Thanks to everyone who recommended this amazing liquor commercial yesterday.
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by DougJ| 85 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Thanks to everyone who recommended this amazing liquor commercial yesterday.
Comments are closed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think I may start a blog called MyDD watch. Their quote of the day, from the same genius who wrote the “Chocolate Carter” post last week
It doesn’t make any more sense if you read the whole post.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I would read it. I already read a blog devoted to deconstructing Dan Shaughnessy.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Could you give links to those MyDD masterworks? I’m already laughing about them.
mr. whipple
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m tired of these fucking assholes.
debit
I may need some Thunderbird soon. The hot water supply hose to my kitchen sink broke. I bought a replacement. It wouldn’t fit the shut off valve. I bought another shut off valve. The compression fitting on the old one wouldn’t come off. I cobbled the new shut off valve with the old compression nut (and it will never come apart again). But it’s on the pipe and it doesn’t leak. So I happily connected the new hose to the new shut off valve and went to connect it to the faucet and…it doesn’t fit. :screams of primal rage:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: Oh, it’s the lead post right now. Pretty incoherent, just throws around a lot of PUMA buzzwords about cults of personality.
Runner up for QOTD: Bill Clinton and George W Bush were “self-effacing politicians”. I guess this guy never saw those Commander in Chief crocs, or hasn’t watched Bubba’s annual plea to the Nobel Prize Committee, every September on Letterman
Kryptik
I feel like I should try some Thunderbird myself. After all, it sounds like God himself is advocating it. Or is that JFK? I forget which, but then again, I’ve been listening to an action transvestite too much lately.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They mean William Ayers, I assume?
Edit: Christ, they *do* mean William Ayers. Once again, reality has lapped satire.
dms
Kryptik
@dmsilev:
I’m appalled. They forgot teleprompters after all. If they’re gonna dogwhistle, they may as go the full hertz on it.
Cliff
Must i repeat for the whole internets the improbability of a string of random words occurring twice independently?
Google a sentence, and you will find its origin., its that simple.
ex: http://www.google.com/search?q=I+have+always+maintained+that+Sarah+Palin+is+essentially+Barack+Obama+without+the+benefit+of+an+Ivy+League+pedigree%2C+a+reasonably+high+IQ%2C+and+more
bostondreams
Thought some folks here would appreciate this:
Night of the Living Trekkies
Big surprise, the red shirt dies.
Corner Stone
They made a Lake Placid 3??
Why was I not informed!?
srv
I don’t have any cachaca to make my caipirinha… Just boiling here in SF @ 80 degrees.
Corner Stone
@Kryptik: I think you should put the Thunderbird down on the table, and take 3 big steps away.
Slowly…slowly…
Mike in NC
Thunderbird: “Not quite like anything I’ve ever tasted.”
That wonderful English gift for understatement.
Kryptik
@Corner Stone:
Someone has not had the pleasure of watching a certain Mr. Izzard and his remarkable God impression. :D
Dennis SGMM
@srv:
The temperature peaked at 104° today here in Sunny Southern California. Supposedly it will peak at 106° on Monday. On Tuesday it cools right down – to 104°.
Corner Stone
@Kryptik: Call me drunk, but I do not know where “action transvestite” originates.
Cat Lady
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
What blog is that? I read him and listen to his radio show, and I think he’s pretty straightforwardly on the side of ownership/management. He did get a lot of mileage out of Teh Curse! and gets the jealous haterade. Curt “red light” Schilling hates him with the heat of a thousand suns, which makes him a-ok with me.
Dennis SGMM
@Mike in NC:
Did you notice that he didn’t actually drink it?
srv
@Dennis SGMM: Yes, but you lameo SoCals have air conditioning. I have to trek through these sweltering conditions to get my alcohol. Can’t just hop in my SUV and pop over to the megalowmart.
General Stuck
Everyone should know Betty Boop. Here is a mash of one of her cartoon segs with a song from Soul Coughing. I saw it years ago on VH1 or maybe MTV and finally found a working version recently.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Dennis SGMM: HOW HOT WAS IT?????
General Stuck
Everyone should know Betty Boop. Here is a mash of one of her cartoon segs with a song from Soul Coughing. I saw it years ago on VH1 or maybe MTV and finally found a working version recently.
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead: God JSF, you just got a Stunk sandwich.
May I suggest 6 quarters and your local “U PowerWash It”, stat?
bostondreams
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
I despise that ‘man’ totally. The stupid freaking book he wrote about the so called BS curse of the Bambino was just….ugh. And a rumor monger on the pages of the Globe. Always trashing the team and the ownership.
Steve
@bostondreams: He took a really cheap shot at Detroit when Johnny Damon decided to stay with the Tigers this year. God forbid anyone should enjoy playing anywhere other than Boston! What a dick.
Kryptik
@Corner Stone:
Eddie Izzard, “Dress to Kill”. During much of his standup career (I’m not sure if he bothers with it anymore), he was an unabashed transvestite, and part of his bit was distinguishing ‘Weirdo Transvestites’, and his type, ‘Executive Transvestite’, and later noting he was also an ‘Action Transvestite’ when he segued into a bit on snowboarding.
