YouTube At Its Worse: The 2010 Lil Savion "Don't Make Me Snap My Fingers" Video & Its Hate filled Discussion Thread (with two other YouTube Videos Of "Don't Make Me Snap My Fingers In A Z Formation" )

Phillip Davis Oct 8, 2010

Lil Savion does her thing for 3D Ent.

Download this song and, "I Love My Haters" at the link below.... -snip-
The chorus to this rap is a version of the dissin chant "Don't Make Me Snap My Fingers In A Z Formation".

Here's the words to that dissin chant that Lil Savion rapped:
“Don’t make me snap my fingers in a Z formation, hip rotation, booty sensation. Elbow-elbow, wrist-wrist, snap-snap, kiss-kiss”. 

Only Black people appeared in this video. Read the article reprint and in my editorial notes below for descriptions of this 2010 video.
-snip- 
Statistics as of Sept. 25, 2021 at 10:29 AM ET
total # of views - 2, 637,083
total # of likes - 23K
total # of dislikes -4.5K
total # of comments - 4,005

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases the 2010 YouTube video "Don't Make Me Snap My Fingers" by "Lil Savion".

This post also includes descriptions of this African American video and its statistics(total # of views, total # of likes, total # of dislikes, and total # of comments as of the date of this post's publication.

In addition, this pancocojams post provides a full reprint of an article about that viral video and its social media reactions. 

My analysis of the types of comments that are found in that video's discussion is also included in this post.

The Addendum to this post showcases two additional YouTube "Z Formation" videos. A description of each of these video and their viewer, likes, dislikes, and comment statistics as of the date of this post's publication are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks Lil Savion and all those who are featured in these showcased videos. Thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.     

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ARTICLE REPRINT
From https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/lil-savion-snap-my-fingers/  [complete reprint]
"Don’t make her snap her fingers  Lil Savion wows the Internet (and draws haters) with her rap."
Fruzsina Eördögh Published Sep 2, 2011   Updated Jun 3, 2021
'Eleven-year-old Savion Stanfield, aka “Lil Savion,” is currently making waves — both good and bad– on the Internet with her attitude-filled rap song “Don’t Make Me Snap My Fingers.”

“Don’t make me snap my fingers in a Z formation, hip rotation, booty sensation. Elbow-elbow, wrist-wrist, snap-snap, kiss-kiss” chants Lil Savion.

Rafaela Stanfield, Lil Savion’s mom, explained her daughter was inspired by all the cheerleaders at the football and basketball games (Savion plays basketball at school).  “That’s some of the things they chanted.” And cheerleading movie “Bring It On” is one of Lil Savion’s favorite’s. 

If the chorus of “Don’t Make Me Snap My Fingers” sounds familiar, that’s because it originates from  a common school yard chant. The “Z Formation” finger snap was popularized in the 90’s by an In Living Color sketch by comedians Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier, though trading insults with finger “snapping” dates back to “The Dozens,” a game played by American slaves.*

Local rapper Phillip Davis said he loved her stuff so he shot it for her.

“She was telling me one day that she had written a song and dance,” said Davis, who goes by “Conflict”  in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina hip hop community. “She has a passion for writing,” said Davis, whose dream is to one day have a production company named STO Productions.

Savion’s father came up with the beat, because Savion “wanted to make a song she could dance to” said Stanfield. Everyone in the family got involved with the video, including Savion’s distant cousins. And Savion’s school was gracious enough to let them shoot the video during after hours.

When “Don’t Make Me Snap My Fingers” was originally uploaded  in October of last year, it sat at couple thousand views – until last week when views of the video shot up at an exponential rate.

The blog, Crunktastical, featured the video on August 22nd, recommending it to its readers. Then on Sept. 1, the video caught the eye of Buzzfeed on September 1st, in a quick post referencing Rebecca Black, who is often ridiculed.

Once Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 picked up the video, “Don’t Make Me Snap My Fingers” spread like wildfire on

“We’re very surprised — and she loves it,” said Stanfield, adding that all the attention is very exciting for her daughter. When she picked up her daughter at school yesterday, everyone was talking about her song.

