What makes a title? 
Maybe it’s a quick attention 
grabber. A one-word sucker punch 
that knocks you off your feet and 
leaves you wondering where it came 
from. I’m talking about movies like 
“Her” (Spike Jonze) which implies 
some sort of a romance, “Raw” 
(Julia Ducournau) which evokes 
a … meaty (?) feeling or “Parasite” 
(Bong Joon-ho), whose abstraction 
has the ability to evoke different 
thoughts in different people. What 
these words might refer to remains 
to be seen, but they light fires of 
intrigue in the mind.
Maybe a title is some strange 
phrase hitherto unheard by the 
audience. “The Bad Sleep Well” 
(Akira Kuro-sawa), “You Were 
Never 
Really 
Here” 
(Lynne 
Ramsay), 
“Eyes 
Wide 
Shut” 
(Stanley Kubrick), “Man Bites 
Dog” (Benoît Poelvoorde), “There 
Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas 
Anderson). These titles may lack 
deep meaning, yet they find the 
cash to lease significant mental 
real estate. They’re catchy, zingy 
and rad as hell.
What 
if 
instead 
of 
being 
completely 
meaningless, 
titles 
hold 
intense 
meaning. 
I’m 
talking about the movies that are 

ultimately spoiled by the title. 
There’s 
“The 
Empire 
Strikes 
Back” (George Lucas), “Death of a 
Salesman” (Volker Schlöndorff), 
based on the famed play of the 
same name and the fantastic 
progenitor of this subgenre in 
1957’s “A Man Escaped” (Robert 
Bresson), a movie built around the 
imprisonment of a prisoner of war 
in World War II.
Drawing on Hitchcock’s theory 

of tension, these films build 
suspense through dramatic irony. 
Instead of worrying and fretting 
about what may happen, the 
viewer is left to cope with how 
it will happen — you learn about 
the bomb under the table before 
the movie even starts. No matter 
what the Rebel Alliance does, you 
know for a fact that Darth Vader 
will prevail. No matter what Willy 
Loman does with his life, you know 

that he will die and be reduced 
down to a salesman. No matter 
what conflicts our POW hero will 
deal with, you know he will escape. 
In these films, the creator and 
viewer share a twisted knowledge, 
allowing them to delight in a kind 
of horrific anxiety. When the 
movie begins, the director looks 
you in the eye and says, “Get ready. 
You have two hours to prepare,” 
knowing full well that no matter 

what we do, we won’t be ready for 
what the title has preordained.
What if you could pack even 
more into a title? What if you 
wanted your title to not only grab 
one’s attention but also to stand 
alone as a one-line poem? To do 
that, you’re going to need a larger 
character limit. I’m not talking 
about one, two or three words 
anymore. Oh, no no no. It’s time for 
the big boys.
Andrew Dominik’s 2007 anti-
Western 
“The 
Assassination 
of Jesse James by the Coward 
Robert 
Ford” 
exemplifies 
the 
long-winded title’s majesty. The 
title alone gives us so much. We 
are again given the ending before 
the projector can even get warm. 
The title fails to provide insight on 
character and theme. There’s the 
obvious: Robert Ford is a coward. 
But that distinction adds an air of 
curiosity to the film. How could 
the last great American outlaw be 
assassinated by a coward? That 
seemingly oxymoronic concept 
serves as the seed from which this 
movie’s conclusions on bravery, the 
Western and myth grow.
Long Titles can also be used for 
comedy, like Sacha Baron Cohen’s 
“Borat: 
Cultural 
Learnings 
of America for Make Benefit 
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” 
and its sequel, “Borat Subsequent 
Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious 

