In the thread of a picture and music tribute video on youtube, following the return of Boxxy in leaked videos of her hanging with friends at an acting festival (conference); a user asked the following.
durok1
“This obsession we all have is becoming unhealthy. What does this girl have that we can't get enough of?”
From the video title “bawxsy” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5ql1IknHkk
That certainly is the question.
A lot of people want to chalk it up to just virgin 13 year olds or pedo-old men wanting to bang her; but that's far too simple and clearly not the truth as there are many very attractive women all over youtube, and a lot with their luscious boobs hanging out. And while some of them may be quite popular, they're not obsessed over like Boxxy. There aren't a thousand parody and tribute videos to them.
Plus that wouldn't explain Boxxy's hetero-female fan base. And Boxxy while adorably cute, is not thmost e gorgeous person or physically fine woman to droll over on the internet. There are easily sexier women on the net to fond over; and there are plenty of other very adorable and sweet teenage girls video blogging. Yet none have gone epic anywhere like Boxxy has.
I think that it's that her joy seemed to be pure and from deep inside; and is hence infectious. As one of her fans put it, something like, in this dark shithole of a world she was a beacon of joy and happiness.
And then I think there are two camps with that. Those who bask in dark and bitter feelings and abhor her joy; and then those who she makes feel good and therefore adore her joyous presentation.
Also, her videos contain a certain distinct sense of humor there that you either get or don't get.
Some people called her presentation childishly stupid. To the contrary, what’s so great about it is that she used child like ways to show unbridled enthusiasm and happiness; the kind we all once had but lost as we grew into adolescence and became anxious, and then now jaded.
Further, her ability to pull it off and have it seem genuine (to the point that most dumb asses didn’t even realize that it’s just a performance; but thinks that she has ADHD, is on drugs, has tourettes, or is just retarded); is brilliant. Her use of eye contact (very important communication technique); visual effects with merely a dark back ground, spot light on her face, dark shirt and some eyeliner; and her spastastic movements that had some declare she surely has tourettes because it would be impossible to fake such a performance maintained for so long (though she was faking); made for a captivating performance that evoked deep (and often emotional) reactions of both joy and adoration, ans well rage and hate; exactly what art is supposed to do.
To sum, I think her draw was 3-fold: non-obvious, but ever present humor; strong visual affects/slash communication techniques, and exuding a pure, unbridled sense of joy which I think connects with a lot of peoples own good feeling of reminiscent childhood happiness; before all the shit.
Add to that a fourth element which is multi-pronged; that being the whole phenomenon and mystery that was built around her by the time things had blown up on a certain image board and migrated back to youtube when she released the third Boxxy video.
She started off on certain sites as just another “if you rage you lose”; but after being used as a troll device against those that really raged at her performances; the combination of love and hate bombing of her videos pushed them to the top of youtube viewership. Then when the unknown girl responded, it became a drama. So you already have mystery, conflict, and drama.
Then she declares in the response video that she won’t answer serious question “because it would ruin the mystique”. So, of course that made people want to know exponentially more. Her unique captivating performance spurred people to parody (some in tribute and some in scorn) and mock her video with numerous replica videos and accounts. This spread Boxxy more widely, and made wondering people want to know “what the hell is this”? Not to mention the fact that she spoke in such coded internet language using image board and teen forum internet jargon that most people who are even regular social media users wouldn’t be familiar with; leaving them wondering “what is she even talking about”; like myself. Now I know more than I ever should know, lol.
On a sidenote, beyond the brilliance of the artistic performance; the girl is clearly above average intelligence. This became clear to me after a couple of views, once I got past the spastic visuals and movements to start paying attention to her words. She uses word phrases that not only ditzs do not use, but regular, everyday average intelligent people don’t use; especially not at 15/16 years old.
I also was amused by her intelligent sense of humor once getting past the seeming surface craziness. She mocks herself in the videos with cleverly ironic lines, and most people never catch that that is what’s she’s doing; because she’s above their heads.
