Chatroulette: Ben Folds Ode to Merton (Great Social Media)

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare… oh my!

So many social media choices and now there’s Chatroulette. For those that don’t know Chatroulette, it’s basically what the name implies. Created by a 17 year old Russian kid, Chatroulette puts the random spin into social media interaction by literally randomly (the Roulette part) hooking you to another member to … well chat (the Chat part.) Hence Chat- Roulette. You can read more about it here.

It’s gotten huge in Europe and developed a wee bit of a skeevy rep because it enables video/audio/text interaction, drawing a large voyeur, often sextasticly-inclined (I know it’s not a word folks but it works for this sentence) crowd. It also draws the usual: the teenage, the college, the bored and the curious. An interesting mix. There’ve been rumors of several celebs, couples even, hopping on to … um… get their SM on.

It’s not hard to see why Chatroulette is getting busy… (and why the quality of my post is going down hill.)

I’ve yet to try it, mostly because I need the Hawaii 5-O backup from the hubby- lord knows what I’m going to find on it and I’d feel better if I’m not alone.

Silly perhaps, but that’s how I roll.

So Chatroullette. It draws an interesting crowd.

Ben Folds is Merton the Chatroulette Guy?

Enter Ben Folds. The singer. Pianist.

Seems Mr. Folds had taken a shine to Chatroulette, and taken it mainstream with his “Ode to Merton.” Merton is the YouTube Chatroulette star. In a good way.

Hoodied up, Merton “piano man’s” his stream of conscious Chatroulette chats to his surprised, random chat partners. Sometimes it’s to a happy reaction, sometimes not but the end result is always charmingly hysterical. You can see some of Merton’s exploits on his YouTube channel here.

So Ben Folds seems to love Merton. Some even think Ben F. IS the elusive Merton- check out the Mashable interview. Ben’s even incorporated the act into his tour. And it’s great. Simply great.

Check random people having their screen open up to 6,000+ screaming fans and and Ben, hoodied up like the original Merton. With his piano. For a little musical multi-media conversation Merton-style.

Sometimes clothing optional. Ben was nice enough to edit out the naughty, jiggly bits.