People on YouTube have even taken to copying Lil Savion’s song and dance, from dancing teenagers, pre-teens in a parking lot, little boys, and even a grown man man in a wacky disguise.

Besides the love and encouraging words, like “this video is cute” or “this song is super catchy”, “Don’t Make Me Snap My Fingers” has gotten an alarming amount of hate — mostly in the form of racial epithets. At one point, the top comment on YouTube called Lil Savion a “hoodrat.”

And David Mills wrote on Facebook via the Tosh.0 blog, “She looks like she’s 11 so I’m sure her kids are proud of her.”

Jonathon Wallen wondered if she was forced into doing this video, to which Bret Dixon replied, “That’s what I am thinking. Momma needs more crack, gotto make my baby famous so she can make me some money.”

Others made fun of Lil Savion’s eye, calling her “Fishy” on YouTube  (she had to have surgery on her eye as a baby).

Stanfield doesn’t understand why “people would go make discouraging comments on a little girl’s video” but ultimately got over it by saying “there are always negative people out there.” The comments about Lil Savion’s eye hurt her the most.

As for the comments calling Stanfield a bad mother, she called them “crazy. We support her very much and wouldn’t let her do anything that was inappropriate. She’s fully clothed, and doesn’t do any inappropriate moves. It was all done with a child’s perspective.”

Davis was also a little perturbed by the hate.

“I guess people have the rights to their own opinion. I am sorry that people are hating on it, but we do what we do because we  love to do it,” Davis said. “We did the video out of enjoyment.”

Lil Savion, on the other hand, wasn’t as phased by the negative comments. “These comments kind of hurt her feelings at first, but then she told me, ‘Mom, comments like that make me want to do better, work harder.’ I’m so proud of her for doing that,” said Stanfield.

Since October, Lil Savion has written two songs that need to be recorded, and is working on another two.

“Her dream is to be a singer, but if that doesn’t work out, she wants to be a lawyer. She’s very ambitious.”

“Don’t Make Me Snap My Fingers” is available for download on SoundClick.com.”
-snip-
*Although slavery in the United States is mentioned in other online article as being the origin of the verbal insult exchange game that is known as "The Dozens", I belong to the school of thought that believes that the origin of "The Dozens" is uncertain. 

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTES ABOUT THE LIL SAVION "DON'T MAKE ME SNAP MY FINGERS" VIDEO AND ITS DISCUSSION THREAD [Revised Sept. 26, 2021]

I consider the 2010 Lil Savion video "Don't Make Me Snap My Fingers" to be YouTube at its worse mostly because of the large number of hate filled comments in its discussion thread. The article reprinted above mentions some of these negative comments. But I believe that that article really  downplayed the racism against Black people that is found in that discussion thread. 

And, speaking of that discusion thread, that "Lil Savion" video clearly features children. Given YouTube video's ban against comments for children's videos, WHY is this discussion thread still available for people to read and still open for more viewer comments??? 

A lot of people wrote and continue to write comments on that video's discussion thread. In addition to the blatant racism, that discussion thread is full of awful comments that ridicule the physical appearances of Lil Savion and some of the girls who are her backup dancers. Don't they deserve the same respect and consideration as other children who are featured in YouTube videos?    

Compared to other YouTube videos of "Don't make me snap my fingers" , Lil Savion's video has a ton more views and commetns. My guess is that the reason why this video received (and still receives) so much attention is that it was featured in tumblr and some other social media sites which lampooned that entire video or a clip of that video. People from those sites then visited that YouTube video to see the video for themselves. A number of those visitors then went wild with their racism. The same people or others also felt comfortable about posting insensive comments on that video's discussion thread about the physical appearances of children.

There's no excuse for those toxic comments. However, in my opinion, that Lil Savion video is also an example of YouTube at its worse because that video was so poorly made. As a number of commenters noted, there were a lot of incongruencies in this video.