Bribe to American Regime for 
Make 
Benefit 
Once 
Glorious 
Nation of Kazakhstan.” Both titles 
find humor in their own absurdity, 
mixing broken English and word-
salad resulting in an … *ahem*… 
Great Success! Titles can also be 
unintentionally hilarious, like the 
Rise of the/Dawn of the/War for 
the/Kingdom of the Planet of the 
Apes series (Matt Reeves) that 
seems to add an element every 
time you blink.
There are the long titles that 
opt for dual-self: the Ors. Stanley 
Kubrick’s 
raucous 
satire 
“Dr. 
Strangelove, or How I Learned 
to Stop Worrying and Love the 
Bomb,” 
Alejandro 
González 
Iñárritu’s 
dreamlike 
drama, 
“Birdman or (The Unexpected 
Virtue of Innocence)” and Pier 
Paolo 
Pasolini’s 
wholesome, 
family-friendly 
comedy, 
“Salò, 
or the 120 Days of Sodom” all 
serve as examples of this naming 
convention. These films offer the 
best of both worlds: You get the 
quirky, one-word sucker punch 
while gaining early exposure to 
the films’ themes. As cool as these 
titles are, I can’t help but find 
them a little cowardly. Instead of 
running full steam ahead into the 
land of the wordy, they chicken out 
and settle for compromise. 

4 — Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Hundreds 
of 
University 
of 
Michigan students and Ann Arbor 
community members took to the 
Blind Pig’s sold-out dance floor 
Friday night to laugh and cry, sway 
and mosh, bob and headbang, 
clap and create harmonies under 
a disco ball as Ann Arbor’s best 
bands performed for Battle of 
The Bands. MUSIC Matters — a 
student organization dedicated 
to showing that while igniting 
social 
change 
through 
local 
philanthropic endeavors — holds 
the Battle of The Bands every 
year, allowing students to vote on 
their favorite local band. The top 
act wins a cash prize, and all the 
acts — Cherry TV, Hemmingway 
Lane, VUP, Tea & Sympathy and 
Joe and the Ruckus — increase 
their rapidly growing popularity 
and student fanbase.
The night started with a steady 
roar at 8 p.m. People huddled in 
from the cold, grabbing drinks 
from the downstairs bar and 
sprinting up to the center of the 
dancefloor for Ann Arbor indie 
rock/funk/pop 
band 
Cherry 
TV. Music, Theatre & Dance 
freshman Erek Mirque and LSA 
fifth 
year 
Trevor 
Soranno’s 
steady guitar riffs quickly melded 
with the soulful voice of Kiran 
Mangrulkar, Music, Theatre & 
Dance and Kinesiology senior, 
and smooth song of LSA/SMTD 
Senior Anna Agrawal, LSA and 
Music, Theatre & Dance senior, to 
create a near-symphonic quality 
to the band. Agrawal belted out 
a reinvented rendition of Billie 
Eilish’s ballad “wish you were 
gay”; Music, Theatre & Dance 
junior Aidyn Connor brought a 

new instrumental bassline and 
bluesy solo; and Music, Theatre & 
Dance junior Annie Hayes held a 
danceable rhythm on the drums. 
In the final moments of the set, 
the whole crowd joined in as the 
band danced to Mangrulkar’s 
rendition 
of 
dance 
anthem 
“Everybody Talks.” The band and 
the audience had the time of their 
lives; everybody was ready for the 
night.
The 
crowd 
hummed 
with 
restlessness as we awaited the 
next set. Small talk and whispers 
floated over a soft house-y playlist, 
allowing everyone to absorb the 
energy and rest up for the second 
set. 
Local 
indie 
rock 
band 
Hemmingway Lane played only 
original songs, but by the way the 
crowd reveled in their sound, you 
would never know they weren’t 
playing top hits. The band had 
the perfect garage-rock/surf-rock 
sound, with none of the cheesiness 
and all of the great noise and 
great hair. Gunther Gottschalk 
and Logan Floyd created catchy 
riffs, bringing an electric melody 
to the bass/guitar-heavy sound. 
Drummer Noah Jankowski “made 
as much noise as possible” for 
the band’s top single, “Teenage 
Fever Dream,” with a danceable 
yet moody beat. As LSA junior 
Oliver Satola “tickled the ivories” 
with a subtle melody and rocking 
solo, vocalist Elija Flood’s soft 
yet gritty voice rang out through 
the audience. In the final notes of 
the set, the audience, exhausted 
from thrashing their heads to the 
music, took out their phones to 
download the setlist. 
The stage began to crowd 
as we awaited the next band, 
buzzing with slight drunkenness 
and the energy that only comes 

