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Shadowing practice: We Fooled the Internet w/ Fake Justin Bieber Burrito Photo

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. What is driving the internet crazy starting with Justin Bieber?0:00
  2. This is how he eats a burrito JB showing down on a burrito like it's a corn car He's eating a burrito like he's eating corn in the car It's0:03
  3. like he's eating in like a coffe of corn You don't eat raw chicken and you don't eat a burrito like that Compromising its structure by attacking and if you're0:10
  4. not offended you're not a marriage It's like hold it like so that you maybe from under yeah, like cradle it That is so freaking funny Yes Ah Gotcha Yep0:16
  5. that photo of Justin Bieber eating a burrito sideways was completely staged and we are the ones that did it We've never pulled off anything like this before but engineering0:34
  6. a viral story that has nothing to do with yes theory has been a challenge We've always wanted to do and when we stumbled upon Brad Suza's Instagram the uncanny0:43
  7. Justin Bieber lookalike that dots connected What's up, bro?0:52
  8. We wanted to prove a point that staging a story as goofy as it was can be done much more easily than most people can imagine So our plan was1:00
  9. simple fly Brad out all the way from Canada to LA to pose as Justin Bieber doing unusual things in public All right, we've been brainstorming ideas.1:08
  10. What should JB's do?1:17
  11. I feel like the internet does have a sweet spot for grandma I don't know what like what debates are there like people debate like you the banana this way1:18
  12. or that way like and you've heard people say like The pineapple on pizza Okay, cat you bite straight into the side versus breaking them off What if he's caught1:24
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  1. doing like really weird stuff like eating a burrito sideways Just bites like sideways on the burrito When we picked Brad up from the airport however, he told us some1:33
  2. worrying stories There's one I was actually 18 when I turned 18 so two years ago Whenever I'd go out to like a club or something like everyone would like1:49
  3. freak I would actually be stopped and people would like scream and be like, oh my god.1:56
  4. That's actually him like mom You know like now it's just like oh my god Part of the things that we're gonna have to do is to actually make you1:59
  5. look like him as much as possible Making him look completely like the current Justin Bieber was going to be imperative for this to work So I spent hours losing2:08
  6. my mind over watching paparazzi videos to figure out what Justin Bieber looked like these days Does Justin Bieber have neck tattoos?2:16
  7. Oh, it does say patience The thing is to get this to go viral We have to have people in the news think it's real because those are the people2:23
  8. that are going to spread it right?2:29
  9. We only had Brad in LA for two days So the first day was dedicated to make him look as close to Justin Bieber as we possibly could We're gonna2:30
  10. need long sleeve.2:38
  11. We're gonna need hands, right?2:39
  12. His jb uses got like leg tattoos and then just cover up his his arms and legs.2:40
  13. So his tattoos are invisible I think maybe the pants.2:44
  14. I feel like he wears baggy pants.2:48
  15. Yeah And then I think with like a puppy sweater.2:49
  16. Yeah Actually look like Justin Bieber.2:52
  17. So we want like long hair.2:55
  18. Yeah.2:56
  19. Oh my god.2:57
  20. Yes.2:59
  21. This is perfect.2:59
  22. You think so?3:00
  23. Yeah See exactly I told you We'll have to cut it a little bit.3:01
  24. Wow You look like it exactly he's Justin Bieber.3:12
  25. You think it was maybe him.3:26
  26. Yeah Haha Dude I think from the side.3:28
  27. Yeah, it's gotta be a photo from here Yeah We had two potentially viral ideas we're going to stage our first attempt was to hire grandma to pretend to be3:41
  28. struggling crossing the road I had spent an afternoon trying to figure out how to hire grandma for a few hours to make this happen And eventually found one that3:49
  29. agreed to act in our video for an hour He would then have our fake Justin Bieber get out of his car mid traffic and help her across the street3:56
  30. And while filming it we got extremely lucky.4:03
  31. That is that is jb.4:06
  32. There's no way drop her bag.4:07
  33. No way Did 100 % that's Justin Bieber What Justin wow the celebrity tour bus gave our video so much more credibility than we could have ever have planned for4:09
  34. We were convinced we had just shot a viral video We could never have predicted that our next attempt at the park was going to change everything You're trying to4:22
  35. think of something that would offend the internet It's like one of those things that you put the milk before the studio You know what I mean?4:34
  36. Like one of those things is that what are you doing?4:40
  37. That's not how you do it So biting into a burrito sideways.4:42
  38. I feel like it's gonna get enough people to be like what the f*** is he doing?4:44
  39. Oh, that's what we're doing right now.4:47
  40. We're shooting some photos and we're getting Brad to eat a burrito Biting it from the middle which makes absolutely no sense Yeah exactly hold it like so that you4:48
  41. yeah like cradle it All right now start devouring it from the middle from the middle Oh boys, I think we did it.4:56
  42. This goes viral.5:10
  43. Yeah, that's why we gotta figure out how to spread it Our viral strategy was simple send out the video and photo to as many blogs and newspapers as we5:11
  44. could find I think we have either two objectives either getting a bunch of views on one of these links or just getting it published And one of these like5:19
  45. gossip websites.5:26
  46. I think we should find also just some new fan pages They are like f***ing armies, but we were immediately hit by a slow start.5:26
  47. Well, um, we're four comments on reddit in 22 minutes Damn, this is gonna be harder than I thought I thought people would like find find it funny right away5:32
  48. I wonder how long it's gonna take to catch it could be in a week.5:43
  49. It could be in like two weeks So remember Kimmel said it took like a month for their viral video.5:46
  50. Oh 10 avoids about 70 % Yeah, okay our friend Connor just joined the operation to try to make this go viral I think that you need to put it5:51
  51. on to a different subreddit because we posted it on the pics subreddit Which is huge, but the problem is it's like really impossible to stand out I think this6:02
