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SONGSPEAKwe come from the land down under |
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This past Saturday, August 16th, there was a big picnic at Nonotuck Park in Easthampton to celebrate mine and Kristen’s recent nuptials. For a photo project, Kristen’s friend Kelly suggested a group of us jump in sync while she set her camera on a timer. We must have jumped twenty or thirty times in order to get this shot.
My wisecracker cousin Chris came over and said, “What… did someone just get a toyota or something?”. He was referring to the Toyota commercials of the mid-80s, when Toyota’s slogan was “Oh what a feeling!” and commercials featured excited people jumping.
Does anyone besides me and Chris remember these?

John Cena played football for Springfield College in the late 90s with my cousin. Click to enlarge the pic.
Speaking of my cousin Chris, he attended Springfield College and played football there with WWE star, John Cena. You can’t see him? He’s top row, third from the left, number 57. My cousin Chris is bottom row in the middle, number 78.
Did you know that besides all the WWE stuff, and the Subway commercials John Cena has been in, he recorded a rap album with his cousin, Tha Trademarc in 2005? The first track, “The Time is Now” was even used by Cena as his entrance music.
My cousin Chris and I, however, have not yet recorded OUR rap album. Here’s to hoping it ‘drops’ soon, y’all.
Tags: 80s tv commercials, easthampton, football, john cena, jump, jumping, monday night raw, nonotuck park, nuptials, oh what a feeling, springfield college, subway, tha trademarc, toyota, wwe, you can't see me
Last night was the first night of Million Dollar Mania on Monday Night RAW . Vince McMahon is basically giving away $1,000,000 every week on RAW until he feels like stopping. Fans register on wwe.com, and are given a password at the beginning of the show. Vince then calls people thoughout the 2 hour broadcast, asks for the password , and gives away some money.
Well, his first phone call (in addition to making three attempts to get through) had unexpected and hilarious results. First of all, it seems Vince McMahon has never dialed a phone before. Second of all, it seems he has no idea what a reverse ringtone is. On top of that, the reverse ringtone in question rickrolled Vince McMahon and the entire RAW audience. I don’t know what’s the funniest part of the video; Vince’s buffoonery, his goofy old man glasses, the reverse ringtone, or the announcers:
Tags: 00s tv, 80s music, million dollar mania, monday night raw, never gonna give you up, raw, reverse ringtone, rick astley, rickroll, rickrolled, vince mcmahon, wwe, wwe raw
Perhaps this falls under the banner of wrestlespeak more than songspeak, but last night on WWE RAW, the three main presidential candidates (Clinton, Obama, and McCain) made pre-recorded comments to air during the show.
Yes, I enjoy wrestling, and yes, most wrestling fans get a bad rap and are stereotyped into the “unintelligent trailer trash” category. However, most wrestling fans are just average people who watch wrestling as any other form of entertainment.
So imagine how I felt my intelligence to be insulted when watching these candidates’ comments. Not only did they talk in circles and not actually say anything, they littered their mini-speeches with lame wrestling metaphors and catchphrases of wrestlers who haven’t been active for about 6 or 7 years (most notably, The Rock). If you’re going to try to relate to your audience, wouldn’t it make sense to, you know, make some more current references? Good God, I was half-expecting John McCain to say, “Where’s the beef?” Don’t get me wrong, hearing Barack Obama say “If you smell what Barack is cookin’” was pure gold, but I just got the feeling I was being talked down to. It was obvious they know nothing about the WWE and were just spouting lines. They blew a good opportunity to say something real and intelligent and instead let some speechwriter make it obvious that they knew nothing of their audience. And it didn’t help McCain’s case that his message appeared last and he used the same “If you smell what the Mac is cookin’” line.
Below is a snippet of each candidate’s clip so you can see for yourself.
Tags: 00s tv, Barack Obama, dwayne johnson, hillary clinton, john mccain, raw, smackdown, the rock, trailer trash, wendy's, where's the beef, wrestling, wwe, wwe raw