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Guy who sounds remarkably like Michael Jackson gets 27 million views on first TikTok video

Holy moly that voice.

Constru-centro/Wikimedia Commons

Brandon Conway sounds remarkably like Michael Jackson when he sings.

When Michael Jackson died 13 years ago, the pop music world lost a legend. However markedly mysterious and controversial his personal life was, his contributions to music will go down in history as some of the most influential of all time.

Part of what made him such a beloved singer was the uniqueness of his voice. From the time he was a young child singing lead for The Jackson 5, his high-pitched vocals stood out. Hearing him sing live was impressive, his pitch-perfect performances always entertaining.

No one could ever really be compared to MJ, or so we thought. Out of the blue, a guy showed up on TikTok recently with a casual performance that sounds so much like the King of Pop it's blowing people away.

Brandon Conway posted his first TikTok video ever on July 24, and in less than three weeks it's been viewed more than 27 million times. It's just him standing in a parking lot snapping his fingers and singing "The Way You Make Me Feel," but when he opens his mouth, whoa.

As he keeps going, it gets even more whoa. Then he hits Jackson's signature "he he" and the whoa turns into what?!?

Take a listen:

@brandonconway11

First post on tiktok let me know what you guys think! More videos coming soon feom mj to country to rock so yall be sure to stay tuned!#fyp #singer #usherchallenge @usher @tpain #letsgo #firstvideo

Uncanny, right? If you need a reminder of how Jackson himself sounded when he sang it, here's a live performance from Auckland during his 1996 world tour.

Very impressive. You can follow Brandon Conway on TikTok to hear more from him.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Nature

A sea lion jumped on a woman's boat to escape a group of orcas and the footage is wild

Orca sightings are usually exciting, but this is a whole other story.

Screenshots via @castrowas95/Twitter

In the Pacific Northwest, orca sightings are a fairly common occurrence. Still, tourists and locals alike marvel when a pod of "sea pandas" swim by, whipping out their phones to capture some of nature's most beautiful and intelligent creatures in their natural habitat. While orcas aren't a threat to humans, there's a reason they're called "killer whales." To their prey, which includes just about everything that swims except humans, they are terrifying apex predators who hunt in packs and will even coordinate to attack whales several times their own size.

So if you're a human alone on a little platform boat, and a sea lion that a group of orcas was eyeing for lunch jumps onto your boat, you might feel a little wary. Especially when those orcas don't just swim on by, but surround you head-on.

Watch exactly that scenario play out (language warning, if you've got wee ones you don't want f-bombed):


Ummm, yeah. An orca sighting is one thing, but this is a whole other story. Orcas have been known to knock large prey off of icebergs, so the whole "orcas don't hurt humans" thing doesn't feel super reassuring in this scenario.

The footage came from TikTok user @nutabull, whose now-deleted account stated she was from Vancouver Island.

The second video is even more intimidating.

The viral video sparked a debate about whether the sea lion should be kicked off the boat or not. The woman kept telling the sea lion it "had to go" with a frank "Sorry, buddy, that's life," message, though she never actively tried to push it off. Many commenters joked about yeeting the sea lion off the boat to avoid a potentially disastrous encounter with the orcas. Others were on #teamsealion, saying they wouldn't have the heart to boot the poor thing.

The reality is orcas eat sea lions—the circle of life and whatnot. Most of us just don't find ourselves in the middle of that circle, having to figure out whether the apex predators surrounding our boat are going to patiently wait for their lunch to come back or take it upon themselves to bump it back into the water.

Thankfully for the woman, the sea lion seemed to decide on its own that its options were limited and dove back in to take its chances with the orcas. But phew, that encounter would be harrowing for just about anyone.

Best of luck, sea lion. Hope you're an exceptional swimmer.


This article originally appeared four years ago.

From Your Site Articles
Family

People can't get enough of this Italian preschooler's classically Italian rant

Her inflections and gesticulations are just too much.

@guiseppe_matilde/TikTok

An Italian preschooler's Italian rant has people in stitches.

All people have a need to communicate, but the way we do that varies greatly from place to place. Every culture has its own communication peculiarities that make our human family delightfully diverse.

Not only do humans speak thousands of languages around the world, but we also engage in culturally specific speaking styles, speech patterns, and body language—some of which are immediately identifiable.

Case in point: the Italian "finger purse" known in Italian as Mano a borsa.

Italians are known for speaking with their hands. Italian hand gestures can vary between northern and southern Italy, but one of the most universally recognizable is the pinched fingers or "finger purse." That's the gesture in which the tips of the fingers and the thumb are pressed together (forming a purse shape) and pointed upward, often in a repeated back-and-forth or up-and-down motion, sometimes with one hand and sometimes with both. Along with the rhythm of punctuated emphasis on certain words, especially when speaking passionately, the finger purse is often used to convey a question with a sense of annoyance, exasperation, or confusion.

