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On yesterday’s discussion of Sarah Brand’s video “Red Dress,” Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette weighs in with her opinion.

Is This Terrible Song A Sociology Experiment Or What?

She notes the tags on the YouTube video which you can only see when you embed a video on a Website.

Now, some people in my Twitter mentions, when I posted it, suggested that it had to be fake, on account of the fact that no one could possibly go through life and make it to Oxford of all places without realizing that they are that bad at singing. That perhaps, as she is a sociology student, this is merely a social experiment of some kind — perhaps to see how many people she could get to go along with her.

I disagree, and not just because I don’t think that people who went to fancy schools are that much less likely to be more self-aware than anyone else. After all, Ted Cruz went to Harvard and Princeton. Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer went to Duke, although that did seem to prompt a lot of “But he’s DAPPER!” confusion among people who for some reason couldn’t fathom that a clean-cut, articulate, well-dressed Ivy Leaguer could be a Nazi. Oh, and you know who went to Oxford? Fox Mulder. Who, while correct about things on the X-Files, would be extremely wrong about them in real life.

As evidence that she is for real, allow me to show you the category tags on that video, which include things like “summer,” “good time,” “scandalous” and “seductive.” Those don’t pop up on YouTube, they only pop up when we embed the video ourselves.

Embedded in the article is a screen shot of all the categories Ms. Brand used for the video.

Also — that is just not the face of someone who is taking the piss. She is clearly very sincere. And honestly, I’m happy for her. I am a very big fan of people who are terrible at singing and insist upon doing so anyway, from The Cherry Sisters to Florence Foster Jenkins to Mrs. Miller. It takes chutzpah I don’t have, that’s for sure.

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