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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 website YouTube channel Twitter, 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.]
Photo below via Antoine Dodson’s Facebook
Yea I felt guilty to. Oh man I felt sooo guilty. I was watching it like every day and laughing like an idiot. However some good came out of all this, Antoine is getting some money from the sell of the song which I brought, even though I like the regular video better but the song is good too. Antoine was just so charismatic and I love how the people at the news station just let him say what he had to say.
I am subscribed to his youtube and he is so funny and nice and just, UGH! I love him so much. He deserves the financial stability this has brought him and his family, and he is actually really level-headed and well spoken and in school getting a business degree and he is just so SWEET. I can’t say enough good things about this guy. I want him to be my BFF so much. LOL.
@ Love Angelina. That’s just the word I was reaching for: charismatic! Thanks doll 😛
I really admire this guy and his ability to take the mockery in stride. Yay for Antoine!
This is a modern day minstrel show, BUT if it takes that to move his family to a safer neighborhood more power to him
Antoine is very entertaining. I wish him much success.
WTF? It’s not a goddamn minstrel show, people LOVE him. He’s a really cool guy, and he’s funny as hell.
“Lock up yo’ husbands too, because they rapin’ errybody!”
“There’s the minor guilt factor due to the seriousness of the situation and whether we’re laughing at a stereotype”
I think celebitchy knows what i’m talking about. This is why I think it’s a modern day minstrel show, people are laughing at a stereotype. That’s my opinion.
glad he’s smart enough to see the mockery in this, that he’s not naive. i’m glad it gets his family to a better place.
i only hope they catch the criminal brazen enough to break into people’s homes to abuse them, if he gets caught… everybody wins.
Bwahahahahaha!
Honestly, this is par for course. Fact is, he is typical for the Black American South. Lol @ the Establishment Black Man commenting regarding the cultural implications.
I absolve myself of any ethical conflicts by adopting yin yang approach. The world oscillates according to ebb and flow. Life is a ceaseless cycle of darkness to light, and out this trying situation something positive has arisen. Yes, the girl was nearly raped but wallowing in unrealized tragedies is useless and achieves nothing. Better to be present. And was is present is this song and the potential royalties that can be gained from this situation. Let’s just hope he doesn’t turn in 15 minutes into a career. I see darkness ahead, again.
Team Antoine! “They be rapin’ everybody!”
I hope they catch the bastard that tried to assault his sister. Antoine is a stand-up guy. And if he makes some cash, good for him.
Okay. Last comment on this post…
I just wanted to add that this comedic trivializing that he seems to be doing is typical in the black American community. It’s a a feature that tends to accompany tragedy for many blacks for reasons that I’m sure you all can surmise.
hmm I definitely have mixed feelings because it does seem especially the two song writers are perpetuating a stereotype and exploiting a bad situation for fun. On the other hand at least the family is profiting AND in certain was at least the actual lyrics aren’t offensive in any way as many popular rap songs have curses and slurs against women.
I’m just wondering, if this kind of thing has become socially acceptable, what is going to be next? What is going to be off limits? It just seems like nothing is sacred anymore. I’m not trying to be a party pooper, and the song is amusing. But since when did it become okay to mock something so serious? Yes, he said it funny, but the fact is he is describing his anger over a perp who broke into his sisters window and tried to RAPE her, and his disgust with how unsafe his neighborhood is. What’s next? If a woman cries on the news about an abducted child and she cries with a slight beat to it, will they autotune her? A gas station camera catches a guy being shot and the wounded makes a bunch of sounds as he lays on the floor dying, will they remix him? Its just, when is this “line” ever going to show up and say “hey, we need to be more sensitive?” Are we so desensitized to violence that we see nothing wrong with this picture? I just find it disturbing on so many levels.
@ Samantha I agree
I guess I should expand on my minstrel show comment. While it is funny to laugh and snicker at his mannerisms that mainstream society associates with blackness, gayness and poverty..there was in my opionion nothing amusing about a young woman being assaulted. I guess my issue is that I worry that while people are laughing at him because of his flamboyance and perceived gayness, they are pushing the issue of his sister’s attempted rape aside. I know the video is funny and all but it’s also disturbing.
F*CKING CLASSY!!!!
I love this vid, I play it on my phone at work. That and the Banana Song.
NSFW!!!
I didn’t laugh at this when I saw it. I just thought it was sweet and that the guy was a bit camp, but I didn’t find him mockable. I’m from the South, and it’s not just black people that get these vigilante-ish feelings if they’ve been violated. I thought it was cool they were being so strong, and was happy it was only an attempted rape.
