The term perhaps became more viral than the Coronavirus. Trend creators Abhyudaya Mohan and Gautami Kawale of the YouTube channel, Slayy Point, explain how. By Team Viva
In the list of major events and people of 2020, a new name has been added — Binod— which has become the buzzword for netizens and social media users. The trend began after a video by the YouTube channel, Slayy Point, in which its creators Abhyudaya Mohan and Gautami Kawale are seen roasting the comments section of popular videos, went viral. Titled, Why Indian Comments Section is Garbage, it highlighted how even asinine and silly entries get hits and “likes”. In this case, a user called Binod had simply typed in his name in the commentary chat and had still elicited seven likes. And then Binod trolled several notable social media handles with what can best be described as mumbo jumbo but still got noticed. So much so that it generated memes.
The #Binod memes so hogged the limelight that even brands like Airtel, Paytm, Netflix and Tinder didn’t leave any stone unturned in making it their new marketing word. While the dating app tweeted, “Yes, Binod is on Tinder,” the digital payment app changed its Twitter username from Paytm to Binod for a short period. Food-ordering app Swiggy tweeted, “We think Binod will be the first person to call and wish us at 12 tonight,” celebrating its birthday. Reality show Bigg Boss’ Twitter handle also posted, “Now who’s saying Binod is a contestant this year?” Other handles such as Mumbai Police, Nagpur Police and Jaipur Police used the word for awareness of traffic rules and safety.
Well, it isn’t the first time a bizarre trend has got unprecedented attention from netizens. Who wouldn’t remember the viral “Selfie Maine Le Li Aaj” by Dhinchak Pooja or “Hello friends, chai peelo!” or even trends like #IHaveAJoke and #MyQuarantineInSixWords! But why does such content grab attention?
“Yes, there have been bizarre trends in the past. However, I think that things that strike a chord among the audience grabs their attention. For instance, Binod has just a 30-second presence in our video. Even then, not the rest of the video but ‘Binod’ grabbed eyeballs. It completely depends on the viewers. We present a platter but it could be just one thing that grabs their attention or it could be the entire video as well,” says Abhyudaya, who never thought that after this video, rappers like that DJ Snake and Honey Singh would be using the term for comments.
With Coronavirus being the permanent trending hashtag on social media over the past few months, hashtag Binod certainly came as a clutter breaker and social disruptor. For Gautami, Binod became an “emotion” for people in lockdown, a byword for an alternate universe, or a flighty fun exercise to de-stress themselves. Says she, “If one is sad, s/he is using Binod. One is typing Binod to wish someone good morning! There’s absolutely no head or toe to this. This has really been a clutter breaker as brands and celebrities too accepted ‘Binod’ to communicate. Personally, we really liked Airtel India’s tweet, “Receive every call with ‘Haan #Binod bol’.”
The YouTube video also took a dig at the outlandish comments to show how trashy they are, with the creative team pressing all the keys of the keyboard at once so that it typed random alphabets. The 100-word paragraph of alphabets was then posted in comments of a video, which, in turn, surprisingly grabbed even more bizarre comments.
Is this, then, the new theatre of the absurd? Says Gautami, “There’s no formula or tutorial about how to go viral or how to start a trend. It depends on the audience, their preferences and likes and when we see the audience talking about it constantly, that’s when the content trends. I think platforms like Twitter and YouTube play a huge role in spurring the growth of such trends among the masses.”
So why is it important to note what comments are being posted? Is it any kind of marketing strategy? Abhyudaya refuses. He says, “Well, no! It’s not any kind of marketing strategy. Binod’s comments were solely for entertainment because there is no such thing as trend marketing.”
Binod even raided the Prime Minister’s Twitter handle. What did the disruption mean? He adds, “We heard about it and checked PM’s Live. People were commenting ‘Binod’ everywhere. We could then say that’s the power of Binod (laughs). I think Binod for them came as a voice of licentiousness in these times of lockdown. We are overwhelmed that it’s a trend and people are communicating through Binod rightfully, meaning that it’s in the ‘Janta’s hands’ (in hands of the citizens). We are just the medium.”
Well, the #Binod raids have even reached the comments section of some international artists and Nasa Live sessions! But beyond grabbing eyeballs, a few laughs and generating some revenue for creators, is there any point to this dumbed down pursuit of time-kills?
