...the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”I gotta be honest with you, I almost always feel the urge to open a can of whupass on anybody who sings Yellow.
The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?
Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. ...Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for hogging the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Karaoke-related assaults have also occurred in the United States, including at a Seattle bar where a woman punched a man for singing Coldplay’s “Yellow” after criticizing his version.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Record Shows I Took the Blows... AAAAAAARRRGH!
In a way this kind of falls under the heading of "This is news?" but there is a documented spike in killings in the Phillipines related to people singing My Way in karaoke bars.
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There's a Karaoke bar just up the hill from here... A Philippine restaurant, in fact. Neighboring Daly City has the largest Filipino population in the US in fact.
ReplyDeleteThere is a prominent sign next to the door, a sort of disclaimer for the regular comedy nights they have. I'm paraphrasing, but it says something like, "patrons are likely to be the target of the observational humor of the comedians. Those who cannot tolerate this form of humor are strongly discouraged from attending." I guess I have a partial explanation now.