I’m an African American woman and usually I can laugh at myself, and not get too mixed up in stereotyping. I think I am careful not to be overly sensitive. With that said, there is NOTHING funny about this at all. Just because the family profited doesn’t make it right. The underlying issue is laughing at the rape, in my opinion. I think it’s the combination of the seriousness of the situation, and the exploitation.
I am saddened by the whole thing really, and I think it’s really irresponsible. I think the creators knew exactly what they were doing and tried to pretend they were virtuous when it became popular. I’m probably going to get slaughtered on here, but excuse me for thinking laughing at someone talking about rape isn’t funny, no matter who it is. I understand the finances are helping him and I believe that’s the only reason he is going along with this
It is funny, I love him and I love the high school band performance version of the song too… have you seen it? SO great.. it was a clever little ditty!
@lena & Dominique, exactly.
I don’t think anyone is laughing at rape! Get off your high horse people! It’s his REACTION that is so funny, and yes it IS FUNNY because of what he says and how he says it. It’s got nothing to do with sterotyping or race unless YOU make it into that in your own head.
Antoine and Kelly have sweet humble spirits and a unique way of expressing themselves. They had just been through a traumatic event and were speaking out against the rapist in their own way.
They both have a lot of character and personality and people responded to that, including the people who put the whole thing to music in the Bed Intruder Song. The last I heard, over 800 people have submitted their own Bed Intruder songs on youtube. I have heard a number of them and some of them are amazing!
I know it’s a fine line, but I don’t think the Dobsons are being mocked. I think they are resonating with a lot of people. People all over the world have been sending them money! I am so glad they are benefiting from this financially. I really believe God took a bad event and turned it into something good for the Dobsons. I wish this family the best, and hope their lives are changed for the better. I think Antoine is a sweetheart.
I am sorry but this guy made people laugh which not a lot of people can do. Not at rape and not necessarily at him. His delivery was funny because he is absolutely comfortable with himself which is admirable.
I can’t listen to that song anymore though because I have only recently started to get it out of my head but “run and tell that” always comes back every now and then…
You know what, this cat has a little star shining in him. He is going to be okay. What a wonderful brother he must be, to fight with some strange rapist for the life and dignity of his sister.
I think his initial interview stands on its own, and I don’t really like/find uncomfortable the two white guys who are kind of obviously making fun of him. Their motives are more condescending. But he is making money from it, so that’s good.
His response to the news reporter was not just angry, it was satirical and blunt. Its like he was saying, “Yeah assholes, figure it out. People get raped around here. This is real and it’s not just happening to my sister.”
So good for him! Ring me up anytime!
Ok ViktoryGin
He is NOT “typical” of the Black American South. Comedic trivializing is NOT “typical” in the Black American Community. And I am oh so incredibly curious as to what reasons blacks have to act comedic in the face of tragedy, especially since we all can obviously surmise those reasons, according to you. You are stereotyping to the extreme and I hope that I can help you understand why everything you said is offensive. Your little disclaimer about absolving yourself from ethical conflicts and yin yang BS does not give you permission to stereotype or pre-judge.
Anyway, I am glad the family is OK and that in the end, no one was harmed physically, emotionally or mentally. It’s nice that they found the light in a dark situation I guess…I’m tired of hearing about it though.
you’re kidding me right?
I hope he/she/it is. If it was two black guys, he/she/it would find it acceptable if not amusing. That little star shining has dumbass written all over it.
I love Antoine, and I did laugh at the Bed Intruder Song. No one is laughing at rape. Antoine’s threats to the intruder and his comment to lock up everyone to keep them safe, including the husbands, were pretty damned funny. He was making a point about high crime rates in poorer neighbourhoods. He was calling out the assholes who perpetrate these crimes. I thought he was cute and didn’t think of him as some sort of “typical Southern black male”. He seems like a pretty unique guy to me. He’s saucy character, and that’s what people respond to. I love that he and his family have managed to get some sort of financial gain out of a bad situation.
“Wellst, obviously, we got a rapist out eerr.”
You all missed the funniest part. When he was describing the intruder.
“he got a coffee complexion, low cut hair like a Caesar, smooth skin” lol. If that’s not funny I don’t know what is.
Racial steroetype aside.
“Perhaps I know best why it is man
alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.”
-Nietzsche
Feel sad that people are turning this thing into a “racial” matter (oh america).
antoine’s delivery is so priceless, so charming. soooo viral-bound.
it’s tragedy meets comedy, and if you think this is unfunny….well, welcome to the postmodern world.
He saved his sister from a rapist! He is a hero! I bought his song because he deserves a reward for doing the right thing!
I’m just wondering if these two guys would have mocked him if Antoine was white?