Produsage: The greatest thing since re-sliced bread

Failed pun aside, I bet a lot of you are wondering what produsage is, but in-stead of telling you I'm stealing a quote from someone who can give a better answer.

The collaborative and continuous buiding and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement"

-Henry Jenkins

So if you think about it, this covers things like fan-fiction, sampling music, fan art and so on.  A good example of produsage would be the Star Wars expanded universe.  It began from three movies, and now contains hundreds or narratives completely separate from anything that ever happened in any of these movies which attempt to tie in to this now vast fictional world.  

But something bothers me about this definition of produsage; the word 'improvement'.  

If improvement is measured by point of view, than 'better' becomes a matter of opinion.  furthermore, does this mean in order for content to be considered produsage that it must aim to be 'better' than the original?  I strongly doubt, for example star wars comics set out with a goal to be better than the orginal three movies.  Then again, improvement might refer to improving the 'fictional universe', so i guess under that definition, the new Star Wars trilogy IS produsage because they set out to improve on Star Wars, even though they kind of fell short of that. 

Anyway.. what I wanted to talk about was Youtube Poop.  Ok!  for those of you he know what Youtube poop is, please don't leave.  I know you hate it, but I love you, come back please.

for those of you who don't know what Youtube Poop is, its getting clips from ANYTHING, but mostly TV shows, actually mostly weird 90s shows and then they edit these clips to either create a chaotic video full of sex jokes and weird edits, or to create a completely new narratie... full of sex jokes and weird edits.  HERE!  youtube poop: actually no.  i couldnt find one that wasn't horrible innapropriate...

and it doesn't stop there either, as well as others taking youtube poops and 'pooping' those poops, theres another genre in Youtube Poop known and Youtube Poop Music Video, or YTPMV.  What this is, is when people take parts of a clip, and turn it into a song.  Here!  if anyone remembers CopperCab, the "GINGERS HAVE SOULS" kid, he's still on Youtube and people are making YTPMVs out of his clips.  Check this one out

Yeah I know it's really an acquired taste, trust me I'm addicted to this garbage, but it really got me thinking about the definition of produsage.  The goal of Yotube Poop isn't always to 'Improve' on content.. or is it.  is improvement measured by the overall entertainment of the produced?  I feel lik something like youtube poop can be a little difficult to squeese into the definition of produsage, but my understanding is that produsage is taking something that already exists, and creating from that.  In that way, youtube poop would be considered.

I think that produsage, especially in our day and age is a great thing.  It allows for so much more content to be created and released to the world.  Online communities are also a big help in getting this content seen, so i'd say now is a good age to be a 'producer'

OBLIGATORY CAT LINK:

Ok so if you watch any of the videos I put up, watch this one.  I went searching for it to put in my blog for you.  I was CRYING with laughter.  Then again, maybe it's a youtube poop thing, most people i know hate youtube poop so yeah.. BUT WATCH