the resentment didn't need an eclipse to surface.
The eclipse passed, but the video remained. So did the suspicion that, deep down, what amuses us isn't what the seniors are seeing, but how hard we find it to understand what they see.
A video of a group of seniors during the eclipse has become the day's entertainment. In it, several elderly people react with confusion and laughter at what is happening in the sky, though no one is quite sure: hallucinations, a performance, or simple confusion? What seemed like a tender moment has turned into a battleground between those who see it as a brilliant parody and those who consider it degrading.
The Brian May theory
Things spiral out of control when a user claims that one of the grannies is none other than Brian May, Queen's guitarist, who had travelled to Spain as an astrophysicist to watch the eclipse. The claim, linked to a 20 Minutos news story, has given the video another twist: some admit they proposed marriage to the elderly woman in question before learning her real identity.
The deeper debate
It's nothing new: the line between laughing with someone and laughing at someone. Some argue the seniors were just trying to understand what was in front of them, and that turning them into a meme is in poor taste. The opposing camp replies that it's a perfect parody, and that taking it seriously is outdated. The argument goes unresolved, but it leaves an uncomfortable question: why is laughing the first thing we do with something we don't understand?
Politics always finds its way in
As expected, the video eventually turned into score-settling. One comment brought up the management of care homes during the 2020 and 2021 pandemic, with harsh criticism of the Spanish Government and the death toll. The astronomical anecdote then faded into the background, but the resentment didn't need an eclipse to surface.
The eclipse passed, but the video remained. So did the suspicion that, deep down, what amuses us isn't what the seniors are seeing, but how hard we find it to understand what they see.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (17 replies).
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