Double Rainbow

2010

Date: 8 January 2010 upload, viral 3 July 2010 · Place: Yosemite National Park, California · Figures: Paul Vasquez aka Bear Vasquez, videographer (d. 2020) · Tags: Reaction Video, Sincerity 01. Outside The Trailer In Mariposa Paul Vasquez, a forty-six year old former cage fighter living in a trailer outside Yosemite, films a vivid double rainbow on 8 January 2010. His voice breaks repeatedly as he weeps and asks What does this mean? The clip sits unwatched on YouTube until comedian Jimmy Kimmel tweets it on 3 July 2010. Within weeks the video has 21 million views. The Gregory Brothers release an autotuned version on 31 July 2010 that itself accumulates tens of millions of plays. 02. Earnest Wonder As Genre Double Rainbow formalizes the earnest-wonder reaction video genre, the inverse of the cynical reaction clip. Vasquez became a minor folk figure, appeared in advertisements, and continued posting nature videos until his death from a heart attack in May 2020. The Gregory Brothers' Songify treatment of his audio establishes their workflow that produces the Bed Intruder Song three weeks later. Sources • KnowYourMeme, 'Double Rainbow' • Paul Vasquez, original YouTube upload (youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI) • The New York Times, 'Paul Vasquez, the Double Rainbow Guy, Is Dead at 57' (12 May 2020)