Comedian Surprises Strangers with Sudden Selfies

Photography Tips

The selfie craze may have reached its zenith with Ellen’s most-rewteeted Oscar pic, but that hasn’t stopped Seattle-based YouTube comedian Jason Rodjanapanyakul from keeping the trend alive. Recently he traipsed alone around a local mall, yelling “selfie!” at strangers and surprising them with self-portraits:

It’s actually a strangely fascinating social experiment. Not so much for the bored guys whose looks of confusion never change before, during, or after the shot; they look something like this fella:

But what’s interesting is to watch people’s faces instantly snap on in less than a second, as if there’s some Pavlovian response–like a call to action–once the word “Selfie!” is shouted at them:

All around, it’s a pretty charming video, whether Jason is being glared at by misanthropic teenagers or immediately surrounded in a group shot that scores him the phone number of a few cute girls (via PetaPixel). Just goes to show what the power of a smartphone can do.

“Go out and change people’s lives… one selfie at a time.”