It's a gesticulation most of us associate with a classic Italian grandma or grandpa, but when you see it coming from a tiny little Italian person, it's utterly hilarious.

A viral video, originally shared by (now-deleted user) @guiseppe_matilde on TikTok, shows a preschooler engaging in a passionate rant that is unmistakably Italian, both in the actual language she's speaking and in her hand gestures.

According to Italian speakers in the comments, the little girl is conveying a story about how someone commented negatively about her wearing a miniskirt. User @u/shykawaii_shark on Reddit shared:

"Rough translation for English speakers. Not a literal translation, I made it easier to comprehend

Mother: What kind of sense does that make!

Daughter: They told me 'What sense does going out with a miniskirt make?' Like, think for yourself! I can wear my miniskirt, and you mind your own business!

Mother: Exactly!

Daughter: Think about your own miniskirt, not mine!"

Got a feisty little feminist here.

As adorable as this video is, it's also an example of how culture gets passed on from generation to generation. An Australian study found that young humans across different cultures imitate adults in ways that animals don't. Animals will imitate adult behavior to the extent that it's efficient and necessary to perform a task, whereas humans will mimic even silly or frivolous behaviors that have no purpose whatsoever.

“Animals focus on getting the job done,” Mark Nielsen, a psychologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, told Science. “Humans seem to almost forget about the outcome and copy everything we see.”

That mimicry of unnecessary actions may contribute to the complexity of human cultures. After all, it's not really necessary to do the finger purse to make a point, but Italians do it anyway. Little Italians pick it up from adult Italians, and so the classic Italian communication style is passed on.

And thank goodness it is, because babies gesturing in Italian is absolutely adorable.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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culture
Pop Culture

Voice actor seamlessly demonstrates 10 different voices we all recognize and holy moly

This is genuinely impressive…and a little spooky.

Tawny Platis/TikTok

Tawny Platis's voice acting demonstration is blowing people's minds.

In the age of television, radio, and the internet, we hear voices all the time, pretty much everywhere we go. From advertisements to customer service prompts to video narrations, voiceovers have become so commonplace that we don't give them much thought.

That is, until we see someone actually doing those voices we're so accustomed to hearing. Professional voice actor Tawny Platis shared a video to her Tiktok demonstrating 10 voices most of us will instantly recognize, and it's as uncanny as it is impressive. She seamlessly transitions from a text-to-speech voice to a "detached casual conversation" voice to a bright "We've got denim for the whole family!" department store voice and more.

As she shares these voices, you'll swear you've heard her doing them before, either on a call with your bank, in your workplace's onboard training, or while reaching for a tissue during a holiday commercial. It's downright freaky. Watch:

@tawnyplatis

10 common reads you’ll hear in voiceover! #voiceactor #funny

People in the comments had the most relatable responses to Platis' voiceover demonstration.

"This is incredible. I’m ready to buy something. I’m not sure what."

"I feel like you’ve been there for all the important moments of my life. Thank you."

"Bright was so triggering as a retail worker."

"Can’t tell if i’ve heard your voice before or if you’re just that good."

Being in the virtual presence of such greatness made some folks rethink their own voice acting ambitions.

"Me at the beginning of the video: I could be a professional voice actor!…… me at the end of the video:… there’s a reason SHE is a professional voice actor. Well done. 👏"

"Me sometimes 'I bet I could voice act' me after this video 'nope. I can't do that.'"

"Welp I can cross this off my list of potential professions. That was amazing."

Mostly, people were rightfully impressed with her range and talent. To have that much control over how your voice sounds with such consistency is remarkable.

But this video also offers interesting insights into the psychology of how this kind of acting impacts modern-day life. Each of these voices evokes a specific response in us, from comfort to excitement to trust to awe. It's a bit unsettling to clearly see how easily we can be influenced by someone's voice and how well-honed those cues and responses have become.

Voiceover professional Simon Lewington explained this phenomenon in an article on LinkedIn: "Just as colors evoke emotions in visual art, the tone of voice creates an emotional palette in auditory storytelling. The psychological impact of tone is profound. A warm and inviting tone can make viewers feel welcome, while a serious tone lends an air of authority. Choosing the right tone consciously allows voice-over artists to evoke intended emotions in the audience."

Lewington writes that voiceover artists are "emotional architects" who "use the psychology of voice to subtly shape how viewers perceive and engage with content." It's an art that can be used to enhance our enjoyment of an experience, but also one that can be used to convince us to buy or believe something. Voiceover work is powerful, and when it's done well, it's almost spooky how much it can affect us.

If you want to see more from Tawny Platis, you can follow her on TikTok or find her courses and tutorials for voice acting here.


This article originally appeared in February.

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