The internet throws up some weird and wonderful videos, and one spotted by The Verge most definitely qualifies. Posted in late April, it's really a tale of our times, of dreams crushed and destiny unfulfilled.
It's about a Pikachu that couldn't dance.
At last week's Pokémon World Festival 2017 in South Korea part of the entertainment, of course, was a group of Pikachu mascots dancing to happy music. Then just after a minute the lead Pikachu starts to deflate, with its eyes despairingly pleading for help from the audience. It's bundled off in shame, and even an attempted comeback at the end brings more crushed hopes.
This Pikachu was not destined to dance.
Silly drama aside, this is the most oddly entertaining video we've seen this week...
[source theverge.com]
Comments 76
Wait a second... that's no Pikachu
So weird. Also the way they flew in to carry that Pikachu away. That part was a little unsettling. Like... could you be less "swarming" about it?
@neufel More like a Mimikyu lol
RIP pikachu
LMAO. Not just at the deflating Pukechu but what passes as entertainment to some people. It also wouldn't win any awards for choreography.
Funny as all hell, that pikachu took clues from Jigglypuff and Drifbloom.
That was so cute and funny.
They way they kind of just ran in and shove the Pikachu out of the performance was a bit rough, though. D:
@NintendoFan990 I think what they attempted at the end makes up for it though.
Those guys need to be hired in the secret service!
@JKRiki It was like they were saving that very important pikachu from an assassination attempt hahaha
That looked really creepy. Maybe they were worried about the person inside tho. I hope.
@NintendoFan990 They had to make sure the person didn't suffocate. They were wrapped in what was basically a plastic bag.
haha that was great! The secret service ran out to get him off stage. Lol.
I want to inside a Pikachu now!
That was really funny, but yeah, I hope the artiste(?) was alright.
OMG, that video is positively horrifying in almost every way. The parade of completely perfectly identical Pikachus dancing in zombie-like fashion is in its own way disturbing and adorable all at once, but watching Pikachu melt before your eyes compounds the level of horror....that was a dreadful thing to watch and somehow Pikachu's face actually looked twisted in pain and terror, depressing and disturbing simultaneously.
But the security rushing out and swarming through the crowd, from every direction in dark suits, tackling Pikachu and whisking him away looked like a cross of a diplomatic assassination/kidnapping, and a flash mob attack. Or just Team Rocket up to their usual antics.
The other Pikachus resuming as though absolutely nothing unusual is happening here wraps up the presentation with the most horrifyingly Orwellian erasure of traumatic history I can envision.
I was laughing hysterically as I watched this travesty....I'm a bad person.
Awesome
I think the security guys at first thought the crew member running out to help the deflating Pikachu was a person who was disrupting the show or a threat. That's why the first security man grabs the crew member and not the pikachu. Once he says something to him, the security crew then switches from "stop the threat" to helping mode.
I really hope the person inside the Pikachu suit was okay. That would have been quite scary to be trapped in something like that.
On a lighter note...why aren't dancing Pikachu more common?!
That was both funny and depressing at one time.
Haha that's amazingly funny, thanks for sharing!
The funniest thing is seeing those black coated security guys rush in bumping eachother in panic to get that rogue Ditto out.
I wonder if the second performer in that suit was spared their life or executed like the first.
That was such a dramatic response to the situation. Are we sure this wasn't in North Korea?
@HappyMaskedGuy If so then Nintendo has found a new market!
That short, short-lived comeback at the end, though!
@HappyMaskedGuy Some person trapped inside a lot of plastic that usually needs to be inflated... yeah, of course, they rushed a lot for saving a life.
They should have waited till the Pikachu started showing signs of real pain.
@Tyranexx I'm sure they were, they came back out in a doomed attempt to join in again at the end.
@NEStalgia
You do not know creepy until you see the watchers from "Drakengard", some horrific precursor to the titular Titans of Attack on Titan.
"Boss, our lead dancer is deflating. How do we sort out the issue without drawing attention to it?"
"SEND IN THE GUYS IN SUITS!!! ALL OF THEM!!! HAVE THEM RUN AT THE OFFENDING DANCER FROM EVERY DIRECTION AND WRESTLE IT INTO SUBMISSION!!! NO ONE WILL NOTICE A THING!!!"
Also, given what's going on between the US, North and South Korea, I'm sure there's a bad joke in there somewhere. Like Assassination Prevention Training Day.
@Maxz LOL, exactly!
This is South Korea. Maybe they were afraid he was holding a Note 7?
@Olmectron The problem with that is, nothing here looks "helpful". If someone in a plastic suit was at risk of suffocating, and likely can't see over the deflating folding costume, my first reaction would not be "charge at them while they are unaware and tackle them, full body, as fiercely as I possibly can, because that definitely won't make them panic or lose balance!"
