Now Antoine has done a parody riff of his “Bed Intruder” rant on The George Lopez show. His “Chimney Intruder” song has a Christmas theme, and is all about hiding the presents and the tree from the fat man.
“He’s coming through your chimney, snatching your cookies up, trying to eat ‘em, so y’all need to hide your gifts, hide your trees and hide your eggnog because he’s taking everything up in here.”
I found this cheesy at first but I was soon laughing my ass off and loving how Antoine is so game to make fun of himself. Some of my favorite lines include:
“Run and tell that fat boy,” “I see a fat red guy running around he better have some Kool Aid for me” and “Come through my chimney and I’ll show you a nutcracker” and “All I want for Christmas is for you to keep your fat ass out my house.”
Antoine Johnson has a new Halloween costume for sale, based on his infamous appearance during a local Huntsville, Alabama news interview when he went on off on his sister’s attacker. It includes a frizzy Afro wig, a red do rag and a black tank top with the words “Hide Yo Kids” across the front. It also includes a rolled up piece of paper, which Johnson admitted on an interview was just a bus schedule. You can buy your Bed Intruder costume for $18.99 on BedIntruderCostume.com and proceeds go to Dodson and his family. (We mentioned this in an earlier story but I just saw this new promotional video, above, on D-Listed and wanted to cover it.)
Antoine recently tweeted that he was going to Los Angeles to discuss a potential reality show deal. The thought of a reality show in general on anyone’s life makes me roll my eyes, but in Antoine’s case I say “why not?” The guy is funny, highly likable and is obviously a character. I’d love to get to know him and his family.
Last week we covered Antoine’s performance of his auto-tuned Bed Intruder song on The BET Hip Hop Awards. The consensus was that Antoine did a great job and that he should have sung alone without one of the Gregory Brothers (the band that put out his famous song) trying to chime in too. The Gregory Brothers may have made him famous but we know who the star is.
Whenever I think of that damn “Bed Intruder” song I start to smile and it gets stuck in my head. I’m smiling because the song is so catchy but also because Antoine Dodson’s story is so caught up in it. Here’s a guy whose sister was the victim of a crime who was able to completely change his future by speaking out and being himself.
Antoine performed his signature “Bed Intruder” song on the BET Hip Hop Awards last night. It was just a quick auto-tuned refrain accompanied by one of the Gregory Brothers, the band who remixed it and helped make him famous. The crowd went wild and you could tell that Antoine really enjoyed himself and was comfortable on stage. My only complaint is that it’s too damn short and they should let Antoine cover the song without interferences.
Gawker points us to this interview that Dodson did with The Root in which he talks about the performance, along with people’s concerns that he’s making light of a serious crime. He addresses the questions very well and says he’s hoping to speak out for rape victims. He also says that he’s a proud gay man and hopes to speak out on behalf of his community. The more I hear from this guy the more I like him. For real.
The Root: Did BET reach out to you to do the performance, or did you reach out to them?
Antoine Dodson: I am not desperate at all. I don’t call people and say, ‘Hey, I want to be on your show.’ They reached out to me and said, ‘You are the hot topic right now, so we want you to be on the show.’ I thought I was just presenting. I did not know what I was doing until I got there. So I was like, ‘Oh, I’m performing? OK.’ That was my first performance ever.
TR: Do you think your performance obscures the serious issue of the alleged sex-crime attempt?
AD: I hate that people might feel that way, but all I can say is, ‘What if you were in my shoes?’ So what people are saying is crazy. I’m performing the song because it’s such a serious situation. Not only am I performing the song, but I feel that if I keep performing it, it will keep the situation fresh. It won’t die down. People really need to stop and think before they make these crazy comments and these dumb opinions. I’m not trying to make this into a joke. If y’all can make the video viral, then you can make the message viral. You think a bunch of rumors and opinions are going to make me hide in the closet? If anything, I’m going to be on the camera even more.
TR: The first time you watched your news interview, what was going through your head?
AD: I was laughing like crazy the first time I saw the interview. My whole family was watching it. When I was doing the interview, I was mad as ever, but to see how I was acting when I was actually mad — I didn’t know that I act that way, so it was kind of funny. I’m still upset about the situation, but we feel like when we put it on TV, our voice got heard.
TR: African Americans have a particular, sensitive history with minstrel shows, which made a mockery of the conditions of black folk. Do you think people will connect your performance with minstrelsy?
AD: Of course they will connect it with that. The media is just going try to bring you down, but the whole thing about it is, I’m going to try my best not to be another Britney Spears and not let it take me down. I won’t go through it like she did, but she came out of it. People have jobs where they just dig up stuff, so you better count on it.
TR: Did the perpetrator ever get caught?
AD: No, he did not get caught, and the crimes are still happening in Lincoln Park. He must think that this is a hit around the world now and that he’s just going to keep going around breaking into people’s houses, thinking he can capitalize on it.
TR: What do you plan to do with the fame?
