SHUT UP LITTLE MAN!: AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE

Before youtube, before twitter, before facebook and all the other networks where viral sensations get their inception today, there was “Shut Up Little Man!”: a short 1987 audio verite recording of two argumentative alcoholics, Peter J. Haskett and Raymond Huffman, made by neighboring apartment dwellers “Eddie Lee Sausage” and “Mitchell D.”  The recordings were passed  from friend to friend to reach cult status among the San Francisco underground culture, until Bananafish magazine acquired commercial use of the tapes in 1992, forging the line “Shut Up Little Man!” into viral sensation.  The new documentary “Shut Up Little Man!” examines the tapes and probes the question of how viral sensations start.  The film opened in New York and Los Angeles last Friday.

Watch this exclusive clip from IFC.com, where Eddie and Mitchell recount their first encounter with Peter and Ray.