Examples:
“I don’t normally talk like this, I’m normally like all over the place like I am right now, but it’s a calmer voice most of the time; unless I’m real hyped up; because it’s different even still from then”
“I don’t know how to thank him cause I’m so poor, I’ve never had 100K in my
Life; cause I’m a dumb gaian”
“I wear too much eyeliner Addi (which is obvious, as she pulls her eyes wider open), fyi, in case you couldn’t tell all ready”
“boxxyakamoldybread is a failure and troll…who even talks like that; not me”
[aside: these lines are only funny within the context of the video, and in relation to what she’s doing. If you haven’t watched the videos, you can’t get it from reading this. For instance, the last line is in reference to a fake user account of someone pretending to be her, and using a cut up version of her video. For her to say she doesn’t talk like that, and making fun of the video is ironic; because the video by boxxyakamoldybread is her. She’s making fun of the way she talks; but pretending to be oblivious to how ridiculous it is.]
She also mocks you dumbass who couldn’t tell she was obviously performing and called her dumb, retarded, drug addicted. etc, where in her regular voice she says “I don’t have ADD either, [giggles sheepishly] that’s funny to me”. As to say, she can’t believe you all are so stupid that you thought her video performances were actually real.
Showing how even the obvious was over many people’s head, she even expressly says in the video FOAR 4DD1 FRUM BOXXY that it’s meant to be funny; which hence tells you that she’s performing; saying “now , you know, no one will find this funny except a couple of other people I don’t think; so that’s okay”.
Cinnafury says in the video thread:
i have got a wonderful life (18yo), still, everytime i fall back into this vicious circle of boxxy. It's like a drug..
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=l5ql1IknHkk&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3Dl5ql1IknHkk%26eurl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww%252Eyoutube%252Ecom%252Fuser%252FBoxxyPhenomenon%26feature%3Dplayer_profilepage
I think there is a good reason for the sentiment that Cinnafury expresses.
I think in addition to her connecting with her joy; she expresses a lot of love in her videos. She loves, Addi, she loves Ant, she loves Pocky, she “loves lots of people”, she even loves “you guys…lots”.
This helps to explain why her fans where sadden when in the recent July 12th leaked videos she looks unhappy, and express that she “love[s] nobody fully”. The girl that made them happy by being so happy and loving, has seemingly not only lost her joy; but has had the love drained out of her.
Boxxy’s presentation of joy, expressions of love and her adorable, heartwarming smile probably hit some people much like a drug. The purpose of the videos were to make people happy.
Her frantic movement, weird sounds and jitteriness seem to fray the nerves of many. For some people though her spastic-ness wasn’t annoy, it’s just funny. And they keep coming back to view it:
In the comments of the FOAR ANT FRUM BOXXY video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80hx2FfWjow&feature=channel_page)
itsthat1asian says “HAHA. watch from 2:29, after she says something she makes this strange sound and her facial expression is freaking hilarious.
never gets old XD “
Here’s that snap shot of the moment
When people speak of why they so like Boxxy they cite her cuteness (of course, the most obvious thing) her charisma, humor, and that she looks to be having fun; even if she may still be a bit annoying even to those who like her.
When an “OMG, I can’t believe she’s so popular” teen asked why people like her so much, here’s one salient answer that was given by a user:
MaxAgond
Reply | Spam
Boxxy is the result of the removal of all inhibitions by hiding behind an impenetrable shield of make-up, leetspeak, and subculture. In an odd way she is free, because she is so separated from any actual judgement of her real self.
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=rQ8Wn2dK3gs&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3DrQ8Wn2dK3gs%26feature%3Drelated
Another answered on this thread with a more juvenile and less articulate answer; yet gets to the issue:
hjstuckey (2 months ago)
Reply | Spam
Whats so good abou her? Have u watched her video's. first of all she's fuckin Hot! second of all she made people happy with constant drivel of meaningless nonesence that made me so in love with her
Same thread, arafitos states:
Reply | Spam
She's a virus. Her video's are mesmerizing because she's so strange... and probably has ADHD or something.
I don't blame you for wondering why she's so popular.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ8Wn2dK3gs&feature=related
Here’s an example of reluctant adoration:
Sebasness
Any sane person will want to kill themselves before/during/after they listened to this girl.
Then it fucking grows on you. Damn your quirky charm women. Damn it.
