Catch me outside? More like catch me at the bank.
Who would have thought that a bad attitude would translate to millions of dollars? I can confidently say that most of the world could not have foreseen this connection. Danielle Bregoli rose to fame following the airing of the September 2016 Dr. Phil episode regarding vulgar children. The episode exposed Danielle’s disruptive behaviour and toxic relationship with her mother, Barbara. The stories ranged from their fights, her skipping school, and Danielle stealing one of the producer’s car keys.
Within hours of the original one minute clip surfacing on Twitter, the platform’s users respond with hundreds of memes. Her lack of regard for authority coupled with her accent making “catch me outside” sound more like “cash me outsside”, she was an instant sensation. Before we knew it, the hottest phrase was “Cash me ousside”.
But a year and a half later, Danielle is still a relevant topic in the Twitter-sphere. She is one of the few who outlived the typical short lifespan of Twitter memes.
I can’t say I anticipated this level of success, but within two minutes of watching the original airing of Danielle Bregoli on Dr. Phil, I knew she was destined for meme-status. I have to note that I believe the behavioural disparity between traditional Dr.Phil viewers (or rather, the average socially conscious person) and Danielle is a key reasoning for her rise in popularity. The audience had the ability to live vicariously through Danielle’s lack of regard for those around her.
Danielle, the disrespectful, and over the top 14-year old is now Bhad Bhabie, the youngest billboard top 100 charter.
She succeeded by accepting her meme status early on. When faced with being the punch line of a joke many people tend to take the route of denial, wherein they desperately try to prove that they are more than their catch phrase or embarrassing photo. Further, in may cases the meme itself grows more than the person behind it. In accordance with the cycle of most memes, Bregoli’s rise to fame began this way, with “Catch me outside” and “how bout dat” growing virtually exponentially with the person and name behind it fading to the background. Danielle recognized the growth in popularity and immediately attached herself to the growth of the catch phrases, as opposed to allowing it to run off without her. Taking it one step further than most, she sought to financially capitalize on it, rather than simply seeking social clout. She quickly assembled a team and trademarked both of her catchphrases for entertainment services and apparel. This permitted her to sell apparel, so teens around the world could embody her exaggerated persona without all of the criminal acts involved in being Danielle herself. It is notable that Danielle’s meme-status is different than most. Some of my favourite comedic memes are simple pictures/selfies, repurposed through the use of captions. By contrast, Danielle rose to fame primarily as a result of her sayings. Unlike those that have their photographs repurposed (often without knowledge of it), Danielle had something that she could leverage, protect, and potentially capitalize on. With this, her team did not hesitate to take legal actions against various companies and their video games for stealing her phrases — “Cash Me Outside” and “How Bow Dat”. According to the trademark suit, the games infringed on her trademark through profiting off the “likeness, voice and signature catchphrase without consent”. Her team has also attempted to take action against DJ Suede for taking advantage of a “cash me outside” remix.
Since the episode’s airing in September of 2016, Danielle has amassed millions of followers on her Instagram and Twitter accounts. With her new-found following, Danielle made the transition from TV personality to rapper. Once again, this not an expected transition. Her rap career was launched under the alias Bhad Bhabie and the song entitled “These Heaux”, both of which seem to be a clear nod to the fact that her accent and referring to Dr. Phil’s audiences as “hoes” were a key factor in her rise to fame. According to Celebrity Net Worth, some of the sponsored posts on her Instagram have earned her roughly $50,000 USD per post. The TV personality turned rapper was also reportedly paid $31,000 USD for an appearance at the Rolling Loud Music festival last spring. Whether respect should be given to Danielle herself or the team behind her, there is no denying that she exhausted her platform as much as possible.
Danielle’s transition from a piece of comedy to a serious rap artist is a long and treacherous one. While I, among many others, still find it hard to take her career seriously, there is no such thing as bad press. Whether people are playing her music to laugh, or to actually bop their heads to, her songs are getting plays and that’s all that really matters. In age of digital media, there is no such thing as bad publicity — especially if it pays the bills.
Sources:
Bhad Bhabie. These Heaux Music Video. 2017. Web. 15 Feb. 2018.
“Danielle Bregoli Sues DJ Suede For Using ‘Cash Me Outside’ Track.” TMZ. N.p., 2018. Web. 13 Feb. 2018.
Griffiths, Josie and Paul Harper, “Who is Danielle Bregoli?” The Sun. N.p., 2018. Web. 13 Feb. 2018.
2018. Web. 14 Feb. 2018. <http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cash-me-ousside-howbow-dah>.
