How many times have we tried to imitate a character's voice or repeat famous movie lines with a ridiculous accent? Thanks to an app called Dubsmash, those imitations have become a new viral storm. Basically, people film themselves in strange situations using audio from a movie or a series, and the results have been curious, to say the least...
If you search YouTube for “Oh, this grease won't come off,” you'll automatically be directed to that epic scene where Homer Simpson is washing clothes in the treehouse while Bart looks on with an expression of surprise and terror. But the truth is that Homer is not alone. Dozens of people have filmed themselves trying to wash something in a yard or a kitchen, repeating Homer's line over and over. What is going on? All these videos have one word in common: Dubsmash. Honestly, it's the first time I've heard about Dubsmash, but a couple of searches pointed me in the right direction. It's an application for Android and iOS that combines the so-called video selfies with phrases from movies and series. In part, we could say that Dubsmash competes with Vine, but user creativity has placed this app on a different level. (Warning: Videos may be a bit NSFW)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/dBuyFq1xOA4
Dubsmashing quickly took over YouTube, and even sparked the creation of an app that presents compilations of the best Dubsmashes. Over time, Dubsmash has gone beyond movies and series, incorporating phrases from athletes and politicians, with incredible results. Now, is Dubsmashing funny? I suppose it depends on the context and the person doing it. Personally, I think the best videos are those with a good degree of improvisation, while the more prepared ones let their artificiality show through every pore. Dubsmash is potentially compatible with any language; however, YouTube searches seem dominated by videos from Argentina and Egypt, with the occasional British short.
I imagine that Dubsmashes don't have enough material for anyone to initiate intellectual property claims (after all, the vast majority of them use audio from series and movies), although the actions of copyright hawks have always been belligerent when a service becomes too popular. Another possibility is that direct competitors like Vine and Instagram incorporate a similar feature into their selfie systems, which would likely generate even more delirious videos and situations. Meanwhile, people are having fun with Dubsmash, and that seems perfect to us.
