The document analyzes and summarizes a viral internet video from Australia that uses humor and animation to promote rail safety. The video combines a catchy song with cartoon drawings depicting increasingly silly but dangerous actions. While seeming lighthearted, the video ultimately aims to bring awareness to real dangers of interacting with trains by listing three serious yet unintuitive risks. The use of humor, exaggeration and cute cartoon figures effectively delivers an important safety message in an engaging way that targets younger audiences.

1. In this paper I will try to analyse a videoclip which is currently a great internet success all
over the world and in Spain. The lyrics and singing are attributed to Tangerine Kitty and
were put together with the animation for the Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia, in order
to promote safety around trains and rails. I chose this videoclip because I found it very
interesting when contrasted with the lecture about Semiotics applied to horror-comics.
Before beginning to analyse the videoclip in more detail, we may clarify first its structure: it
is a combination of a quite catchy song --due to its simple lyrics, short lines, the rhymes
and frequent repetition of the chorus-- and the visuals. Hence, the lyrics (non-written
language), the melody, and the voice of the female singer may be considered as one
mode. Then, we have the visual mode, which consists of the short written message at the
very end (image 1) and the animated cartoons.
Having shortly mentioned now the different modes, we may consider the union between
the visual and auditory modes: the whole composition consists of five five parts. In each,
four different situations are depicted. As we are dealing with a non-static mode, I consider
each situation/action depicted as a frame that separates it from the next situation. Only in
the last part, in which we find the main aim of the ad, there are five different situations
depicted. Again, all besides the last one, rhyme AABB/chorus x2. The last part rhymes
AABCD. There is, however, an E line ("They may not rhyme but they're quite possibly"),
which is used, as well as the chori, to break the rhythm, but additionally, to link it directly to
the next line, the chorus ("The dumbest ways to die, the dumbest ways to die" x2). It may
also be used to, firstly, create again a humorous environment despite having described
three serious situations, but secondly, also to make the audience be aware of a slight
difference. Whereas all the previous were exaggerated and silly ways to die, these last
ones are real problems and because of it, "quite possibly the dumbest ways to die".
Accordingly, the main idea behind this ad was to show many silly situations in which one
can die, which serve as an introducer to the real message: the three most 'silly' ways we
can die around trains and rails, i.e. to "stand on the edge of a train station platform", to
"drive around the boom gates at a level crossing", and to "run across the tracks between
the platforms". And then, we get the only written linguistic part, the warning "Be safe
around trains. A message from Metro", which I also consider to be a "framed" component
but yet constituent of the last part:
image 1

2. We may now proceed by taking into account that this video is not the usual kind of
videoclip used as an ad. Instead of human characters, cartoons were used. There are
some quite cute 'humanized' figures which, one after the other, depict a short situation or
action. Namely, "take your helmet off in outer space". This sequence begins with one of
these colored figures taking the helmet off in outer space and it ends with its head
exploding (image 2). Note that I am using the -ing progressive because the sequences
neither begin nor end. Each sequence begins and finishes in media res, as if it was
intended to depict only the process that is describred in the lyrics, nothing static.
But why were these 'not-so-serious' drawings used to deliver such an important message?
There lies, obviously, great importance in humor. We can notice it both in the lyrics, in
which increasingly dumb ways to die are described, but also in the visual part, the
animation. For example, in the sequence I commented on previously, the only remainings
of the exploded head are the figure's eyes, which end up twirling around in space. After
this third part, which consisted of four different dumb ways to die, four correspondent dead
figures end up with the previous eight dead figures (from part 1 and 2) and sing along the
chorus ("Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die" x2). In this scene we can see how
our protagonist holds his eyes up high and swings them along with the rhythm of the song:
This is again a quite fun characteristic which we can only be depicted in this manner by
using cartoons. Thus, in general we could state that the use of cartoons in this videoclip is
useful 1) to exaggerate facial expressions, body gestures, etc.:

3. 2) to soften all these tiny potential real-life situations as well as rather unprobable
situations (outer space situations, attacks from bears...) which could have been depicted in
a much more disgusting way, but also
3) to even make possible the illustration of certain very possible situations:
If the producers of this ad had decided to use human characters, we can certainly say that
the whole ad would have been too morbid. By adding these exaggerated and unrealistic
features, a different, even 'de-horrorizing' mood has been created. All the different modes
and their features, e.g. a sweet, nice, female singing voice, ironic lyrics, simple rhyme,
cute unfortunate characters, overdone situations, and finally, despite their misfortune a
quite happy environment (image 2: all characters singing together, ironically, the chorus
"dumb ways to die"), contribute together to make the song stick in the audience's minds
and make them giggle and laugh.
Having discussed the kind of drawings and animation used in order to create a rather
humorous mood, we may now ask ourselves why these kinds of modes where used. In
order to be more accurate, we would need statistics of deaths related to trains and rails.
But we could attempt to conclude that exactly these visual and auditory modes were
composed because the target audience needs this kind of multimodal combination to get
engaged, to pay attention to the ad and to listen to the message. It is quite probable then,

4. that the audience targeted at is a rather young audience. Maybe from 10-12 up to 40-year-
olds maximum. The combination of satirical, humoristic features to raise awareness of a
rather sad and serious topic in this manner must be received exactly as such in order to
work well. There may be a certain audience, perhaps already fifty-year-olds, who would
find it even offensive or absolutely nonsensical.
Fact is, that it is the first time an ad with such a message has gone viral on the internet
(especially through mobile devices), which seems to indicate that the ad has been
successful and more specifically, the estimated target audience could be the one stated
above.
image 2

5. DUMB WAYS TO DIE
Set fire to your hair
Poke a stick at a grizzly bear
Eat medicine that's out of date
Use your private parts as piranha bait
Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die x2
Get your toast out with a fork
Do your own electrical work
Teach yourself how to fly
Eat a two week old unrefrigerated pie
Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die x2
Invite a psycho-killer inside
Scratch a drug dealer's brand new ride
Take your helmet off in outer space
Use a clothes dryer as a hiding place
Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die x2
Keep a rattlesnake as a pet
Sell both your kidneys on the internet
Eat a tube of superglue
"I wonder what's this red button do?"
Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die x2
Dress up like a moose during hunting season
Disturb a nest of wasps for no good reason
Stand on the edge of a train station platform
Drive around the boom gates at a level crossing
Run across the tracks between the platforms
They may not rhyme but they're quite possibly
The dumbest ways to die, the dumbest ways to die
The dumbest ways to die, so many dumb ways to die
Be safe around trains. A message from Metro.
Video available here:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv
%3DIJNR2EpS0jw&gl=ES
Or simply introducing "Dumb ways to die" in the youtube search box.