Katy Perry’s Birthday Video Unleashes Furor with Culturally Insensitive Content

Forget the funny animal videos on the Internet. The stand-up comedy videos also pale in comparison to the way in which this video is getting talked about. The reference is to Katy Perry’s newest video doing the rounds on the Internet. Birthday by Katy Perry has gone viral but has also unleashed a wave of fury amongst her fans, music lovers, and industry watchers around the world for its culturally insensitive content.
What is Inoffensive About Katy Perry’s Birthday?
Katy Perry released the video of her latest single Birthday recently. The video shows the singer donning several different elaborate costumes—each worse than the other. There is nothing offensive for most part of the video, and her costumes too only elicit laughs and guffaws. However, one character featured in the video has raised many eyebrows. The character is a Bar Mitzvah MC, Yosef Shulem. And apparently he wanted to be in a celebrity news gossip videos but certainly not in any funny prank videos.

Many Jewish stereotypes are shown in the video. In one scene, Katy Perry puts on a prosthetic nose and yarmulke and cracks jokes on circumcision. The characterizations, the singer’s costumes, and jokes have offended both Jewish and non-Jewish people. Well, she is not the brightest person around. Why does she hold up a “W” meaning west coast on SNL? Is she on crack? Who cares about the bankrupt west coast?
Perry is all about getting people to watch the latest music videos online. She does give plenty of fodder for folks who engage in the best stand up comedy though. Katy is superhot but she does love herself as much as Arod does.

Not the First Time for Katy Perry
This is not the first time Katy Perry has invited criticism for performing to culturally insensitive content. Last year, the singer evoked the wrath of many people at the American Music Awards by coming on stage dressed as a geisha girl. Perry was dressed in a kimono and had powdered her face extensively. This was one stereotypic representation of the Japanese people that did not go down well with her fans and culture watchers all around the world.
Everyone knows shocking people sells. This is why they do it. To her it is just a funny prank videos and when everyone is complaining she is out watching street bike stunts.

Not the First Time for a Pop Singer
While talking about Katy Perry and the racially insensitive content in her music video, it is worth mentioning that it is not the first time a pop singer has produced such an offensive video. Recently Avril Lavigne launched the video of her single Hello Kitty. The video showed some Japanese women as mere props. The video featured a neon-lit Tokyo and Lavigne prancing around the set gobbling sushi and gulping down sake. The video drew much flak from the masses.
Avril Lavigne is spectacular. Perhaps the Japanese should just make fun of fat Americans and Canadians and laugh it up as well. That would make some celebrity news gossip videos and make some room for the stand up comedy videos that would certainly follow.

Pop singer Sky Ferreira’s video for I Blame Myself was also in the news for using African-American men as props. Miley Cyrus too was criticized for using African-American women as props in her music video We Can’t Stop.
They should be making songs about the millions of Americans out or work and how the EPA is crushing jobs and hope across the American landscape and abroad as well.
It seems that pop stars like Katy Perry cannot differentiate between being grabbing the eyeballs and offending others. They are all copying Madonna who may be out there talking trashing about America like she normally does and watching funny prank videos right now about all this.

Benjamin Roussey