The hottest music video of the past year comes from an artist who no one had ever heard of, and who nobody seems to like.

Rebecca Black’s “Friday” has been the most mocked music video of 2011, and also the most interesting thing I have seen in a long time. Sorry, Coen Brothers – “True Grit” was a close second, but it didn’t inspire the kind of thought-provoking questions that “Friday” did.

Since her video’s Feb. 10 debut, it has been viewed more than 78 million times; I’ll take credit for about two dozen of those.

It all started when I mindlessly clicked a Facebook link to the video. I began watching the video the same way I wish I had first watched “Fight Club” – completely ignorant to what it contained.

So many thoughts ran through my mind as I watched it. I read some of the comments – all negative, and thought, “No. no. They’ve got it all wrong!”

“Friday” isn’t awful. It is absolute genius!

It was one of the most entertaining and captivating times I’ve had in under five minutes that didn’t involve nudity or baby oil.

And it wasn’t one of those “it’s so bad, it’s good” situations.

Warning: admittedly far-fetched conspiracy theory ahead.

 

Anyone who says they like the video or song doesn’t mean they think it’s a good video or a good song. They mean it’s hilarious. And I agree. But I don’t buy that this piece of comedic gold was the result of a train wreck caused by inept songwriting and mediocre talent.

I can’t buy it. Not if I want to remain a person who still thinks there is some good in the world.

I think a comedic genius orchestrated (geddit?! Orchestrated! Like a song! Never mind.) the entire thing.

Does anyone know what Dave Chappelle is up to now? Maybe T-Pain, Kanye and Chappelle teamed up to create the perfect pop music parody. A parody so perfect it was nearly undetectable.

Too bad I’m the Sherlock Holmes of BS.

Consider the line “Kicking in the front seat/sitting in the back seat/gotta make my mind up/which seat can I take?”

Or that the song has the audacity to follow the line “Yesterday was Thursday/Today it is Friday/We so excited/We gonna have a ball today” with “Tomorrow is Saturday/Sunday comes afterwards.”

Unless this song was aimed at educating first graders on the days of the week, I think these lines are hilariously condescending. The songwriters are insulting fans of today’s pop music, who will embrace almost any lyrical content.

The lyrics are so beautifully ludicrous only a professional could write them. And neither Miss Black nor Ark Music Factory CEO Patrice Wilson are true professionals.

Wilson is the “mastermind,” to use the term loosely, behind “Friday.” He produced the song and video, and also is the “rapper,” to use a term even more loosely, during the song’s breakdown.

Rebecca Black is a likable enough girl. At 13 she is neither pretty nor ugly, but would look right at home in one of Disney’s afternoon tween shows.

She has been interviewed many times since “Friday” went viral, and her interview on Good Morning America provided some more clues about the song’s real origins.

Her mother, who could also be in on the joke, was asked how the criticism of her daughter made her feel.

“In all honesty I could have killed a few people,” she said.

She didn’t say it as a joke. Or with a wink. She said it straight-faced the same way Will Ferrell would in one of his over-the-top comedy roles.

That made me think the whole family is in on it. If that even is her family. What mom would admit to contemplating murder that dryly on national television. A mom who isn’t a mom at all, but an actress hired to portray an odd and borderline psychotic “pageant-mom.”

Yeah, I’m taking this conspiracy theory and running with it.

Which brings me back to Rebecca. She claims to be 13 but looks older to me. Perhaps a 16-year-old actress playing a young naive wannabe pop star? Sounds intriguing and believable enough to me.

Sure there’s the slight chance that she’s just a 13-year-old girl who wanted to write a song and had no problem more pressing than the stressful car seat decision.

But the “it is what it is” theory is not nearly as fun.

Oh, I mean, “fun fun fun fun!”

Dante Frattini can be reached at [email protected].