  52. picture would be perfect for mildly infuriating which is a specific subreddit for things that mildly infuriate you So nothing's working for now, but hopefully it'll get picked up Okay,6:09
  53. so we just got back from a meeting and we just checked the subreddit and it is number one It is number one on the one of the biggest subreddits6:21
  54. on mildly infuriating 284 Is that 80 half an hour ago?6:29
  55. Yeah Let's go baby Not a single person is questioning whether that's actually Justin Bieber Connor Dude, it's freaking number one Yes, it's working Yeah, we're at 300 upvotes Yeah,6:35
  56. it's getting comments in like 10 upvotes every few seconds Yes, there is a chance that it might end up on the front page at this rate Like it's it's6:52
  57. by far number one.7:00
  58. It's rising the fastest We just need like one or two of those gossip websites to pick it up and then we won.7:01
  59. Yeah Holy s*** No way, 3000 3000 You got it from f***ing page So good No way How is that possible?7:06
  60. 2900 upvotes Yes!7:24
  61. Here it is f***ing worked!7:26
  62. So ironically we went off to get a burrito and then we came back This burrito is on the front page Burritos were the way to get it Oh s***7:28
  63. 10 .6 What?7:37
  64. 10 .6 Over 10 ,000 upvotes 38 We went off to 38 It's gonna go number one Oh my god 184 notifications I just downloaded it, they asked like an7:39
  65. hour ago Yo buddy Number 38 in the world on Reddit No f***ing way Yeah dude, we posted it five hours ago Oh my god, you're lying Yeah, let's go7:54
  66. Yeah, baby How long do you think till like news sources will pick that up?8:05
  67. I have no idea This is the text I got from Darren this morning You're on Paper Mag The most respected online fashion arts magazine Check Paper Mag?8:09
  68. Dude, Justin Bieber goes against the laws of God and man The Biebs has hit us with a new scandal that beats all of the previous scandals Justin Bieber ate8:21
  69. a burrito Side please Alright, we're in the middle of shooting Connor called me Vanity Fair contacted him And asked him where he got the photo because they want to8:29
  70. do a story on it No way He was asking him, where did you get the photo?8:37
  71. Connor, what did we do?8:42
  72. I just told him I don't even know He very much confirmed that it was him, be like yeah, I'm certain it was him He's like, yeah, no idea it8:43
  73. was gonna be like that crazy To act like, oh my god, this is crazy Oh my god, I can't believe this is happening People don't just pay your interest8:49
  74. right now Check out this bad boy The burrito eating strategy that divided the nation Okay, sh** just went down He posted on their Instagram 12 million followers What?8:56
  75. He already has like 17 ,000 likes and it was posted 15 minutes ago It's getting out of control It's everywhere Taylor's sending me all these lines SB Nation, Paper9:07
  76. Mag, SFK, SF Square, Eater Bad Jewish just put it You're joking Oh my god Bieber eats a burrito That's f**king corn on the cob I'm not sure how I9:15
  77. feel about it What have we done?9:26
  78. What have we done?9:28
  79. Justin Bieber, this is how he eats a burrito You guys, is it too late to say sorry For eating a burrito like a total weirdo Take a look at9:30
  80. this picture Does he know how burritos work?9:37
  81. That's actually how we eat burritos in Canada When we start in the middle, then you get too high Obviously social media just exploding This is a messy situation waiting9:42
  82. to happen And it is a disgrace It's designed to be eaten like this I wanted to know how you guys felt about Bieber Eating a burrito like this Oh9:49
  83. my god A writer from Vice tried to eat that way and documented it And basically said it was like this disaster He's eating a burrito like he's eating corn9:57
  84. on the cob Or playing harmonica This is not how you do it Okay, it's just become a Twitter moment Which means it's at the top of the news on10:04
  85. Twitter Photos of Justin Bieber sparked a debate about Proper burrito head of kids If you literally type eating on Google A bunch of news stories comes up about Justin10:12
  86. Bieber Eating a burrito wrong And it's on USA Today He's independent, cosmopolitan, BBC He's reading about all this Too much Fake news dude Alright, this photo is going mega10:20
  87. viral right now All over the internet And since Connor was the one that ended up posting the photo He's getting DMs on Reddit From like news sites, radio shows10:31
  88. For interviews He's gotta be able to bulls**t the questions They're calling Hey, hey, Erica It's Connor Let's start from the beginning What day did you take the photo?10:39
  89. Where were you and what were you doing?10:48
  90. Last week, I think it was last Friday I think it was last Friday I was just hanging out in West Hollywood Park I mean, my friends were hanging out10:50
  91. in that park I'm trying to learn to do photography and videography and stuff So I had my camera with me and we were just hanging out I actually took10:55
  92. the photo I saw Justin from a distance And he just quickly took the photo Like, we thought at first it was Bieber And we saw he was eating his11:00
  93. burrito But you can absolutely tell it was Justin in person So like, we very quickly realized So we started to take a photo And then we saw he was11:07
  94. going in for this bite on his burrito In a, what has turned out to be a crazy way I was just putting it on Reddit for fun Who would11:14
  95. have ever thought it would go so crazy So what do you say to everyone trying to prove it's not either?11:20
  96. People online think that this is a setup What do you say to that?11:25
  97. That would be crazy I don't know even know why people would think that Like, the whole thing would have to be orchestrated or something I don't even know Like,11:29
  98. that's crazy A lot of people are questioning whether it was Justin Bieber It was definitely, it definitely was him I think the internet is spoken on that Cheers, thanks11:35
  99. Dude, what's happening?11:44
  100. What's happening?11:45
  101. What is happening right now?11:46
  102. Dude, they're calling him famous They're like, you're famous now Go enjoy your fame He asked several times Like, everyone's saying it's fake It's not his hair I was like11:47
  103. Look, you have to be there Even though I wasn't there Dude, you're everywhere Yo, that's so f***ing hot That was quick, bro It's insane that this worked out Yeah,11:55
  104. that's dope12:10

