Friday whatever

So I've been working on a longer post, but it's not getting done this afternoon. Maybe it'll be up over the weekend, maybe it'll be Monday,* maybe it'll be Tuesday.

In the meantime, the highly educational Bama Sports Report took some time today to respond to some OMGBAMALOLZ-themed posts across the blAUgosphere, a couple from yours truly included. I responded at length in the comments; if you're bored, that'll keep you busy for a minute or two.

Also, a random thought I discussed with a couple of friends yesterday: what do you make of the new Pizza Hut commercial where a family is blindfolded, supposedly told they're being taken out to a nice Italian restaurant, then are brought right back home, served Pizza Hut at their kitchen table, and act TOTALLY SHOCKED when their blindfolds are taken off and they find out they're eating Pizza Hut at home? The consensus reaction seems to be: This is the dumbest commercial in the history of commercials, even worse than this one.

And if it was made intending to be taken at face value, it is. But--and this may just be the graduate degree in English talking, plus the having seen the thing a gajillion times the last couple of weeks--I don't think it's supposed to be taken at face value. No one, anywhere, would watch that ad and think "Wow, that family really did just walk into their own home and think they were in a curiously silent restaurant!" It's obviously, screamingly fake--and if you ask me, intended to be ironic, the ad agency's subtle way of winking at the audience and acknowledging "Hey, those other ridiculous hidden camera spots that you know are fake? We know you know. Watch, we'll show you by cranking up the fake factor in this one to the point that sea urchins would recognize it for the B.S. it is." Which makes it ... kind of ... subversive? Ad campaigns don't typically take a twist where later ads parody and mock the earlier ones, but I think that's what's going on.

As you can see, I've spent entirely too much time thinking about this, and I'm well aware it's not interesting. To anyone. At all. But it's all going to have been worth it, because it gives me an excuse to give you this related video:



When he goes for the pies, I just lose it. Anyway, enjoy your holiday weekend, everybody.

*Yeah, maybe Monday. I'm sort of in the newspaper biz, the Mrs. is in medicine. Holidays don't entirely apply.