Great followup by ESPN on Liz McDaniel, the Hog fan whose YouTube video built on “United We Stand” went viral.
McDaniel, the city clerk of Nashville, is a karaoke fan, but she had no idea the limits of the form when posted on the web (with a taped-up Hog-style nose).
“About 4 o’clock on Monday, I got a text and [my friend] said, ‘Have you heard? Your video has gone viral.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean viral? It has a virus? I don’t know what you’re talking about.'”
But McDaniel didn’t take the video down, figuring the Hog was out of the barn.
Her instant reaction was trepidation. McDaniel is also an elected official in Nashville, serving as the city parks treasurer, a term that runs until 2015, and she worried what the reaction might be to the video, which has more than 380,000 views in less than a week.
“I have a very reputable job, and I am in very good standing in my community. I wasn’t expecting this,” she said, noting that she also sings solos in the choir at her church.
“But my goodness, there’s nothing in it that’s not proper other than just the silliness of me taping my nose up and putting my hat on. And to me it’s not silly because I’ve always liked to push my nose up and look at myself and how it changes my appearance. I’ve always liked making my pig face.”
She got a rough introduction to Internet etiquette.
“The people on YouTube are very mean, and very hateful,” she said. “They’re anonymous, so they can say whatever they want to. I think the comments that those people make are a lot more outlandish than what my video is. Don’t you?”
To the Alabama fan who said even God couldn’t produce a Razorback win against the Tide, McDaniel says that’s what the builder of the Titanic said about its unsinkability. Win or lose against Alabama, Clerk LIZHONEY2U (her YouTube handle) says she plans an encore.