This week, my family and I drove from Atlanta to Orlando for three fun-filled days in Disney World. So, my 11-year-old daughter and I prepared the way normal pop culture nerds would: We brought along the soundtrack to Pitch Perfect and two red solo cups. Because there’s no better way to spend 6.5 hours of my trapped-in-a-car day than to teach myself the newest viral video trick, amirite?
See: the cinnamon challenge, Chubby Bunny, the accent v-log.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just do a Google search for “When You’re Gone Cup Trick.” Go on, I’ll wait.
See? We’re not the only ones.
I have been a little bit in love with Anna Kendrick for a while, and not just because almost everyone thinks she’s my celebrity doppelganger. I don’t see it (at all), but even my dad thinks we are twins and since it’s a much more interesting comparison than the Tina Fey one (Note to everyone in the known universe: Yes, we both wear glasses. No, it doesn’t mean we look alike.), so I’m gonna take it and run with it.
And it’s no secret that I thought Pitch Perfect was surprisingly entertaining—I even saw it in the theater. Which, as any parent knows, means truly going the extra mile for your entertainment.
But the cup trick? When I first watched it I was impressed. When I watched her do it again when we streamed the movie at home, I was intrigued. But when I saw her do it on Letterman I was obsessed.
OBSESSED.
She’s nerdy and adorable. (Watch out Zooey Deschanel! THERE’S A CHALLENGER TO THE CUTE GIRL THRONE. AND THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.)
AND word is they added the scene in the movie because she could already do this trick:
“Because I’m a huge loser, I thought the best way to spend an entire afternoon would be watching, like, this video 50 times and teaching myself how to do it,” she says. “So when they found out that I could do it, they wanted me to do it in the movie.”
There are bonus points for that—I’m sure of it.
So, of course, I wanted to find out who started this whole cup-and-song craze and it seems to have showed up online in 2009 when the lovely Lulu and the Lampshades brought their awesome version of “You’re Gonna Miss Me” to the great world wide web.
I have now watched close to, um, an embarrassing 50 versions of this and I absolutely love this one.
And this one.
You tell me: How does Anna Kendrick’s cup trick stack up (See what I did there?) to the original? Or to these? Or to any other one you have seen? And please tell me I’m not the only who is, err, just a little bit obsessed with this?
About Ali Martell