Here's some of those incongruences in no particular order:
1. A number of commenters wrote that Lil Savion was tired, expressionless, depressed, and sad in this video. One commenter wondered whether she was tortured to make this video. Given these (in my opinion, accurate descriptions), it seems obvious to me that most of  the comments praising Lil Savion as being "fierce", having "a lot of swag", and the video being "iconic" and better than Michael Jackson, Elvis, Beyonce etc, were very facetious.  A lot of commenters considered/consider this video as a joke. That appears to be the main reason why it was circulated on tumblr, instagram, and other social media forums. (Furthermore, some people wondered if this video was intended to be a joke (a parody of African American rap, although that supposition wasn't worded that way in any comments.)

2. Lil Savion is shown getting off of a long yellow school bus which had no driver. There appear to only be five people on that bus. At the end of the video, she reenters that school bus.

3. Lil Savion gets off the bus in a school uniform and then is shown in class wearing "regular" clothes.

4. The video was low budget and showed it. For example, the same woman who portrayed Lil Savion's mother in that video also played the role of her school teacher.

5. There are only four other students in Lil Savion's classroom.

6. Lil Savion is shown with a Gucci backpack, and expensive item that is very incongrous with her supposedly characterization as a "bad ass" school student. 

7. The rap didn't make a lot of sense. For instance, Lil Savion rapped that she wants candy but her mother is making her save. Some commenters wondered why her mother bought her a Gucci bag but won't buy her candy. She also rapped that she got good grades. However, she is shown talking back to the gym teacher and said that she was written up and sent to detention. Is she a good student or a trouble maker, or both?

8. Lil Savion's backup dancers were also school aged girls around her age*, with one girl much younger than the others. At one point in the song, Lil Savion refers to these girls as her "haters".

*Speaking of age, many commenters wrote that (their guess was) that Lil Savion was eight years old in this video. However, the article reprinted above indicates that she was eleven years old. The fact that  Lil Savion comes across as being young takes away from the "hard ass" vibe that she was trying to portray in this video.

9.  Regardless of whether these young school age girls were Lil Savion's "backup" (supporters) or her haters, this was a fail because these girls didn't have the "bad ass" vibe as that rap was attempting to articulate. Also, a lot of commenters criticised  Lil Savion for rapping about "booty sensation" when she didn't have a butt. These commenters wrote that Lil Savion was acting "too grown" (acting older than she was.). 

10. Many commenters wrote that Lil Savion said the words wrong (for the "Don't Make Me Snap My Fingers In A Z Formation" dissing chant. The fact that many people are "attached" to their version of rhymes and chants might partly explain the ridicule and animosity that this video engendered.

While there are some comments in that video's discussion thread that appear to have been written in sincere (and not facetious) appreciation for and support of Lil Savion, those comments are few and far between. 

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ADDENDUM- TWO ADDITIONAL Z FORMATION VIDEOS

EFY 2008: Z Formation

Clark0501, August 10, 2008

Don't Make Me Snap My Fingers In A Z Formation, Exclamation, Hip Rotation, Elbow Elbow, Wrist Wrist, Girl Don't Make Me Go Like This
-snip-

Here's my description of this video:
Six White young women and two White young men stand outside and perform this dissing chant.
Note that in 2020 the only commenter in this video's discussion thread refers to these people as "kids": "These kids are now adults". 

Statistics as of Sept. 25, 2021 at 10:06 AM ET
total # of views - 5,104
total # of likes - 12
total # of dislikes - 3
total # of comments - 1

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Janelle oh so cute with a little attitude

oldschoolray1, Sept. 2, 2011
Don't make me snap my fingers in a z formation

Hip rotation hair sensation

Knuckle knuckle wrist wrist .... .... Kiss this

Comments are turned off. Learn more
-snip-
Here's my description of this video:
A young White girl, seated in a car, demonstrates how she "does" this dissin chant. The word "this" in "Kiss this" refers to her butt.  

Statistics as of Sept. 25, 2021 at 8:41 AM ET
total # of views - 8, 731
total # of likes -72
total # of dislikes - 26

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There are at least five other YouTube videos of this dissing chant. All of  those other videos have very few views. Those other videos have few comments, or no comments or the comment section is closed. 
 
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