AD: I plan to do a lot of things. I want to be everywhere. I want to get into the music industry. I want to be the voice of the people. Most of my fans are rape victims who are scared to talk about it. I want them to speak about it and do it aggressively — not trying to make a joke out of it and become a celebrity, but to let it flow from their hearts. When it comes to serious situations like this, you should really speak out.
TR: So what are your goals with this?
AD: I’m just going into it as deep as I can. I want to talk about rape victims all over the world, and also my lifestyle. I’m an African-American gay man. Coming from Chicago [like I do], you will struggle with that lifestyle because people fear what they don’t understand, so I need to speak for them as well.
Antoine has an official Halloween costume that you can buy through BedIntruderCostume.com for $18.99. It comes with an afro wig, black tank top, red do-rag and a piece of paper to match the rolled up paper he was wagging in the news interview. He admitted on Fuse.tv that it was actually a bus schedule! He’s not riding the bus anymore.
Antoine Dodson of Huntsville, AL became an overnight sensation after he creatively ranted against his sister’s attacker on the local news this July. Antoine’s footage was made into a song by the Gregory brothers which is still on the iTunes music charts at #54 and has been viewed on YouTube over 22 million times. Antoine gets half the profits from the song and has also benefited from donations pouring in from people trying to help his family escape from the projects. It’s been successful, and Antoine has purchased his family a home:
Antoine Dodson — the 24-year-old Alabama native who became a YouTube sensation after he chased a would-be rapist from his sister’s bedroom — tells UsMagazine.com he is moving his family into a safer home.
“We found a house!” he tells Us, adding that he is so “excited … It’s for my whole family. And these are new houses that have just been built.”
Dodson is paying for the new pad thanks to money he earned after musicians the Gregory Brothers turned his tirade into an Auto-Tuned song that hit the top 50 iTunes list (Dodson got half the proceeds).
“I still can’t believe this,” he tells Us of his sudden fame. “Even though my life is moving forward, it’s at a standstill in my mind. I’m like, ‘Wow! All of this is happening just off a news interview!’”
Dodson says he doesn’t regret going off in the now infamous news segment.
“I was angry!” he tells Us. “I was like, ‘I can’t believe this!’ I was really mad and everybody took the video and put it all out there. Now I’m glad that the world knows what’s going on so they won’t sweep this under the rug. This will bring pressure on the police department and investigators investigating the case.”
Incidentally, he tells Us police still have no leads.
Luckily, he tells Us, “We made enough to move and get a house.”
Dodson says he also plans to return to school. “I signed up to finish my Associate’s Degree in business,” he says. “That way I can take everything to the next level and be on a more professional level.”
His ultimate goal? To “open a salon,” he tells Us. “Or a hotel.”
In an interview with NPR Antoine called his success “amazing” and said that he gets emotional when he thinks about what a whirlwind it’s been. “Everytime I get a chance with my sister we cry about it… two and a half weeks ago nobody cared. Now in the present day the whole world cares… it’s beautiful.”
Antoine was recently in NY, he recorded a video leaving from his house in Alabama and then headed to fashion week where he met celebrities and did appearances. He wrote on Facebook that he “Met so many interesting celebrities that I could’nt believe new me. How kool rite. Luv ya Max Tucci Omarion Katie Couric Mary J Knicks team and evryone I have met and show’d me love. Never will i 4get these moments.” He also met up with The Gregory Brothers of Auto-tune the News who helped make him famous. Antoine blogs that they talked over dinner about possibly making another single together.
You’ve surely already heard Antoine Dodson of Huntsville Alabama’s rant on the local news about an attacker that broke into his family’s home and attempted to rape his sister. Dodson issued a heated warning to the perp and the result was a viral clip that was uploaded to YouTube, made into a parody song and viewed millions of times. It’s currently number 35 on the iTunes download chart with 50% of the profits going to Antoine and his family. The other half of the profits go to the Gregory Brothers of Auto-tune the News, who created the remix a couple of days after the news clip was released. (If you haven’t yet seen the videos, here are links to the original news report, the song, and a follow up news report with Antoine and his sister. Here’s the iTunes version of the song.)
Antoine has his own websiteYouTube channelTwitter, UStream and Facebook page. He is selling T-Shirts, has a blog and has recorded video responses to fan questions. He also has a management team, which sought him out after seeing the YouTube video. He calls his newfound fame “crazy fun. I enjoy it. I enjoy talking to everybody as much as I can.” Antoine realizes that people are mocking him, but he’s ok with that. He told the Huntsville Times “this is a real situation … I want this guy to get caught. If it takes me to be dumb, to be ignorant and act crazy, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Meanwhile Antoine’s sister’s attacker has not yet been caught. Antoine and his family say they hope to move out of the projects to a safer neighborhood as a result of his success. I can’t get the song out of my head and find the video pretty damn funny. There’s the minor guilt factor due to the seriousness of the situation and whether we’re laughing at a stereotype. What matters though is that Antoine and his sister are doing well after all this and that they’re safer with more financial security. Homeboy has to be shaking in his boots.
[Story via ONTD, where they point out that Antoine and his sister have new hairstyles.]
