Dame Da Ne / Baka Mitai

About

Dame Da Ne refers to a lyric from "Baka Mitai," a pop ballad which can be sung in karaoke sections of the video games Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 5. The song has been paired with numerous humorous videos in remixes on YouTube, before also gaining popularity in First Order Motion Model Deepfakes in July 2020.

Origin

In Yakuza 0, Yakuza 5, Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza: Like A Dragon, the player can choose to have the main character Kazuma Kiryu sing karaoke as a side mission. One of the songs he can sing is called "Baka Mitai" (eng. "I've Been A Fool"), whose chorus starts with the lyric "Dame Da Ne," (eng. "It's no use").^[1]

Spread

Parodies of the song began appearing on YouTube in 2018. On May 11th, 2018, user Baku Haku posted a parody that gained over 201,000 views in two years (shown below, left). On August 27th, user doodlepoo gained over 234,000 views with their parody of the song (shown below, right).

Recent examples include a video posted April 24th, 2020 by Rusty Studio using VLive YouTubers that gained over 14,000 views (shown below, left). On February 26th, YouTuber Raven Hellkite posted a variation using K.K. Slider's voice from Animal Crossing, gaining over 220,000 views (shown below, right).

Deepfakes

In 2020, internet users utilized deepfake technology to have various characters sing Baka Mitai song. These edits tend to use footage from a video by YouTuber Dobbsyrules in which he lip syncs to the Shun Akiyama version of the song, originally uploaded on November 27, 2017 (shown below, left). The template would be made three years later, on July 20, 2020, when YouTube user shaggySuave would upload a template for the facemorphs, but synced with the Kazuma Kiryu rendition of the song(shown below, right).

On July 10th, 2020, a Twitter video from content creator heyitswindy helped popularize the First Order Motion Model deepfake method used in future videos.^[7] On September 20th, 2018, Youtube user Gliv created the first known example of the meme. A clip was made using the Magic Mirror from Shrek to create a deepfaked version of Bakamitai. A couple years later on July 17th, 2020, Twitter user @Tortokhod posted a doctored video of YouTuber Linus from Linus Tech Tips singing the song (shown below). The tweet seemed to have popularized the meme.

Later that day, @Torokhod^[8] shared a version featuring a photo of video game developer YandereDev. The following day, Facebook^[6] user Magnus shared the video, which received more than 1,400 reactions and 3,800 shares (shown below).

Facebook^[3] user AW Davis uploaded a video using Sad Linus photo to create the parody, gaining 178 reactions and 554 shares (shown below).

The meme also spread on YouTube. For example, on July 25th, 2020, YouTube^[4] user Azura uploaded video of GigaChad singing Baka Mitai (shown below, left). On July 19th, 2020, YouTube^[5] user HeyItsWindy uploaded a video explaining the meme. The video received 6,600 views (shown below, right).

Chess Variants

In 2020, versions of the meme took the form of chess videos on YouTube. The earliest known example, "Typical 800 chess match (Baka mitai)," published on August 31st, 2020, received more than 1.1 million views in less than one year (shown below). These videos show a digital chess match being played with Baka Mitai played over the soundtrack. The signature "Dame Da Ne" lyric occurs when one player makes a blunder, a bad move that likely costs them the game.

Dame Da Ne Guy / Damedaneposting

Dame Da Ne Guy or Damedaneposting refers to a series of Yakuza shitposts that involves intentionally misnaming Kazuma Kiryu "Dame Da Ne" or "Dame Da Ne Guy." The practice was popularized by Twitter user @Zari_Wari in May and June 2021 (example shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References