with a disco ball and hundreds of 
antsy beanie- and piercing-clad 
students with ‘M’s on their hands 
(for under 21).
VUP brought a new, jazzy 
feel to the venue, as hundreds 
of people swayed to the rhythm 
of their original sound. LSA 
sophomore 
Ariana 
Kertsman’s 
sweet and powerful voice sang 
out, scatting and singing “you put 
a spell on me” as the audience fell 
for the band’s jazzy, instrumental 
sound. Music, Theatre & Dance 
sophomore 
Adam 
Hayes’s 
trumpet roared as Music, Theatre 
& Dance sophomores Darren Lee 
and Oh Cook kept an energetic 
sound on the saxophone. Every 
instrument made gorgeous noise 
while never competing for the 
spotlight, and the entire band 
quietly 
sang 
along, 
dancing 
around the stage and feeding off 

of each other’s energy. The band’s 
cohesive sound was completed 
by the rhythms of Annie Hayes’s 
steady and powerful drumbeat, 
guitar and bass harmonies from 
Music, Theatre & Dance freshman 
Jackson Manfredi and Connor and 
a dancy rhythmic solo from Music, 
Theatre 
& 
Dance 
sophomore 
pianist 
Rowan 
Tucker-Meyer. 
The set reminded me instantly 
of “La La Land,” as jazz-snob 
protagonist Sebastian says “Jazz 
is conflict and it’s compromise, 
and it’s new every time. It’s brand 
new every night. It’s very, very 
exciting. And it’s dying.” But the 
last part is false; it’s alive. 
VUP put the audience in a jazzy 
trance as we hummed all the way 
into the next set. 
Next up was Tea & Sympathy, 
an indie rock band with pop 
and punk influences and a total 

funk feel. The crowd was hooked 
from the start as Music, Theatre 
& Dance senior Molly Schwall 
stunned us with a powerful vocal 
range. Music, Theatre & Dance 
sophomore bassist Andres Soto 
took over with a punk-tinged 
rendition of “Después de La 
Playa,” and incredible melodies 
rang from Engineering senior 
saxophonist 
Raj 
Koorapaty, 
Music, Theatre & Dance junior 
trombonist Thomas Hodgman and 
Music, Theatre & Dance junior 
trumpeter Eric Bressler, whose 
solos made the band shine. Music, 
Theatre & Dance sophomores 
Casey Cheatham and Corazon 
Szell created the perfect punky-
funky-rock sound on drums and 
guitar, respectively, and Music, 
Theatre & Dance sophomore Liam 
Charron had the perfect synth-y 
piano sound to round out the 

performance. The band picked up 
energy for their final two songs 
with the whole audience dancing 
to “Rolling on a River” and belting 
along to Schwall’s rendition of 
“Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” By the 
end of the set, as the band held the 
audience’s hearts, Schwall had a 
crowd member’s bra in hand.
As the crowd prepared for 
wherever the night took them 
next, feeding off of the energy of 
the live music, the venue slowed 
down for a bit. That all changed 
when Joe and the Ruckus took the 
stage.
The band came out booming 
with a brassy, funk-filled noise 
from Music, Theatre & Dance 
seniors trumpeter Ryan Venora 
and 
saxophonist 
Sam 
Uribe. 
Vocalist (and trombonist) Joe 
Thomas’s powerful yet smooth 
voice kept the audience in a 
dancing 
trance 
as 
the 
band 
changed moods from smooth 
and jazzy to funky rock. Music, 
Theatre & Dance senior Stephen 
Oduro kept a powerful beat and 
Music, Theatre & Dance junior 
Jack Nissen held a funky bassline 
through each song, with Music, 
Theatre & Dance senior Mercer 
Patterson playing perfect piano 
melodies. The band had the 
audience wishing the night would 
never end, asking us “who has 
the best moves out there” as we 
danced to an energized recreation 
of “I Wish.” Guitarist and alum 
Alec Greene held catchy guitar 
riffs through every song, adding 
a special layer to “Foxy Lady” 
with a powerful solo and Uribe’s 
rasping voice. As the gig came 
to a close around 11 p.m., the 
audience seemed to beg for an 
encore.

