If you've been on a certain part of the internet, you've probably heard of Prognoz Pogodi, more commonly known as @gangstasportivik on TikTok. Even if you don't recognize the name, you probably recognize the style of video. The surreal videos with AI characters that switch from English to Chinese mid sentence.
The most popular or iconic of these videos are the ones that use the character Fiveish, a five dollar bill. Fiveish is a character created by Oorah, a non-profit Jewish organization. Fiveish is a character that promotes the Oorah Auction, which only costs $5 to enter. The Fiveish character is so iconic in these videos that ironic spin-off accounts have been created, such as @yapdollar. @gangstasportivik hates these accounts, and ended up temporarily making all videos with Fiveish private. However, Fiveish isn't the only character to frequently appear in @gangstasportivik videos. A few other common characters include:
- Dasha Nekrasova from the Red Scare podcast
- Anna Khachiyan from the Red Scare podcast
- If it's not clear, a lot of @gangstasportivik videos are based on the Red Scare podcast
- Gerbert from the same titled Christian children's show
- Colby the Christian Robot from Colby's Clubhouse
- Steve Harvey
One important thing to note is that the characters in these videos aren't lip synced, only voices are generated. The overlaid videos of said characters are just green screens of them talking.
One common theme is that a lot of these videos end with the phrase Xiaohongshu. A lot of people seem to think this is a greeting such as "goodbye", but that's not at all what it means. When translated directly to English, it means "little red book", which has caused a lot of people to comment 📕 on @gangstasportivik's videos.
Xiaohongshu is actually a Chinese social media platform, similar to Instagram. I have no proof of this, but it seems like a probably theory. The reason most @gangstasportivik videos end with xiaohongshu is because they're downloaded from it, and then dubbed with a new narrator. You know how videos downloaded from TikTok have the bloop outro? Xiaohongshu videos have the same thing, except it's a voice saying the name of the platform.
Most of the videos are obviously from a Chinese platform, as they use Chinese internet terms such as netizen. The reason for the account mainly uploading Chinese videos seems like it's just a content farm at first, but looking more it seems to be something else.
@gangstasportivik seems to be more of an "art project" relating to both the Red Scare podcast and The Adam Friedland Show. In fact, if you scroll deep enough down @gangstasportivik's page, you will see the type of content switch to clips from the show. It becomes quite obvious the point of the page when you see one of the videos posted, which is a voice reading a Reddit comment:
@gangstasportivik Call 1-800-General now #art #prognozpogodi #redscarepod #theadamfriedlandshow #hypernormalisation ♬ original sound - Prognoz Pogodi
The Reddit comment reads:
I hate that I wrote this much over dumb tiktok shit but oh well If you don't know who Anna and Dasha of redscare are, have never watched an Adam Curtis doc, aren't aware of Adam Friedland or Nick Mullen then yeah, it's gonna be weird to you because the content he was making was inexplicable tied to that subculture before this yapdollar guy or whatever discovered it or hijacked his concept. It's supposed to be weird and eerie because it was originally meant for a niche portion of the internet to begin with. I feel dumb knowing this much about a meme that spawned a life of its own and the last thing I want to be is pretentious over something as stupid as a fucking meme but like, you literally just don't get it, of course some random American teenager (and you) feel disconnected from it because you guys don't get the references, the commentary on hyperreality that gangstasportivik is aiming for with these memes, and just saw funny speaking dollar without knowing the original surreal context of the absurdity of a Jewish organization using the most crude antisemitic tropes as a fundraising tool that actually gives it a different meaning to the original audience who get the irony laden signifiers and allusions
After the video reading this comment was published, all of the videos featuring the Fiveish character were made private, however they are back now.
So the whole thing is targeted for a small, niche audience, but somehow ended up with the wrong audience.
Little sweet potato 🍠