Why Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Videos Are Flooding TikTok and YouTube

Marc Musso has a behavior of writing a foolish music about no matter he is doing. Typically it is about feeding his cat Malmo, different occasions it is about taking part in board video games.

So it is most likely no shock that because the 27-year-old Texan was watching a dwell feed of the defamation trial between the blockbuster actor Johnny Depp and his ex-wife film star, Amber Heard, he discovered himself writing a music.

Sung from the angle of Heard’s attorneys, it pokes enjoyable at how typically they objected to feedback Depp was making on the stand.

“I was revered. Folks took me at my phrase,” he begins singing with pop-music beats within the background. “Then I turned a lawyer representing Amber Heard.”

Certainly, the weeks-long prepare wreck that’s the trial between two of Hollywood’s largest stars has someway develop into some of the common matters on the web. In between photographs of the continued Russian assault on Ukraine, the nationwide abortion debate sparking protests across the US, and rising inflation inflicting a market spiral, it is video snippets coming from the identical static, darkish wood-paneled courtroom which are going viral. Hundreds of thousands of persons are logging on to dissect each second trickling out of the trial’s dwell feed from a courtroom in Fairfax County, Virginia. Some persons are going additional down the rabbit gap, remixing trial footage into one thing new. 

That features Musso, who did not initially plan to put up his 87-second tune to the web, till his girlfriend satisfied him to place it on YouTube. After which on TikTok. Lower than two weeks later, his music’s racked up greater than 13 million views.

“I assumed it was ridiculous, and most of the people appear to agree,” he mentioned. In any case, to him it is only one wealthy individual suing one other wealthy individual whereas airing out their drama to the general public.

@thetruegadfly#johnnydepp#johnny#johnnydepptrial#amberheard#objectionhearsay♬ authentic sound – Gadfly

Social media jury

Seek for Depp or Heard on YouTube or TikTok, and most of what you may discover is brief, several-minute-long clips from the trial with tabloid-worthy headlines like Johnny Depp Destroys Amber Heard’s Lawyer (13 million views) or one drawn from a now well-known quote from Heard’s testimony, “I didn’t punch you, I used to be hitting you” (29 million views). The individuals who run these accounts say they’re importing the clips to attract consideration to a element they consider is necessary which may in any other case get neglected. In return, they’ve racked up thousands and thousands of views together with torrents of recent followers. And a few have made cash off it too.

The creators appear to share the identical story of rising curiosity within the trial over time. Finally, they determine to put up movies both as a result of they’re longtime Depp followers from his days as Jack Sparrow within the multibillion greenback Pirates of the Caribbean motion pictures, or maybe his newer run because the villain Gellert Grindelwald within the Harry Potter prequel sequence, Unbelievable Beasts (a task he misplaced amid the controversy surrounding the couple’s break up).

Haider Ali mentioned he noticed himself in Depp and Heard’s explosive marriage, which started in 2015 and ended after simply over a yr. Heard filed for divorce and obtained a short lived restraining order. Ali, a 27-year-old digital artist and net developer, mentioned he’d been a sufferer of home violence and believed sharing clips from the trial on YouTube may assist different individuals who’ve additionally been in that state of affairs.

“I posted a couple of movies they usually did not accomplish that properly, and I sat down and questioned, Why am I posting these movies?” Then his third video hit greater than 2 million views. And a day later, one other hit 2.6 million views. Throughout the week, his channel had shifted from his self-styled singer-songwriter roots, which noticed him taking part in rock performances on his electrical guitar, to several-minute-long movies from the trial.

One in every of his hottest to date, with greater than 2.6 million views, reveals Depp and Heard on display screen, overlaid with laughing emoji, and the title Witness Dr. Daybreak Hughes Does not Bear in mind Something.

Ali mentioned he incorporates emoji with dramatic titles like Johnny Depp’s Lawyer Ben Chew Blasts Amber Heard as a result of that is the tradition of the websites he grew up with, like Twitter, Tumblr and MySpace. “I am attempting to masks the negativity with enjoyable stuff,” he mentioned.