While scrolling through my 
TikTok feed in a mindless daze, 
I had to make myself stop. How 
many “Family Guy” clips had I 
seen at this point? By now, they 
were almost more frequent than 
the advertisements. Sure enough, 
as I swiped up through the 40 
or so videos I had dipped in and 
out of in the last half hour, an 
overwhelming amount of them 
were clips from the show — a show 
which I have never seen a full 
episode of before. 
If you’ve been on any video-
based 
social 
media 
platform 
within the last few years, you’ll 
understand this scenario to some 
degree. Whether it be TikTok, 
Facebook, 
Instagram 
Reels 
or 
the 
god-forsaken 
Youtube 
Shorts, clips of “Family Guy” are 
everywhere. The show — which is 
now in its 21st season — has always 
been ingrained in internet culture, 
especially meme culture. But this 

is something new, something that 
seems a bit more elaborate than a 
simple meme.
In trying to understand how 
the show had become so prevalent 
lately, I came across something 
called the “Family Guy” Funny 
Moments pyramid scheme. In 
the comments on a now-deleted 
channel, the owner posted a link 
to a website where they claimed 
that people could make several 
thousand dollars a month while 
only working 20 minutes a day — 
if they paid a $47 fee for lessons. 
These lessons would teach users 
how to build their own channels 
to post “Family Guy” clips to, 
including instructions on how 
to hire people to do the work for 
you. But how any of these tips for 
seemingly basic things could be 
worth $47 is beyond me, and the 
claims of how much money you’ll 
make from them is a bit suspicious.
Now, I’m not trying to say that 
every account you see clips from 
on social media are a part of some 
massive 
pyramid 
scheme. 
As 
funny as that would be, I highly 

doubt that there’s that level of 
cooperation between the massive 
glut of uploaders. But in some way, 
this must be lucrative for them. 
Otherwise, who would take the 
time to cut, edit and post all of 
these videos? Sure, there might be 
bots behind all of it, but someone, 
somewhere, is profiting massively 
from these clips, especially on 
TikTok.
I totaled up the views of the 
last 10 videos posted by one of 
the accounts that popped up in 
my feed and, using this article for 
an estimate of TikTok’s payout 
rate, found that they would have 
made around $600 — and that 
was just within a one-month 
span. This is assuming that the 
videos aren’t being demonetized 
according to TikTok’s copyright 
guidelines, something that I’m 
sure isn’t an issue considering 
the sheer amount of copyrighted 
content that is being posted. This 
is nowhere near the thousands 
of dollars that you could have 
made by taking the class, but still 
— it’s never been easier to profit 

off of someone else’s intellectual 
property.
“Family Guy” isn’t the only 
show to proliferate in my social 
media 
feeds. 
I’ve 
also 
seen 
countless clips from “Fleabag,” 

“Big Bang Theory” (as well as its 
prequel spinoff “Young Sheldon”), 
“Rick and Morty” and “Bluey.” It 
is, however, the most frequent one, 
and the one that I’ve heard the 
most people commenting about 

recently. It seems like everyone I 
know is getting funneled into the 
“Family Guy” pipeline, especially 
on TikTok.

Local music scene thrives at MUSIC Matters’s 2023 Battle of the Bands

 SURI GAIANA/Daily

We’re all at the bottom of the ‘Family Guy’ clip pyramid scheme

Good movie titles, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the 
overly complex naming scheme

Design by Tye Kalinovic

KAYA GINSKY
Senior Arts Editor

RAMI MAHDI
Daily Arts Writer

Design by Iris Ding

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

HUNTER BISHOP
Senior Arts Editor

