Honey Badger Don't Care

2011

Date: 18 January 2011 · Place: YouTube, narration recorded in Los Angeles · Figures: Christopher Gordon aka Randall, narrator · National Geographic, original footage · Tags: Narration Mashup, Nature Footage 01. A Three Minute Voiceover On 18 January 2011 a Los Angeles-based performer named Christopher Gordon, posting as Randall, uploads a three minute twenty second narration over a National Geographic clip of a honey badger digging up and eating a cobra. Randall's voice is unhurried, archly enthusiastic, deeply profane. The video crosses 50 million views by year end. The phrase honey badger don't care enters general usage. "Honey badger don't care. Honey badger don't give a shit." — Randall, The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger, 18 January 2011 02. Branded Apathy Randall and Gordon publish a 2011 book and produce a line of merchandise. The phrase is appropriated by an LSU football player as a self-nickname. The clip is the first major narration-over-found-footage viral, a format echoed by the entire essayistic YouTube genre of the 2010s. Sources • KnowYourMeme, 'Honey Badger' • Randall, 'The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger' (YouTube, 18 January 2011) • Time Magazine, '100 Best YouTube Videos: Honey Badger' (28 March 2012)