Leave Britney Alone
You might remember it as Chris Crocker Britney
A possible copy is known, but ViralWorld has not verified that it is the right one.
2007·Early YouTube·dramatic
A piece to camera that the internet spent a decade laughing at and then agreed with.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- Chris Crocker Britney
- Began as
- A video upload
- Format
- Video
- Made by
- Cara Cunningham, then known as Chris Crocker
- First posted
- Part one on MySpace on 9 September 2007; the famous second part on YouTube the next day
- Origin
- Original no longer exists
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
Cara Cunningham, under a sheet, in tears, addresses the camera about the press coverage of Britney Spears after the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, and tells the people writing it to leave her alone.
Cunningham performed under the name Chris Crocker at the time, to protect her identity against death threats, and has since described the transphobic backlash that followed. She has spoken publicly about holding an unpopular position that critics later validated.
Why it matteredWhat changed
A tearful plea to stop mocking a pop star was itself mocked for more than a decade, and then the public argument about how that star had been treated came round to its side. Few videos have been so completely re-read by the people who laughed at them.
TimelineIn order
- Posted
The first part is posted to MySpace, in response to Britney Spears’s performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.1
- Posted
The second part, titled “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!”, is posted to YouTube. It is watched more than two million times in its first day.1
- Mainstream
South Park parodies it in the episode Canada on Strike.1
- Taken down
Cunningham closes the YouTube channel.1
- Came back
After the documentary Framing Britney Spears, Cunningham calls the backlash to the video a “teachable moment”.1
What people misrememberSet straight
Commonly remembered asAn act, performed in a second take.
ActuallyCunningham always said it was sincere. The remark about a second take referred to this being the second part of two.1
Commonly remembered asAn unknown who became famous overnight.
ActuallyThe maker had already posted more than sixty videos and had a large following on MySpace and YouTube.1
Commonly remembered asIt began on YouTube.
ActuallyThe first part went up on MySpace the day before.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
Where it came fromWhat we know
The original upload no longer exists. It has been identified, and nothing that survives is both legitimate and playable — so this page is the record, and the video is gone.
The original was identified by research and is no longer online. What is shown here is a surviving copy somebody else published, which is why this record makes no claim to be the first upload.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- When
- 26 September 2007.
- Where
- Known on YouTube.
More from 2007You were there
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things