I Am Your Grandma

Submission 21,617

About

"I Am Your Grandma" is a short music video uploaded by YouTuber JillianMayer^[1]. The clip starts out with a message that reads "video diary log: a message to my future unborn grandchild" and Jillian saying to herself that she'll have a baby one day, but then suddenly it turns into a weird Lady Gaga-esque dance song in which she is wearing weird outfits in masks while she's singing electronically.

Origin

The video was created by Miami-based performance artist Jillian Mayer and premiered at the Borscht Film Festival^[3]^[10] on April 23rd, 2011. The video was uploaded onto YouTube on May 8th, 2011. As of October 2011, the video has been viewed over one million times on YouTube.

"I Am Your Grandma" is an autobiographical video diary log (vlog) that Jillian Mayer records for her unborn grandchildren. Envisioned as an authentic solution to fleshing out the detached model of the family tree, Mayer hearkens to bygone times when ancestors could glimpse one another through a locket or lock of hair.

Spread

Throughout May 2011, the link to the video was first shared via Facebook^[4] and Reddit^[5] and subsequently reblogged on various blogs including The Daily What^[6], Today's Big Thing^[7] and I Waste So Much Time.^[8] The video was also featured on CollegeHumor^[11]. The video has been also featured in October 2011 issue of Art Papers^[11], using a photograph of Jillian Mayer as the cover image.

"I am your grandma" has received some recognition in contemporary arts as well and it was featured in a number of events and exhibitions^[1] including Contemporary Museum of Art and Museum of Art in Florida.

Notable Parodies

The clip show "Web Soup" on G4TV^[2] featured the video and then made a parody where it shows the supposed future where the grandchild is watching the video at a lawyer's office. The lawyer then procedes to use the weird outfits to mimic the video by saying "I am your lawyer."

Mayer's video also inspired a number of parodies, re-enactments and response videos, including "I am Your Father" featuring Darth Vader and "I am Your Grandfather" rendition among others.