I was listening to the Sklarbro Country podcast yesterday -- the brainchild of the twin comedians Jay and Randy Sklar. It's pretty good if you're into sports and nerdy comedy like I am. As a running gag throughout the show, they kept playing an audio clip of some announcers at a video game competition, and I thought it was hilarious, so I went on YouTube and found the video clip. That sent me on a YouTube spree that I shall recreate in what follows. If you have a moment, please follow me down my rabbit hole.
This clip is beautiful for a few reasons. First off it seems so silly to earnestly commentate on a video game, especially with descriptors like "genius" and "so smart" (although I fully admit that it's not any more silly than commentating on a game like baseball, if you really think about it). Then you have the premature celebration, followed by the announcers freaking the eff out:
What are you standing up for?!
Why?! Why?! (Very reminiscent of Nancy Kerrigan.)
Then you have the guy who actually did win pump his fists and give the crowd high fives (again it comes off as very silly given the setting), and the announcer says "he gave him no remorse," which, as the Sklar Bros points out, sounds strange; it's usually "he showed him no remorse."
Because the competitors are Japanese, and they are playing a "sport," it made me think of another clip I saw earlier in the week. Watch the batter in this one, and give it a few seconds, as the camera does zoom in on him eventually. It's worth it, trust me. Although, I showed it to S, and she didn't even crack a smile. Some people have no senses of humor.
This, of course, made me think of Leslie Nielsen as an umpire in The Naked Gun.
The video game clip also made me think of premature celebrations. The most famous of which was Leon Lett in the Super Bowl:
And this was probably not even Lett's worst blunder.
It also was not nearly as bad as this stupid play from last year's Oregon-Utah game.
But when it comes to premature celebrations, nothing beats Ray Jackson (a.k.a. Ogre) in his match against Chong Li. I mean, what was he thinking? He didn't listen to any of Frank's advice
By the way, here's a trivia question: What Best Actor Oscar winner was in Bloodsport? (The answer is revealed in this classic scene.)
This got me thinking about Jean-Claude Van Damme. His time at the top went by quickly, didn't it? Nobody was a bigger action star when I was a teenager. Now, I don't think many people under the age of 25 have even heard of him. He actually talks about his rise and fall in the movie JCVD, in which he plays a very introspective version of himself. It is an interesting idea, and I give Van Damme credit for trying, but it's a pretty boring movie, truth be told. Here's a cool scene though:
And I can't put up clips of Van Damme movies without posting one of the all-time worst scenes in any movie ever -- the sword scene from Bloodsport.
I love a few things about this scene. For one thing, the boy's acting is terrible -- his dialogue sounds dubbed, but he's an American (presumably) speaking English in an American movie. Why does he sound so weird? For another thing, wardrobe put him in a San Francisco Giants baseball cap and a New York Giants football jersey, which is incredibly goofy. Lastly, why does not flinching mean he has a "fighting spirit?" Doesn't that mean he has bad reflexes? I think flinching would be a good sign; it shows perparedness.
The Asian man in the clip was named Roy Chiao (I've mentioned him before in this blog, actually), and he's best know for his role as the Chinese mob boss at the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. You can see him toward the end of this clip:
I didn't love Temple of Doom, but it certainly has some memorable scenes. There's the one where they eat all the gross stuff. (Thankfully my Indian mother-in-law usually serves me dosas and chutney instead of eyeball soup.) And the one where a guy gets his heart ripped out. Kalima ... Kalima ... Kalima ...
Which reminds me of this clip of James Randi debunking psychic healing on The Tonight Show:
It's quite remarkable that anybody ever believed that there are people who could pull out tumors with their bare hands. But people are pretty gullible; we'll believe anything -- holistic medicine, ESP, toxin-free diets, voodoo, and so on. Heck, some people even believe in a virgin birth.
Anyway...
Okay, so we've gone from video game announcers to the Amazing Randi. I think that's deep enough. Until next time ...
This clip is beautiful for a few reasons. First off it seems so silly to earnestly commentate on a video game, especially with descriptors like "genius" and "so smart" (although I fully admit that it's not any more silly than commentating on a game like baseball, if you really think about it). Then you have the premature celebration, followed by the announcers freaking the eff out:
What are you standing up for?!
Why?! Why?! (Very reminiscent of Nancy Kerrigan.)
Then you have the guy who actually did win pump his fists and give the crowd high fives (again it comes off as very silly given the setting), and the announcer says "he gave him no remorse," which, as the Sklar Bros points out, sounds strange; it's usually "he showed him no remorse."
Because the competitors are Japanese, and they are playing a "sport," it made me think of another clip I saw earlier in the week. Watch the batter in this one, and give it a few seconds, as the camera does zoom in on him eventually. It's worth it, trust me. Although, I showed it to S, and she didn't even crack a smile. Some people have no senses of humor.
This, of course, made me think of Leslie Nielsen as an umpire in The Naked Gun.
The video game clip also made me think of premature celebrations. The most famous of which was Leon Lett in the Super Bowl:
And this was probably not even Lett's worst blunder.
It also was not nearly as bad as this stupid play from last year's Oregon-Utah game.
But when it comes to premature celebrations, nothing beats Ray Jackson (a.k.a. Ogre) in his match against Chong Li. I mean, what was he thinking? He didn't listen to any of Frank's advice
By the way, here's a trivia question: What Best Actor Oscar winner was in Bloodsport? (The answer is revealed in this classic scene.)
This got me thinking about Jean-Claude Van Damme. His time at the top went by quickly, didn't it? Nobody was a bigger action star when I was a teenager. Now, I don't think many people under the age of 25 have even heard of him. He actually talks about his rise and fall in the movie JCVD, in which he plays a very introspective version of himself. It is an interesting idea, and I give Van Damme credit for trying, but it's a pretty boring movie, truth be told. Here's a cool scene though:
And I can't put up clips of Van Damme movies without posting one of the all-time worst scenes in any movie ever -- the sword scene from Bloodsport.
I love a few things about this scene. For one thing, the boy's acting is terrible -- his dialogue sounds dubbed, but he's an American (presumably) speaking English in an American movie. Why does he sound so weird? For another thing, wardrobe put him in a San Francisco Giants baseball cap and a New York Giants football jersey, which is incredibly goofy. Lastly, why does not flinching mean he has a "fighting spirit?" Doesn't that mean he has bad reflexes? I think flinching would be a good sign; it shows perparedness.
The Asian man in the clip was named Roy Chiao (I've mentioned him before in this blog, actually), and he's best know for his role as the Chinese mob boss at the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. You can see him toward the end of this clip:
I didn't love Temple of Doom, but it certainly has some memorable scenes. There's the one where they eat all the gross stuff. (Thankfully my Indian mother-in-law usually serves me dosas and chutney instead of eyeball soup.) And the one where a guy gets his heart ripped out. Kalima ... Kalima ... Kalima ...
Which reminds me of this clip of James Randi debunking psychic healing on The Tonight Show:
It's quite remarkable that anybody ever believed that there are people who could pull out tumors with their bare hands. But people are pretty gullible; we'll believe anything -- holistic medicine, ESP, toxin-free diets, voodoo, and so on. Heck, some people even believe in a virgin birth.
Anyway...
Okay, so we've gone from video game announcers to the Amazing Randi. I think that's deep enough. Until next time ...
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