On Facebook, an AI-assisted satirical video on Lake Ontario renaming goes viral
by Piyush Mathur
A creator using the social-media handle ‘demonflyingfox’ has produced and circulated a music video about US President Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario that has gone viral on Facebook. Created using Artificial Intelligence (AI), the video is titled ‘Canadian Resistance Army - Lake Ontario’; it includes a hilarious song and uses animal imagery associated with the United States and Canada.
On Facebook, the video has been forwarded at least 30,000 times, and upvoted more than 46,000 times, within three days of being posted in late August.
Demonflyingfox, reportedly a Berlin resident, has had similar successes previously; Rebecca Jennings discussed his work for an article she published on Vox on April 12, 2023.
The video exposes the utter infantilism of Trump’s aggression regarding Lake Ontario and Canada generally; of course, its use of animal imagery is hard not to interpret as a mockery of human egotism writ large—but especially as it is being played out, rather narcissistically, in contemporary geopolitical hotspots.
Thoughtfox readers might like to take a look at the song’s lyrics ahead of watching the video itself:
An eagle landed on Lake Ontario shore.
Ready to change the map once more.
He said, ‘Nobody built a sign this size and raised it up before our eyes.’
A beaver spotted the grant display, chewed it down before midday.
The sign crashed with one loud crash.
The eagle swore he’d soon be back.
Lake Ontario, that name will not change.
Lake Ontario, some things you can’t rearrange.
Lake Ontario.
He came back with a bigger sign, painted with gold with stars that shine.
The loons went quiet, the water went still. Word spread fast every hill.
A might moose came charging through and splintered the sign in two.
The eagle swore, ‘I’ll make one more’, and flew away from Ontario’s shore.
Lake Ontario, that name will not change.
Lake Ontario, some things you can’t rearrange.
Lake Ontario.
A towering sign that blocked the sun, the eagle thought the war was won.
Then a black bear came from maple woods doing what a true Canuck should.
One blast turned gold to dust and smoke. Nothing left but shattered oak.
Each bigger sign, each grander claim, we knocked it down just the same.
The eagle challenged the goose to fight, to settle the score and prove who’s right.
No lawyers, no treaties, no fancy laws, just a goose and an eagle claw to claw.
That goose stood strong, no need to boast, the bravest bird from coast to coast.
Blow for blow they fought all day. Then the goose sent him packing the other way.
Lake Ontario, that name will not change.
Lake Ontario, some things you can’t rearrange.
Lake Ontario.
Lake Ontario.
Lake Ontario.
Lake Ontario.
That is all.
On Facebook, this is the link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19BFRdfhRC/
On YouTube, one can only access the audio (so far anyway): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLvMZEwgy-0&list=OLAK5uy_la5n8dWPiw2JoLX_yO6Q8Gbtu_429oDqs
Demonflyingfox also has a website, where he also sells some merchandise for a living: https://demonflyingfox.com/en-inr