And then this in response to Boxxy’s melancholy seeming mood in the July 12th videos:
Tamerica (a female)Bawksy being sad, no matter how much she pisses me off, makes me feel like the little bit of happiness I thought existed in this world has vanished in a dark cloud of smoke.
G_d damn it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyKxqC2bJ34
We can see in these various expressions that Boxxy’s popularity is derived from her having projected happiness and warmth that captured many people ; and her frantic and comical ways entertaining them.
In the midst of a jaded culture, people were reminded of freely given happiness and love.
Such a beautiful article capturing the truth about this phenomena we call boxxy. She will, no doubt be around for a very long time. As her videos bring out a sort of flood gate of feel goodness. Boxxy 4 EVA!
ReplyDeleteExcelent article.
ReplyDeleteBTW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWuExYTm0rI
haha, wow, its been a while since you made a new article, but good job! it really does show why we love boxxy so much.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article, nicely done. I love reading individuals analysis of the Boxxy phenomenon, especially in relation to the greatest mystery of them all. This mystery being why so many normally sane and normal people are inexplicably drawn and later "addicted" to her. Over the course of my involvment with this I can only come to the conclusion that there is just something magic behind these videos, something that none of us can ever even begin to understand.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with AthynKronos. You captured a unbaiased, fair side of the story and a great aspect on Boxxy. I've been following Boxxy's since the beginning and my feelings for her have never changed. If anything, they've grown.
ReplyDeleteI'm just so thankful to witness such a 'messianic' figure one would say. Just like people are waiting for Jesus to return (like myself), I'm still waiting for Boxxy to return. No matter how late or if she never does come, I'll still have a special place for hear in my heart.
iheart you Boxxy.
@Ricardo yeah, "feel goodness" is a good phrase for it.
ReplyDelete@cozad4 Thanks. I wanted to get beyond the usual sexual and pedo meme about why Boxxy is loved.
ReplyDeleteI exactly know why she is so sad now... Internet just ruined her life.. She just wanted to make a few vids to make everyone happy, and now everyone wants to know everything about her including myself, but it just ruined her...
ReplyDeleteiheartboxxy
I wonder if she'll ever love anybody fully again...
ReplyDeleteI did my little effort at trying to make her message better understood in my community: I translated and subtitled her videos to Spanish, just so people who knows her from THE imageboard (we all know what imageboard) could see and understand directly what's she saying. Because for people who can't understand her the way she speaks is funny but that's all.
And I do believe what you say is true. I'm sure you've seen her first video, the one she made before she created Boxxy, when she was just Catie. Although it might seem at first hand that she improvised it all when she started to record, I had to watch the video several times to subtitle it, and let me tell you she prepared it all. She knows what shes doing.
Her sense of humor is not really understood and I think that's a capital problem. As some people pointed me sometime ago "you have to put an ironic face when saying an irony and a sarcastic face when you're being sarcastic, how are we going to know otherwise?" The answer is simple and we can see it everyday in good movies: higher types of sarcasm and irony must be detected, not explained.
You gave me the final piece to understand the Boxxy mistery: she's a drama club member. Now it all makes sense and it's highly possible that she wrote scripts and practiced before recording her youtube videos. Her happiness and pureness can't be faked though, those were real.
I'm not saying I understand Catherine Wayne now. I'm just saying I think I understand Boxxy as a character.
Keep up the good work man and excuse the bad english.
Hardly poor english, friend.
ReplyDeleteGreat article and interesting analysis. I didn't realize her humor was not obvious to many. When I first saw her videos I was immediately drawn to them - or rather to her. It is possible that she scripted and practiced the videos, but I doubt it was done in the normal sense of the words. She may have had a general idea of what was to be said in her head, but I think much of what she did came to her naturally.
ReplyDelete@Real Unmaker
ReplyDeleteYour English was fine. You don't want to see my Spanish, lol.
Yes, Boxxy is a trained actress, and she clearly combined some of that training with her raw talent and personality to pull off what she did.
Stage acting deals with a lot of monologue, and largely involves connecting with a live audience. She clearly used these skills to hold her audience, even when she was transitioning between thoughts.
