Magibon

About

Magibon is the stage name of Margaret Lillian Adams, a YouTube personality best known for her minimalist, staring-contest-esque videos, which exhibit her extraordinarily large eyes. Since her online debut in July 2006, Magibon has become an official partner of YouTube and boasts over 100,000 subscribers.

Origin

Magibon, also known as MRirian on YouTube, uploaded her first video on July 2, 2006, aptly titled “Me doing nothing.” In the video, Magibon can be seen staring at the monitor screen, occasionally smiling and sometimes waving her hand before the camera.

Since then, Magibon has uploaded dozens of other videos on her YouTube Channel, some of which feature her real voice, mostly speaking in basic Japanese. In this particular video, which has been viewed over 5 million times, Magibon practices her Japanese skills by saying things like “Pizza is delicious” or “I’m studying Japanese.”

Q&A with Magibon

In February 2011, Know Your Meme conducted an interview with Magibon via e-mail. For more information, proceed over to KYM Blog – Q&A with Magibon.

Popularity in Japan

In early 2008, Magibon’s surrealist videos began to draw attention from the Japanese web, being labeled as “the next Leah Dizon,” an American-born gaijin tarento, or foreign TV personalities who regularly appear in Japanese variety shows and talk shows. Her media appearance in Japan includes TBS Radio^[2], Japanese Weekly Playboy Magazine^[3] and internet TV show Midtown TV^[4] among others.

Reactions & Parodies

Zuckerberg vs. Magibon

Molly vs. Zuckerberg

iJustin

PatrickBlog

Gerald5000

Derivative: Online Staring Contest

In early May 2008, the social competition site IBeatYou.com launched an online staring contest, which brought in over 800 response videos that are quite reminiscent of Magibon’s silent videos. Among the contestants participating were the American actress Jessica Alba:

Search Interest

External References

^[1] YouTube – Me Doing Nothing

^[2] J-Cast News – "Enigmatic Girl Magibon Visits Japan and Shows Her True Face ":http://www.j-cast.com/2008/04/14018990.html

^[3] Weekly Playboy – April 14, 2008 Issue Content

^[4] Midtown TV – Interview with Magibon

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