English speaking practice with Yes Theory's Justin Bieber burrito story

This clip is English speaking practice built from a real group conversation, not a script read into a microphone. Yes Theory are telling each other, and you, how they staged a viral photo of a Justin Bieber lookalike eating a burrito sideways. The talk moves between reacting to the photo, planning the prank and recapping what happened, so you get several registers of everyday English conversation inside one recording.

It sits at B2, and it moves. At 193 words per minute it is faster than 55% of the catalogue, several voices overlap or finish each other's sentences, and the accents are mixed rather than one clean voice to lock onto. That combination, several speakers, a quick pace, is closer to how conversation actually sounds than a single narrator ever is, which is exactly what makes it worth the extra rounds.

The gonna and gotta reductions to catch in this english shadowing practice clip

Shadow this line closely and you will hear how the group compresses their grammar the way people actually talk. This recording carries the reduced forms gonna, eight times, and gotta, three times, plus a filler like dropped mid sentence.

  • "Part of the things that we're gonna have to do is to actually make you" stacks two reductions back to back: gonna swallows going to, and the whole clause runs together with barely a pause before "make you".
  • "I would actually be stopped and people would like scream and be like, oh my god." uses like twice as filler, not as a comparison word. Say it with the filler left in, or the rhythm goes flat.
  • "That is so freaking funny" is short enough to repeat five times in a row. Match the stress on freaking, that is the word carrying the reaction, not funny.

A four line order to improve your english speaking with this B2 conversation

Work this clip in a fixed order rather than jumping around, since each line adds one new difficulty on top of the last.

  • Start on "That is so freaking funny". It is short, the stress pattern is clear, and it gives you a baseline for how fast you can go before the score drops.
  • Move to "was completely staged" from the line about the burrito photo. Practise it until the three stressed syllables land evenly, that phrase alone explains the premise of the whole video.
  • Take "we've been brainstorming ideas" next. Brainstorming is a longer word with a stress that beginners often misplace, put the emphasis on the first syllable and hold the rhythm through to ideas.
  • Finish on "we're gonna have to do". By this point you have the pace of the speakers in your ear, so run the full reduced form at speed instead of spelling out going to.
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