I do not think that her videos were at all scripted word for word; but like wise as I do in my videos (not the ones on the boxxyphenomenon channel, the ones I do as myself on my personal channel when I'm in front of the camera) I'm sure she thought and planned out much of what she would do and say. You get an ideal of what you're going to do with the video, but from there it's ad lib.
I think Boxxy is not so much fake, as it is an exaggeration of part of her true personality. She takes the joyous part of her personality and accentuates it; creating a set alone personality. That's Boxxy.
Wow, you basically wrote exactly how I felt about her. The way I found her was through a rage thread. Of course I never raged, I fell in love. Of course I believed it was how she really acted, which I didn't mind. For she seemed sociable, happy, and very loving. But even if she was just putting on a performance on youtube, you have to notice that she also was a member of Gaia. And perhaps behaved the same way she does on her videos. But without changing her voice. xD
ReplyDeleteIt truly does sadden me whenever I see that new video. Even though I had no good old times, I still miss them.
I love Boxxy (Catie) and I always will.
What is somewhat interesting is the fact that she's a stage enthusiast/thespian, yet she has to steer clear of the internet because of all the attempts to hunt her down by stalkers and freaks. 99% of aspiring actors and actresses in her shoes would kill for the attention that she's gotten, yet she seemingly has no interest in it. Obviously it makes sense considering she's just a kid, and the nature of the interest in her is pretty disgusting for the most part, but I find it somewhat ironic and sad for her.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER - I think though that while we have seen the last of the boxxy character, there is no way that C.W., being in the line of work that she's going into (stage/drama/acting) could NOT eventually want to leverage all this attention, interest, and devotion. I mean, sure, if she was just some normal kid who was a biology major for example, then sure. But she's a drama nerd.
SO - if she is smart (which she obviously is), she'll continue to keep a low profile for the time being. Let this boxxy thing die down. Eventually people will forget about her, her looks will change, and life will go on. It's not even a year yet. Let's give it 2 years. Maybe 3 years? 4 years?
Then think about once she gets in college. She's young now, but her acting skills, if it blew people away in boxxy videos, are going to be ten times more refined as she learns more and gets older. And at that point, I forsee one of two things happening:
1--She lives in California! Home of Hollywood. Like any aspiring actor or actress, she auditions for some role and completely wows some talent agent away. Deals are signed, stuff is filmed, she becomes a huge star in her own right.
2--One day, completely out of the blue, another video is posted on the boxxy account and the internet breaks in half again. This time, the attention leads to professional offers that she can now actually consider seriously, as she actually has a serious career at this point. She wins as it gets her major attention.
The end result is, one day probably 3-4 years from now the internets' jaws is going to drop when they see C.W. on TV winning an Emmy for something huge and they're going to exclaim "holy sh** it's boxxy!!!" Then the day after you're going to read stuff all over the internet about how she was a child internet phenomenon and whatnot and now she's a big deal, but this time /b/ won't even be able to touch her.
If she's smart, and she keeps safe, she can pull this off and have the last laugh on everyone. And you know what? I wouldn't mind laughing with her. It would be poetic justice for her, for all the crap she's had to put up with, if she could turn this around and use it to fulfill any aspiring actor/actress' dream.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, would be the ultimate win.
Great article. At first I really didnt understand anything she says. English is not even my native language. But after I watched again and again and again and find blogs and wikis about the "recent events" I understand what was it all about. And she is simply a perfect human being. I miss her. I love her and want to hold her hand.
ReplyDeleteI wake up in the morning because of her. Her blood courses through my veins. I hope one day she will write my name on her upper boob.
