There were many ways that Baron discussed pre-existing audiovisual footage being reused for movies and documentaries, but I found some of Baron’s arguments interesting when applied to some television shows. The chapter on archival voyeurism was especially interesting in applying to today’s television shows that appropriate and recontexualize existing videos from the internet for the show’s own entertainment purposes. In most cases, the clips shown on these tv shows “carry traces of another intention with them and seem to resist, at least to some degree, the intentions” (Baron, 25) imposed on them. On “Tosh.0” the host, Daniel Tosh, takes video clips from the internet and re-contextualizes them for his own comedy routine, though the original clips may not have ever been intended for entertainment or comedy.

Most of these clips are amateur home videos that show people being unexpectedly “comically” injured, including one of a girl dressed for prom who falls down the stairs, all captured on video. Some of them are embarrassing home shot music videos, people performing stunts, etc. (essentially anything that Tosh can find on the internet to use for comedic material.) In a regular segment of the show titled “Web Redemption,” Daniel Tosh invites the “humiliated” people featured in these viral videos on to his show, so that they may explain their embarrassing online videos and reshoot/recreate the scene. If you’ve never seen the show, other regular segments on the show include “Guess What Happens Next,” “Is it Racist?” and another segment in which Tosh tries to come up with as many funny comments as possible about one clip within 20 seconds. As you can imagine “Is It Racist?” raises a number of ethical concerns about the use of these video clips for entertainment purposes…)

Last night I happened to be watching Tosh.0 while thinking about the issues raised by Baron, and a clip of a funeral was featured on the show. A home video of a funeral is not something I ordinarily expect to see while watching this show on Comedy Central, and a funeral is not something I expect people to film anyway. The clip shows the casket being lowered into the grave, but the casket falls over. I am not absolutely sure, but it looked as though either someone else was pulled into the grave, or that the body inside fell out of the coffin. I assume the latter is what happened because a woman attending the burial then promptly faints in the background of the clip. It was clear that this clip was not ever intended for this usage, and that this audience was never intended to view this clip. Daniel Tosh offers his live audience and at home audience of Tosh.O “the pleasure of seeing something we were never ‘meant’ to see – and may come with an ethical price” (Baron, 82).

This particular clip raised ethical concerns for myself as a viewer, and definitely was “fundamentally and unavoidable voyeuristic” (Baron, 82). I felt conflicted about the show’s recontextualization of this clip for comedic purposes and felt confident that the “intentionality of the footage is that the maker probably never imagined that it would be shown in public,” (Baron, 89) let alone on a cable television show in this “comedic” context. It’s inclusion in this show in for comedic purposes did not, in fact, hold any entertainment value for myself. I’m sure there were other viewers who may have found this funny, but then we certainly don’t share the same sense of humor or ethical code. More than usual with other clips featured on this show, I felt like I was “trespassing” and “entering and appropriating a private space uninvited – or at least a private space into which we possibly should not have been invited” (Baron, 95). In this case, this was a “misuse” of found footage that likely should not be used for entertainment or comedic purposes. The public availability and accessibility of digital media on the internet raises many ethical concerns, especially when the footage can and likely will be reused in what could be considered inappropriate or insensitive ways.