On 12/13/2011 12:08, Warp wrote:
> ... then we would have long ago gone extint as a species, because even
> the simplest of tasks are exceedingly difficult to perform properly.

One thing to know about infomercials in the USA is that you can buy an 
hour-long infomercial slot (usually like 2AM, or on a cable channel that 
runs nothing but commercials) for about the same price as a 30-second ad on 
a normal TV show.

(Indeed, I worked briefly for a company called IZ.COM that bought hour-long 
slots, produced a TV show, sold 3 minutes worth of commercials during the TV 
show, and came out ahead.)

So the fact that you're seeing the inventor doing the acting as well is not 
surprising.

That said, yeah, it's really rather over-the-top sometimes. :-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   People tell me I am the counter-example.

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On 12/14/2011 2:12, Invisible wrote:
> Let me just repeat that: A world made of fabric.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck14LKBI9GM

It's not just the Americans that are crazy, see...

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   People tell me I am the counter-example.

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On 12/14/2011 3:12 AM, Invisible wrote:
> On 13/12/2011 08:08 PM, Warp wrote:
>> ... then we would have long ago gone extint as a species, because even
>> the simplest of tasks are exceedingly difficult to perform properly.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag
>
> I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that most if not all of these
> are American. Occasionally you see American adverts on UK TV, and you
> can always spot them very easily. The appalling narration is usually the
> first clue. The curiously poor picture quality is the second. And the
> utter ineptitude of the people shown is the third. And yet somehow, by
> brandishing some product which /clearly/ doesn't work and is nothing but
> wildly overpriced junk, the task in question suddenly becomes trivial.
>
Hmm. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that the only 
American commercials that end up in the UK are from the people that SNL 
made fun of via the "Spishak" skits, in which they tried to sell people 
everything from, "Home dentistry kits", to, "Its both a dessert topping 
and a floor wax!" Sadly, I also suspect that, if its being shown there, 
that there are in fact enough morons in the UK to make it worth trying 
to sell it too.

Mostly, these sorts show up on second hand channels, or late night, 
usually, not during the day time. Though, sadly, people seem to have 
gotten stupid enough here that you have started seeing them in the day 
too. Mostly, we have a crazy lady, who looks and acts like she was out 
of a sock hop, selling the same sort of, "compare prices on insurance", 
type thing. Or the one where they have a group of people talking about 
what their's covers, while a room full of animals stand in as, "The 
things that are likely to jump out in front of your car." Oh, and, of 
course, the famous Geiko Gecko. In other words, the same sort of bizarre 
shit you see in the UK in commercials.

The low quality ones are made either by people trying to con you into 
the latest fad, or by 1-2 companies that have about half useless junk, 
and half, "That sort of is handy", and specialize in basically 
producing, and patenting, what ever odd idea, goofy idea, or maybe 
usable thing people come up with, but can't, themselves, afford to 
produce, market and sell. Its not all bad, but a lot of it will sell for 
$9.95 now, and $1 in some place like The Dollar Store, in a few years 
(assuming it doesn't cost more than that to make the damn things). lol

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On 15/12/2011 02:21 AM, Patrick Elliott wrote:

> Hmm. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that the only
> American commercials that end up in the UK are from the people that SNL
> made fun of via the "Spishak" skits, in which they tried to sell people
> everything from, "Home dentistry kits", to, "Its both a dessert topping
> and a floor wax!" Sadly, I also suspect that, if its being shown there,
> that there are in fact enough morons in the UK to make it worth trying
> to sell it too.

Fact: There are stupid people *everywhere*. (Terrifying, I know...) 
Though I suspect they vary in concentration.

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On 14/12/2011 05:21 PM, Darren New wrote:

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck14LKBI9GM
>
> It's not just the Americans that are crazy, see...

...the HELL?! o_O

1. That's possibly the longest TV advert I've ever seen in my life.

2. Suddenly half the stuff Gilles Tran has ever done seems comparatively 
normal.

Mind you, if you take this, make it about a quarter of the length, and 
take out the most gratuitously sexual undertones, that's pretty much the 
kind of things you'd see on UK TV. Which is what I was ranting about...

Man, I knew the French were strange, but DAMN!

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> On 15/12/2011 02:21 AM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>
>> Hmm. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that the only
>> American commercials that end up in the UK are from the people that SNL
>> made fun of via the "Spishak" skits, in which they tried to sell people
>> everything from, "Home dentistry kits", to, "Its both a dessert topping
>> and a floor wax!" Sadly, I also suspect that, if its being shown there,
>> that there are in fact enough morons in the UK to make it worth trying
>> to sell it too.
>
> Fact: There are stupid people *everywhere*. (Terrifying, I know...)
> Though I suspect they vary in concentration.

Quite the contrary.  I think stupidity is spread pretty much uniformly 
across the Globe.  It just shows up differently in different areas.

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Francois Labreque <fla### [at] videotronca> wrote:
> Quite the contrary.  I think stupidity is spread pretty much uniformly 
> across the Globe.  It just shows up differently in different areas.

  Culture and education tend to either diminish or aggravate it, though.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 12/16/2011 7:38 AM, Warp wrote:
> Francois Labreque<fla### [at] videotronca>  wrote:
>> Quite the contrary.  I think stupidity is spread pretty much uniformly
>> across the Globe.  It just shows up differently in different areas.
>
>    Culture and education tend to either diminish or aggravate it, though.
>
Depends on what you define as culture, and education. In one sense, the 
later can subsume some crazy, and bring more "rational sounding" things 
to the surface. However, to have those things surface, in trade for the 
truly crazy shit, there has to be a culture that promotes the idea that 
they exist.

It also requires that the people thinking those things, at some point, 
decide they have had enough education, or that some part of it is 
inconvenient for them, and thus, stop trying to figure out if it makes 
sense, or just sounds slightly more plausible.

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>> On 15/12/2011 02:21 AM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>>
>>> Hmm. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that the only
>>> American commercials that end up in the UK are from the people that SNL
>>> made fun of via the "Spishak" skits, in which they tried to sell people
>>> everything from, "Home dentistry kits", to, "Its both a dessert topping
>>> and a floor wax!" Sadly, I also suspect that, if its being shown there,
>>> that there are in fact enough morons in the UK to make it worth trying
>>> to sell it too.
>>
>> Fact: There are stupid people *everywhere*. (Terrifying, I know...)
>> Though I suspect they vary in concentration.
>
> Quite the contrary. I think stupidity is spread pretty much uniformly
> across the Globe. It just shows up differently in different areas.
>

Stupidity can be deadly by itself. In some areas, it's more deadly 
while, in some others, there are laws and peoples available to maintain 
most stupids alive.

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On 12/16/2011 9:05 AM, Francois Labreque wrote:

> Quite the contrary. I think stupidity is spread pretty much uniformly
> across the Globe. It just shows up differently in different areas.

This is indeed the Second Law of Stupidity, which you can read at:

http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/Stupidity/

I first read this article (or a mirror of it) from a link on this group, 
so this is merely payback.

Regards,
John

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