2 min read

My name is John Daker

[ took notice. Now it’s your turn, I present to you the video entitled, My name is John Daker… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8beYR1iBQ

More background on this fun from the Statemaster Encyclopedia

In the video, he performs two songs: “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” and “That’s Amore” in a pseudo-operatic voice with various odd and sometimes alarming facial expressions to accompany his vocal stylings. Daker remains totally still with his arms at his side during most of his performance. Additionally, during his performance, he tends to forget lyrics and either looks angry or simply hums along until he recalls a word (often, the wrong word). Simply by watching the video, it is difficult to tell if he is embarrassed, truly trying to sing the song, extremely nervous, or slightly inebriated.

The vivacious music teacher, Reva, is apparently the one to thank for all the fun, and the Encyclopedia continues with her story…

Reva Cooper Unsicker taught singing, piano, and organ. Twice a year she would have her students perform their recitals on the local cable access channel, and the hour-long programs developed a cult following in the vein of Mrs. Miller. Videotapes of the “revafests” as they were called were sought after. John Daker was always on the Revafests. He sang among other songs the theme to “The Woody Woodpecker Show.”

As with all good memes, there is now a Facebook group, it’s called The John Daker Experience, I’ve joined, so you should probably too. Then we have the parodies, with the predictable, but enjoyable, American Idol version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD1cXWZXVkI&feature=related Followed by an animated singalong video (of all things), so the next time you have a karaoke night with friends you’ll have a big surprise for them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgJxEfYT3Kg&feature=player_embedded In fact the only thing I didn’t find that I expected to was an official John Daker page on Wikipedia. This is obviously an epic oversight, and I hope someone steps up soon to right this wrong. Meanwhile, we wait for another internet meme that makes me laugh more than this one, again I really, really think this one should get more attention - it’s fantastic.