Rapper Desiigner’s hit song “Panda” is insanely popular with the kids – the small ones, so Jimmy Kimmel wondered if parents are under the impression that this song is about fuzzy, adorable bears. Like many songs we misinterpret, the lyrics flash by so quickly that the song is almost impossible to understand. In an effort to educate parents who might be happily listening with their kids, the show went out on the street and played the song for pedestrians, then asked them to interpret the lyrics. As you’ll see, most people hear something entirely different from what is being said, and in many cases it’s something that appeals to them personally, like the man who heard ‘football’ in the lyrics.
I wonder if this segment also shows how many people with disparate views have always believed that Donald Trump speaks for them? Unlike the song lyrics, the confusion isn’t caused by an inability to clearly hear Trump. I think it has more to do with inserting one’s own views into a song or a speech. At once, Trump is the choice of white supremacists – and the voice of black America. (For explanation, please ask Ben Carson, it escapes me – and most African-Americans too). Trump is pro-veteran, and anti-McCain. Calling the Senator a ‘loser’ is political suicide from any other quarter. Even before Trump began to muddy the waters, people have heard exactly what they wanted him to say. Only recently has he changed his ‘policies’ on hard-line issues like immigration, doing it in the space of mere hours, giving fans yet more reason to feel that he holds their values – whatever they may be.