Alice Parkes took it a step additional. She created animations to play over audio from the precise trial, lampooning everybody concerned. Her hottest video to date portrays Heard doodling whereas Depp’s on the stand, till he accuses Heard or one in all her associates of defecating within the couple’s mattress, at which level she’s sweating and visibly uncomfortable.

“I used to be pondering, ‘the absurdity of the entire trial would simply look so humorous animated,'” Parkes mentioned. The 28-year-old skilled illustrator primarily based in Wales had about 50 followers on her TikTok account, @pettyparrot, earlier than her first video went viral with greater than 12.2 million views. Two extra hit movies later, she’s received about 95,000 followers and joined the TikTok Creator Fund that pays her for video views.

“I may do that and, you recognize, probably become profitable off it, which might be good,” she mentioned.

@pettyparrot I shouldn’t have entry to animation software program. 💩 #johnnydepp#amberheard#justiceforjohnnydepp#amberturd#fypシ♬ authentic sound – Alice

Well beyond O.J.

Courtroom dramas have lengthy been a pillar of American popular culture. TV reveals like NBC’s Regulation & Order have been on the air longer than many common TikTokers have been alive. Key moments in US historical past, just like the Salem witch trials, are taught at school. The Watergate hearings on Capitol Hill forward of President Richard Nixon’s resignation from workplace in 1974 modified American politics a lot that just about any main controversy winds up with a nickname that features a “-gate” affixed to the tip.

Over the previous 30 years although, cable TV and, ultimately, web streaming have provided folks an opportunity to observe each second of a high-profile case, which have typically been known as “trials of the century.”

“With huge trials like this, you get these uncommon alternatives the place virtually everyone does not less than have somewhat little bit of a passing information of what is going on on,” mentioned Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Heart for Tv and Common Tradition at Syracuse College.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals throughout the nation had been glued to their TVs watching soccer star O.J. Simpson’s homicide trial in 1995, pop star Michael Jackson‘s molestation trial in 2005 and even the heartbreaking case surrounding the loss of life of 2-year previous Caylee Anthony in 2011. And in every of the key instances typically cited as popular culture phenomenons, the drama from the courtroom turned as a lot a subject of fascination because the circumstances of the case.

Although Depp v. Heard would not have the identical stakes as a felony trial, or the political significance of a presidential impeachment, it does have a dramatic storyline crammed with weird characters and salacious particulars.

And it has social media.

“With the O.J. trial, you may flip it off,” mentioned Paul Sales space, a professor of media at DePaul College in Chicago. “You might not watch it. You might not learn the newspaper.” 

However laptop applications working our social feeds on Twitter, YouTube, Fb and TikTok preserve feeding Depp v. Heard to us as a result of even when we’re not , our associates most likely are.

And the rabbit holes social media creates can change our views as properly. The social feeds might begin displaying you solely pro-Depp movies and posts, as a result of that is what the apps assume you may need. And, Sales space added, TikTok’s short-video format makes it even more durable to search out nuance past the nice man or villain narratives folks typically slot into.

“The place it turns into dangerous or the place it turns into problematic,” he mentioned, “is once you lose that type of vital concentrate on it and also you begin pondering that the rabbit gap you’ve got gone down is the entire world, and also you lose perspective on all the pieces else.”

The political-type on-line mudslinging between Depp followers and Heard defenders hasn’t simply made it robust for an web passerby to shortly perceive what is going on on. It is made the job for folks like longtime trial advisor and psychologist Amy Singer more durable too. She’s typically introduced in to seek the advice of on excessive stakes instances, together with the Casey Anthony felony trial and Michael Jackson’s civil trial. 

Singer is not consulting for Depp or Heard, however she’s been watching. Singer’s group has a set of social media listening instruments that deduce what jurors could be pondering by following social media posts of individuals with comparable demographics and backgrounds. What she’s discovered is not the everyday coverage debate we hear throughout an emotional homicide case, or the cultural conversations we normally have round little one abuse throughout molestation trials. 

As a substitute, Singer’s group is detecting the rifts between the 2 film stars’ fandoms.

“It is extra like a political debate,” she mentioned, referring to the trial as a “pig v. pig” case, the place “who offers a rattling who wins?”

