A conversation with Jon Rafman about the Kool-Aid Man (in Second Life)
Martin Kohout: btw a friend of mine asked me if i could ask you what exactly means kool-aid man contemporarily? i mean we both know the history of it via wikipedia, but it’s still hard for an european to judge what it really means in american culture
Jon Rafman: whoa that’s a big question
JR: kool-aid’s place in american pop culture is intuitive to me. it’s hard to divorce it from my own personal nostalgia and childhood memories. but i guess i should try and convey it to my euro compatriots.
JR: first of all, i wanted a secular icon
JR: an american pop icon the resonated with lots of generations
JR: i wanted a brand that wasn’t as ubiquitous as mcdonald’s or coke but still very recognizable
JR: so i chose to ironically appropriate this big jolly anthropomorphic pitcher that had been shoved down my throat in between saturday morning cartoons, i wanted to take kool-aid man back and humanize him
JR: make him my own so to speak
JR: also i liked the sense that he was past his prime. the kool-aid man brand is still alive and kickin but not as much as it once was.
JR: to me it seems like kool-aid reached its peak somewhere in the 80s or early 90s and is now living off his past glory
JR: also kool-aid is stereotypically known as the universal drink of the american ghetto.
JR: in part because shits soo damn cheap. cuz you knows its basically just a powdered mix of sugar and chemicals that come in a bunch of flavors that you mix with water. it’s pretty nasty!
JR: oh yeah have u heard of the jonestown massacre?
MK: yes
MK: it’s falsely believed that they dissolved the poison in it, right?
JR: right, jim jones actually mixed the cyanide with a kool-aid rip-off called flavor aid, but that doesn’t matter because in the collective memory it was kool-aid. after jonestown kool-aid changed forever. now when someone says “mack totally drank the kool-aid on that one” it means that mack has uncritically bought into some ideology or dogma without comprehending what it truly means.
JR: like republicans say that that obama’s speeches are selling kool-aid to a thirsty populous
JR: when you see my kool-aid man avatar in second life
JR: north americans may interpret it in a variety ways
JR: sometimes people make nothing of kool-aid man, i mean most citizens of SL have seen way more tripped out shit than a giant pitcher prancing around the metaverse.
JR: but sometimes other avatars accuse kool-aid man of poking fun of them by his very presence
JR: simply by showing up to a party they think that kool-aid man is making a joke of everything and suggesting that their attitude to the virtual world or their role-play has become cult-like.
JR: often im considered a griefer
JR: a griefer is a sorta terrorist or troll in SL
JR: whose sole goal is ruin others experience of the virtual world
MK: so it can be offensive for some people?
JR: yes, very
JR: okay take this situation for example. i’m exploring a fantasy sim in SL inspired by dungeons and dragons
JR: a bunch of half-elves are taking part in an epic magical battle. two enemy warlocks are casting ancient spells on one another…. and then a giant pitcher of kool-aid walks in and disrupts everything just by his mere presence
JR: so yah people can be really pissed. it’s like i’m destroying the consistency of their make-believe world. kool-aid man’s been banned from dozen of worlds throughout second life just from walking around
JR: but other times
JR: i smash into the room and literally everyone instantaneously says “OH YEAH” in joyous unison
JR: like a dumb celebration of mass consumer culture
JR: or a nostalgic reminder of lost youth
JR: kool-aid man’s presence is often funny to people
JR: random and absurd.
JR: perhaps his presence triggers a dadaist celebration of nonsense. it’s like “look there’s kool-aid man like thats sooooooo random”. but these days everything random. on any given day surfing the web i come across things that are no less random then if i were to bump into kool-aid man. perhaps the absurdity of kool-aid man poping into some random situation is in fact the new normal. does that make sense?
JR: i also just really like kool-aid man’s smile
JR: its empty
JR: you can project a huge variety of meanings on to it depending on the context
JR: sometimes it appears slightly sinister to me
JR: other times it’s downright terrifying
MK: but that’s a great intersection
JR: you know truth is i didn’t think about it so analytically at first, but even now i can’t think of a better brand to have appropriated
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Kool-Aid Man in Second Life .com
Kool-Aid Man in Second Life - tour promo video 2010 (excerpt #1)