My second thought would also not be to leave them IN the costume as I and 300 or 400 security personnel push quickly and aggressively to frog march through the (still dancing!) Pikachus to quietly and discreetly remove the costume blocking their airways backstage so as not to upset the fans or ruin the brand image. There is a headpiece...why not open it up BEFORE you terrify them, panic them, make them run, and get them away from the public?
That's not emergency response, that's brand protection. Actually it's protecting the brand militantly!
*Anonymous staffer uses Tackle...
It's not very effective.
@NEStalgia I think the idea was that the guy in the white shirt was part of the official event staff, while the black suit guys were part of the venue's security, and misread the situation. White shirt guy was simply trying to usher the Pikachu off stage by himself. In his head, he probably just imagined going up alone and escorting the Pikachu away as discretely as possible (although we was kinda heavy handed with his grabbing). This alone wouldn't have looked all that bad. One dude. One electric mouse.
The problem was that the security team hadn't noticed the deflating Pikachu, or that white shirt guy was part of the event staff, and instead thought he was just some random guy charging the Pikachu. So they swarmed him, rather than the Pikachu, which is why you can see them grab onto his body rather than the Pokémon.
They must have soon realised, but at this point the entire security team had decended onto the main stage to stop a Pikachu assault that wasn't actually happening. So they all just ended up awkwardly waddling off stage together, when a single man would have sufficed (and was originally intended). Just like a Dodrio, the heads aren't always in sync.
Which makes my comment inaccurate, even if that's what it looks like. I think this isn't what @guavamnia was getting at, which I didn't pick up on when I watched the video for the first time.
For what it's worth, I don't imagine there's a very high risk of suffocation in those things. It just seems like too serious a design flaw to build into the costume. I don't think it's made of plastic bag type material.
@ThomasBW84: Ah, missed that the first time. I got busy during the last minute or so of the video and didn't see that.
Edit: Apparently that was mentioned in the article as well. -_-' It's been one of those weeks. I'm definitely ready for the weekend. XD
Maybe it's a new, grittier story to suit modern audiences where Team Rocket now abducts Pokemon Gangnam Style for Pokemon Seoul Silver HD on Switch?
@Maxz I agree, that's what it looks like, BUT white shirt guy is still aggressively assaulting Pikachu there. I mean watch him grab that mouse! That's not a helpful assist. That's putting the smackdown on the rodent. That "assist" could have easily killed the performer if there really was a suffocation risk going on!
Ah, the classic Team Rocket method of stealing Pikachu, never gets old.
Well that made me chuckle. It's the failed comeback that makes it😂😂
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I'm so tempted to make that gif my new avatar
@Olmectron To save a life? Lol, hardly looked like they were in imminent peril. I think this was more of a PR damage control situation.
If it was that deadly dangerous to get into a Pikachu suit, Im not sure they would assemble a dancing army of them to risk their very lives in front of crowds of children.
The choreography of all the other Pikachus is terrible too. Which makes the overenthusiastic intervention even more bizarre. Like, 'Dont let him ruin the illusion! Take him out, now!'
Little did people know it was Donald Trump in that Pikachu costume. Now that you know that doesn't all this make alot more sense?
Wow that was shocking to see it dissappear so quickly
@NEStalgia They weren't perfectly identical. A few of them (including the one that deflated) were female Pikachu.
Too bad they're all probably going to be wiped off the planet this year.
Why do the dumb ones always get to be in control...
Nibelsnarf you, establishment!
@BulbasaurusRex uhm....i may regret asking this, but.....how did you check this?
I don't know what was worst for the little kids in the audience... Pikachu melting in front of their eyes or Pikachu being forcefully kidnapped in front of their eyes! XD
This is definitely a gift that keeps on giving.
That Pikachu clearly knew too much. PIKI LEAKS
TY Nlife, haven't laughed this hysterical in a while.
from the bottom of my heart thank you!
Oh man, I love the way the staff panicked. "DON'T LET THE CHILDREN SEE!!!! THEY'LL KNOW IT'S NOT THE REAL PIKACHU!!!!!!!!!!!"
@NEStalgia Beat ya to it!
This was amazing
@NEStalgia Who used Quash on the Pikachu?
A move I have not seen actually used until Gen 7 and then I could only .
@kurtasbestos I think they panicked because those suits in a deflated state are like putting a plastic bag over your head. It's a nylon material that can breath, but not when layered.
When your country's defence is covered by the US, your secret service needs to find something else to do...
@NEStalgia The females have the heart-shaped tails, of course.
Oh man! This is a "cute" disaster hahaha. A dying Pikachu, the man on white trying to save him, the man on black trying to stop the man on white, the others Pikachu dancing like they just don't care and the dying Pikachu, getting back to life at the end of the video with no chance at all.
Holy crap I'm dying my stomach hurts so much!!!! XD
Go home Pikachu! your drunk!
Classic secret service imposter training. Those guys aced it!
Obviously you havent seen my youtube channel.. I dance with Pikachu .. seriously lol
Pikachu dancers always brighten up an event!