In case you aren’t being bombarded by Depp v. Heard movies, by the best way, Singer’s social media listening instruments point out you are most likely older. Whereas the court docket case is blowing up throughout YouTube and TikTok, the place viewers are likely to skew youthful, the “grownup inhabitants” she tracks on Fb and Twitter are extra fearful with the Ukraine battle and inflation. “They are not speaking about Amber Heard. ‘Amber who?'”

Making {dollars}

Lahiru Darsha began posting movies about Depp v. Heard when he felt just like the trial wasn’t going the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s means. Quickly, Darsha was posting brief video snippets — lower than 2 minutes — on his YouTube channel, Redux Goals Lab.

Earlier than the trial, the 25 year-old’s channel principally had movies of his streaming gameplay from the hit crime drama sport Grand Theft Auto. The sport had helped him study English, and the movies made him about $100 in advert income each few months whereas he was at school incomes a cybersecurity diploma.

However his Depp movies took off, garnering thousands and thousands of views inside days of being uploaded. The 35-second Johnny Depp’s Bodyguard Being Hilarious rung up 1.3 million views, Johnny Depp Attempting to Resist Laughter, uploaded the identical day, attracted practically 4 million views. By the tip of his first day importing, he’d made $3,700.

“I needed to attract consideration to particular factors that could be missed from the livestreams,” he mentioned. And the fun of discovering an viewers — most of whom had been constructive to him — impressed Darsha to add much more clips.

He is made about $18,000 for the reason that trial started, and plans to make use of the cash both to construct a house in Sri Lanka, the place he lives, or examine overseas in Europe. He additionally intends to pay again household who’ve helped fund his education.

Darsha has additionally eliminated all of the movies from his account, after listening to rumors that YouTube was cracking down on the waves of trial movies.

“I used to be already OK as a result of I earned a hefty amount of cash,” he mentioned. “I am good with that.”

Making sense

Amid the courtroom snippets pulled from the dwell feed, there are folks on YouTube and TikTok dedicating their time to sober, severe evaluation too.

DC-based lawyer Devin Stone, who heads the YouTube channel LegalEagle, posted a virtually 22-minute-long video breaking down the case and what led as much as it. However he started his video by making enjoyable of the flood of movies cheering on Depp and bashing Heard. “This newest go well with and countersuit is already turning right into a circus,” he mentioned in his video, which has garnered greater than 1.6 million views. “Figuring out the reality of home violence allegations is invariably a difficult prospect. Consequently, the general public’s response to those allegations has been extremely polarizing.”

The emotion amped up throughout Depp’s and Heard’s competing testimonies on the stand, throughout which proof within the type of recordings of private interactions and textual content messages, which celebrities normally attempt to defend from the general public, had been introduced into plain view.

The drama has given married attorneys Ashleigh Ruggles Stanely, 28, and Maclen Stanley, 31, an opportunity to carry some movie star tradition onto their TikTok account, @the.regulation.says.what. 

“When folks take into consideration the regulation, it sounds very boring, and never like an thrilling TikTok you would like to observe,” Ashleigh mentioned. “So every time there is a tie-in to one thing that persons are already serious about … persons are excited to observe.”

They’ve additionally damaged down lawyer’s ways and reactions, drawing in additional than 12.3 million views for his or her 59-second video explaining why Depp’s lawyer as soon as made a celebratory fist pump when Heard mentioned one thing seemingly innocuous on the stand.

“That is a very good foothold to step in and say, ‘Hey, you may need seen and even preferred this viral video, however let’s speak about what’s truly taking place,'” she added. 

@the.regulation.says.what let’s focus on Johnny Depp’s lawyer’s fist pump #fyp#foryoupage#amberheard#johnnydepp#lawtok#edutok#johnnydepptiktok♬ authentic sound – Maclen & Ashleigh

Musso, the musician from Texas, most likely will not be recording any extra parody songs concerning the court docket proceedings although. He thinks his second within the solar from the trial might be value three songs, after which that’ll be it.

Musso’s last providing: Johnny Depp’s Rap (The Closing Trial Bop) has greater than 63,000 views and is accessible on TikTok, YouTube and different streaming platforms. One commenter pleaded, “This cannot be the final. We want a cross examination bop and a verdict bop.”

However Musso’s made his choice, he mentioned. “I do not need folks to get too sick of it.”