The tragicomic videos of the Pantomime Full duo have been characterized in recent years by the portrait, with a very subtle humor, of some of the archetypes that surround us. From the conformist couple to the chic rebel, passing by the scoundrel, the coach flirt or bartender.
This Friday, they did it again. In this new opus, one of the members of the group, Rober Bodegas, plays a real estate consultant for luxury properties. The video parodied a new trend of videos, published especially on TikTok, in which professionals in the sector, generally young and extremely dynamic, show high-rise apartments and houses. standing Normally located in privileged areas of Madrid such as the neighborhoods of Salamanca, Goya or La Moraleja. To get an idea of what we are talking about, it is perhaps best to see an example:
In the same spirit, Bodegas showed with his best smile an apartment “ideal to become independent” that cost 2,400,000 euros. The parody lasts one minute, which is usual for the duo. In this case, however, they decided to extend it a little longer.
In the epilogue, the shot switches from YouTube’s usual 16:9 format to the older, more claustrophobic 4:3. This subtle change brings us to the salesman’s real life: he shares an apartment with two other boys in a suburb of Madrid, and his dinner is nothing fancy: it’s just a salad prepared at the supermarket.
This video, which has over 370,000 views as of this writing, raises at least two key questions. The first is why this type of real estate content has become so prevalent in recent times and why it appeals to so many people, and the second is what is behind it and what the implications of its success are.
Between curiosity and indignation
“I have to admit that these videos amuse me a lot,” says Ana de Zaragoza. “In fact, I follow some of these companies even though they are apartments in Madrid and I could never buy one. I like to see what they look like inside, the layout, the furniture… Even if it’s just to criticize them.
Ana admits that she also feels fascinated and surprised by the number of luxury apartments for sale. “It seems a bit strange to me that there are so many homes available in the Salamanca neighborhood and almost always with views of the Retiro. Huge apartments for three, five or seven million. I also wonder who is buying these houses because I know a guy who is an important executive in a company in the capital, married to a girl who also has a good salary, and who has been looking for a long time to buy an apartment in Madrid. In the end they found it, they are going to pay more than a million and it is a very average apartment.
I follow some of these companies even though they are apartments in Madrid and I could never buy one. I like to see what they look like inside, the layout, the furniture… If only to criticize them
Ana (Zaragoza)
— consumer of these videos
“I think these types of videos of real estate consultants showing unaffordable apartments are so successful on social media because we are very curious and want to know what other people’s homes are like,” says Janira Planes, a journalist and digital culture analyst. “In addition, this curiosity has become much more acute in times like the current one, where buying a home becomes something ambitious.”
In any case, Planes points out that this phenomenon is not something strictly new either, but rather an updated version of the time spent looking at the catalog of a real estate agency that has been thrown into our mailbox or what happens in the United States. called surfing on zillow“which involves going into the Yankee equivalent of Idealista, Zillow.com, and spending hours looking at houses, seeing what they look like inside, how much they cost, etc.”
Another reason why these videos are engaging, according to Planes, is that they have a very solid narrative structure, which follows the Aristotelian model of beginning, middle and end: an ordered flow that begins by showing the location of the space, its main characteristics. and whose moment of revelation or conclusion is the discovery of the price, which generates an emotion in us, which can be surprise or indignation.
“Finally, I do not exclude that there are stick rage [enfadar al espectador con la finalidad de conseguir visualizaciones y comentarios]”, Planes said. “That is, showing apartments that they know are well above market price, that only one person will be able to buy a expatriate or someone immensely rich, to generate engagement (connection), that they are shared…”.
Fit of rage or has the market skyrocketed? A question that is sometimes a little difficult to answer. Especially when you see comparisons like those made on Twitter by the account @erraticorunhes, where you can see how, in other major world capitals, you can buy authentic palaces for what a 200 square meter apartment costs in Madrid.
Where do we really want to live?
Going a little deeper, this type of real estate videos has become, according to the philosopher Eudald Esplugain “an audiovisual genre typical of the culture of personal development in which the visualization and mental manifestation of our desires are considered a tool of positive psychology to achieve what we want (just think of the vision boards or in theories such as the law of attraction).
For the philosopher, within ultra-liberal and far-right circles, linked to the masculinities burpee and among bitcoin sharks, where the young entrepreneur’s self-model is the ideal of success, this positive psychology is transmitted through the culture of effort: visualization and work. “So it’s this abyss between the lack of access to housing and the mentality technocasa What the Pantomime Full video makes visible: in a certain way, it shows how the speculative logic of the market leads us to want to desire a certain type of house (and normative life). Those that condemn 99% of the population to invest more than half of their salary to have a bed and a table in an apartment shared with four strangers on the outskirts of urban centers.
It is this chasm between the lack of access to housing and the mentality of the “techno-home” that makes the video Pantomime Full visible: in a certain way, it shows how the speculative logic of the market leads us to want to desire a certain type of house (and living arrangement)
Eudald Espluga
— philosopher, author of “Don’t Be Yourself” (Paidós)
“In fact – continues the author of Don’t Be Yourself. Notes on a Tired Generation (Paidós)– », the proliferation of these real estate videos completely questions our domestic imagination: what kind of house do we want to have? What kind of domestic life do we associate with the possibility of a good life? To what extent is a certain model of housing intrinsically linked to a very specific type of heteronormative family life, hyperproductive and dependent on fossil urbanism?
The city should not be reserved for those who can afford it
For his part, from the Tenants’ Union of Madrid, Pablo Pérez, its spokesperson, affirms that “these videos are the perfect showcase of the injustice that we live in Madrid. While thousands of families barely make ends meet and look for ways to pay the rent of increasingly expensive apartments, we are inundated with images of houses that only the richest can dream of.”
These videos are part of the same machinery that is driving people out of their neighborhoods and we don’t want a city of millionaire showcases, but a city where everyone can live.
Pablo Perez
— Spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants’ Union
According to him, it is not a coincidence, but rather “they want us to get used to seeing how a few live in luxury while the rest of us struggle for decent housing. Madrid is increasingly a city for the rich while workers are pushed to the outskirts or to neighborhoods where rents continue to rise or to share apartments and rooms with very little protection.”
“These videos seem to tell us that the city is for those who can afford it,” she continues, “and the reality, what we believe from the Tenants’ Union, is that housing is a right and should not be a luxury. We know clearly, these videos are part of the same machinery that expels people from their neighborhoods and we do not want a city of showcases for millionaires, but a city where everyone can live, where housing is a right and it is not the privilege of four rich people,” he concludes.