I was part of an event in Thailand and saw the Pikachu dancers practicing in gear sans the Pikachu heads. They put in hours of practice before the event. Must be disappointing for the person inside that suit to let everyone down.
Aaaaw that made me feel sad.
Reminded of me back at school in PE lessons...a social outcast.
@Maxz Per the suffocation risk, I'd assume it actually would be kind of high. Since the pikachu is seen deflating, it must be a non-standard kind of costume which requires a fan or some other kind of device to keep the suit inflated.
There could be tiny holes for the air to escape out of (and hence, make it somewhat breathable, but the larger the hole(s), the greater the fan / air pressure would need to be to keep the suit inflated (think water in a boat with holes). That said, it's more likely the suit has smaller holes / is not very breathable / higher chance of suffocation, though part of it depends on the weight and thickness of the costume.
It's possible that when the costumes are very large, that as the suit began deflating, the performer inside lost / loses visibility (assuming you can only see through say, the eyes which are semi-transparent), so they may have been a bit forceful to help guide the person out.
I'm sure no one expected something like this to happen though, in 'crisis' situations it is difficult to know what to do.
@NEStalgia And while some of it may be 'brand' protection (for the argument that if there is a suffocation risk, why not just help the person out of the costume), how much more jarring would it be (for the kiddos) to 'pop' the head off of a pikachu and see a person inside?
My daughter found a Pikachu Army video on Youtube one day and it was, quite possibly, the silliest and creepiest thing I had ever seen.
Oh wow, all that "security" for a cute "Pikachu", then, really Pikachu is more important that any President, King, or Papa!!
XD,
Oh my God I can't stop laughing....
If the music faded out at the time the Pikachu began to deflate... oh man, I can't think about what would happen to me.
But man, this made my day.
@DeltaPeng No question seeing the person inside is bad for the kids but if it was a genuine suffocation risk, that might not be the right time to prioritize maintaining the illusion for the kids!
And they violent tackle is sure to disorient the already disoriented performer. That part may have been heat of the moment but put it all together and its bad. Hilarious, but bad.
To me it kind of looked like homeland security were detaining Pikachu for "a word"
OH MY!
It was a female Pikachu
~Staff guy uses
@ClassSonicSatAm Her drunk what?
@NEStalgia True, I mean if there were signs of suffocation then go and do what you need to do, but it looked like they caught it early before it became a problem (the pikachu wasn't looking away from the audience or trying to break off from the group of their own accord to try and flag someone for help, didn't fall down/faint or show signs of dizziness, etc), so in that case the best thing is to escort them offstage and then thoroughly exam the issue.
(edited) It does make you wonder what the ideal situation would've been, hmm, maybe to have 1 guy approach the deflating pikachu, but have him come in slowly, and to the beat of the music, every now and then turning to the audience to smile and pose with his hands/arms to reassure the audience, but kind of impromptu dancing his way to pikachu and escorting him out as if that was part of the show. That would be a pretty fancy way of doing it ;p but it'd be hard to come up with that on the spot and still not alarm the various Nintendo ninjas who are apparently present, but not in the know.
Though, in watching the video again, that suit deflates very quickly, like 5 seconds. So...I think the quick extraction method, was probably the best way to go, aside from potentially pulling the costume head off, but that way would certainly be a showstopper.
I think they did try to put the audience at ease some though, as on pikachu's return the staffers were kind of waving the arms and pointing at them as a triumphant /celebratory kind of return (and in a less mob like fashion ;p I think I heard the audience clapping as well), but alas, it was not meant to be
@DeltaPeng haha, i want to see a training video for this using your description
The way it happens is just so....awful. It's like a pop quiz for emergency responders. "If you see someone in headgear at risk of suffocating do you:
A: Quickly approach and calm the situation, informing the victim you are there to help.
B: Rapidly remove the victims headgear to end the risk.
C: CHARGE AND TAKE THAT SUCKER DOWN WWE STYLE!!!
"
@NEStalgia Umm.. option D, all of the above, and in the stated order? ;p
Though I like the theory one person mentioned, that the guy in white was general event staff (and they noticed the issue first, perhaps they had seen something like it before and hence knew the risks / knew something had to be done early), while the black suits were the official Nintendo ninjas rushing in as they thought someone was attacking the pikachu, quickly re-evaluated the situation, and then switched to help mode.
@NEStalgia (Though on further thought, this questionnaire sounds like something that would get asked in a certain Gerudo classroom...)
@JKRiki Have you ever wrapped your face in plastic wrap? You try to breath in, but the wrap blocks any air from going through your mouth or nose, and you end up suffocating. At the point where the lead Pikachu was deflating, the suit was slowly becoming a suffocation hazard, so the guy in a white shirt had to rush the performer off stage to get him/her out of that suit. The security guards probably thought some crazed lunatic was charging at the Pikachu, and initially tried to stop him.
Hacker uses Moveset Swap
It's super effective!
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