ReplyDeletedurok1
http://boxxy.urbanup.com/4312944
When I first came across boxxy, it wasn't an original video but actually an adorable video edit/song.. I found it random but so hyper and happy.. I couldn't help but play it again.. and then send it to friends, and search for her original videos. Even now, still, i'm clammoring for more boxxy XD (on this blog). Addicted? I suppose so. It just makes you happy. As someone else said, even her name- quite cute and original, like herself.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyGRPig8BE0
ReplyDeleteHere's the boxxy song I first heard. =)
and the convo I had with another friend:
friend: What are you doing?
me: learning about boxxy : D
friend: What's a Boxxy? o_O
(stalkers only scare her =/ it would scare most girls i think. isn't that mean?)
why people like her and not the other cute girls making videos? because she's cute + she's a gamer who knows all this internet lingo.. that's what drew all the attention of that certain site, because the demographic of that certain site is largely young geeky, anime-watching gamer teens.. so of course they're gonna fall in love with a gamer girl who is cute and whos eyeliner makes her look like a cat (internet loves cats too, which explains the propensity for memes to be made of her pics). The crowd surrounding her has absolutely nothing to do with the "joy and happiness" that she brings or whatever.. that's just you in love with her talking. Sorry, just had to say what I think is the truth about her, after reading through your posts.
ReplyDelete^
ReplyDeleteCompletely disagree. There are many cute chick gamers, but you don't see the internet making a huge deal about them.
Plus, why would they have a big war just over a "cute gamer chick"?
ReplyDeleteI miss Boxxy.... Why cant she come back for one last video to just close things out?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is great! Phenom, you ought to post part two sometime soon.
ReplyDeleteSo, what about part 2, Phenom?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous from October 18, 2009 12:56 AM you are a brother in mind. I thought exatly the same as you because I really love Bawsky too. I love you and I want to hold your hand! Of course in a not gay way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insightful analysis of the Boxxy phenomenon. As one who stumbled on one of her YouTube videos knowing nothing of the Boxxy story, and was mesmerized immediately, I concur with your analysis.
ReplyDeleteBoxxy was lovable for all the reasons you mentioned. Some of them are the same as the reasons why Magibon became a YouTube phenomenon. I analyzed her success on my blog Nightman1.wordpress.com:
http://nightman1.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/what-is-magibon/
Do you seriously believe she was able to do all of this?
ReplyDeleteYou have some facts on this article but, come on, you wrote this article as if to say that this girl is a genius,I'm sure she's very smart but she didn't plan all of this like you have stated on here.
You make her seem as if she is some advertising genius, you make her seem as if she knows what she is doing and she did all of those actions knowing that she was going to lure people in with it.
QUOTING YOU.
"Her use of eye contact (very important communication technique); visual effects with merely a dark back ground, spot light on her face."
"To sum, I think her draw was 3-fold: non-obvious, but ever present humor; strong visual affects/slash communication techniques."
These quotes show that you emphasize that this girl tried to make herself famous by releasing these videos.
We all know this girl is a very good actress, but she did not meant to become this popular.
She was genuinely having fun with her videos because she was acting; she was doing the thing she loves.
Again, I repeat myself, with this article you have made people think she planned this all along, but she did not, she is a young woman who is having fun in front of a camera but in no way she tried to make herself famous by posting these videos.
I found interesting that you made her look like if she used all of these commercial techniques to hypnotize people, you mentioned the dark backgrounds...It was only until the third video that she used a dark background in her video, NOT to make people think she is mysterious but to protect herself from fear someone would recognize something that would give up her location.
The black eyeliner was not to lure people in, it's just because she enjoys wearing make up like most young women.
Im saying that you have made people believe she was using all of thse almost subliminal techniques to lure people in but that did not actually happen in purpose.
I like the way you analyze things, buddy.
But you are reading way too many conspiration and subliminal media books.
The true and only reason why people rused to see her videos in the first place is because she was genuinely having fun while making the videos.
People enjoyed watching someone who was cute and seemed innocent at points, they watched it because she was HAPPY; that is the keyword. It made people think that there still was happiness in this world.
agreed.....
ReplyDeleteThe Anon above me is hurting inside. He needs more Boxxy to cleanse his soul of the blackness eating away at him. Hang in there, Anon, Boxxy loves you even though you don't know it - but I bet you do now!
ReplyDeleteDurok1
"she used child like ways to show unbridled enthusiasm and happiness; the kind we all once had but lost as we grew into adolescence and became anxious, and [then] now jaded."
ReplyDeleteThank u fer dis.
ReplyDeleteWhen my friends and family ask me again why I'm obsessed with her I can now better articulate a response cuz of u.
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