Apparently all you need for your video to go viral is to be a sign language interpreter for the mayor of NYC. That’s what happened over the weekend when Jonathan Lamberton was signing for Mayor Bill de Blasio during his press conference about the Ebola patient.
Video of Lamberton’s signing soon went viral, similar to when Lydia Callis’s signing went viral after her appearances behind former Mayor Michael Bloomberg at press conferences during Hurricane Sandy. Callis’s videos became so popular that Saturday Night Live even spoofed her.
Personally, I don’t understand why de Blasio’s terrible Spanish-speaking skills didn’t go viral instead. ASL interpreters must seek overly expressive ways of communicating emotions to the hearing impaired so their mannerisms are not uncommon.
Yet each time one is featured behind the mayor of New York City, it translates to viral gold. UPDATE: Check out this brief interview below with Lamberton, who addresses people’s reactions to the video that went viral: “I guess I could have been offended, but I know they were just naive about the process, so I’m fine with it.”