He also used James Mason as his fallback impression for most people, including God, JFK, and anyone whose voice needed a nice tinge of authority.
zzyzx
@Dennis SGMM: At least now you can’t legally consume alcohol in an ad… They never drink beer in those ads either.
Linda Featheringill
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Okay. Sarah Palin is just like Barack Obama [leaving out the obvious gender and race/skin tone differences] except:
1. He is intelligent and she is not.
2. He had the stick-to-it-iveness to finish several college degrees. She did not.
3. He is kind hearted and she is not.
4. He can write his own speeches and books and she cannot.
5. Etc.
6. He is president and she is not.
Is that about it?
Violet
That commercial is awesome. I must have missed it being discussed yesterday. Definitely gave me a much needed laugh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
wasn’t there a cartoon character whose voice/persona was a James Mason imitation?
Martin
@Dennis SGMM: Yeah, it’s really something isn’t it. Usually we get 100 degrees and Santa Ana winds. No wind here. Feels like July should have, but didn’t. Can’t believe tomorrow and Monday are supposed to be hotter.
Corner Stone
@Kryptik: I have been educated here this evening.
My knowledge of transvestites and their various famous/semi-famous garbs is now stronger. And I thank you for it.
srv
@General Stuck: Betty is ok, but Jayden rocks pretty hard too.
Dennis SGMM
What’s the word?
Thunderbird!
How’s it sold?
Gold and cold.
What’s the price?
Thirty twice.
God, I’m old.
cathyx
I can’t believe no one said it yet.
It’s 5 O’clock somewhere. Drink up!
Allison W.
@Kryptik:
He did not forget the teleprompter. He mentions it in one of his replies. He also says ‘Obama is not substantive……he’s just a slick lawyer that reads the teleprompter well’.
Anyone who thinks Obama is a dummy is an arrogant ass. that’s my opinion. Whether you agree with his policies or not, no one can ever say -with a straight face-that Obama is not substantive or not bright.
srv
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tell-Tale Heart?
Allison W.
@Linda Featheringill:
lol. I think Etc. pretty much covers everything else.
Hell, I have a feeling that Palin desperately wants to be Obama.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Cat Lady:
Yes, you’re right, he’s always on the side of management.
What bothers me is he doesn’t know anything about the sports he covers.
Shaughnessy watch.
Ash Can
Holy crap, and I thought Orson Welles’ Paul Masson commercials were a travesty.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Whoever wrote that has undoubtedly consumed prodigious amounts of Thunderbird, likely just since breakfast.
mai naem
I was listening to This American Life. Make me want to go in and grab a couple of Wall Streeters and literally hang them off some lamp post so that every freaking Wall Streeter can see them. Why can’t these mofos just STFU, say thanks for the help and bye. But noooooooo, they have to say “oh, noez, I didn’t need help and I made it on my own all by myself.” Dick wads.
Mark S.
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
I’m not sure if I’ve ever read this Shaughnessy guy before, but this is certainly awful:
Cat Lady
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
Yeah, he’s a conventional wisdom purveyor extraordinaire who will always push the ownership line (the Globe and the Red Sox are owned by the NYT), but he’s got great anecdotes about everyone who’s anyone since he’s been around Boston sports forever. You shouldn’t take him seriously as a sports analyst. He’s a personality with funny stories about colorful characters, that’s all.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
A very small step.
Egypt Steve
@Dennis SGMM:
Me too. But this is the one I remember:
Get high, everybody, get high.
Get high, everybody, get high.
Get high, everybody, get high.
Get high, everybody, get high.
Have you heard? What’s the word?
It’s Thunderbird.
All you kids from Texas,
you grow so big and tall.
All of them kids from Texas
they grow so big and tall.
All of them like to roam
in that T-Bird hall.
Get hi-hi-high.
Really makes you feel so fine,
really goes down so smooth,
really puts you in the groove.
Have you heard? What’s the word?
It’s Thunderbird.
Juice, juice, juice
really makes you loose loose, loose,
really goes down so smooth,
really puts you in the groove.
Have you heard? What’s the word?
It’s Thunderbird.
Get hi-hi-high,
way up in the sky.
Gonna get, yes sirree,
if ya come and rock with me.
Have you heard? What’s the word?
It’s Thunderbird.
Ailuridae
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
As bad as political reporting is, sports reporting is far worse. This counts doubly for columnists in the sports world.
The NBA and NFL are likely going to have work stoppages and nearly all the actual blame for that should reside with ownership. I’m actually curious to see how the presence of new media will alter the corporate reporting from the last set of work stoppages which can be summarized as:
“Lazy black people who are privileged enough to play a game for a living want more of their benevolent
mastersowners’ money”Woodrowfan
Man, MyDD never did recover did it. Sad. Apparently PUMAitis can be incurable…
Linda Featheringill
@Corner Stone:
Transvestites:
Eddie Izzard is funny in a way that you would probably enjoy. Maybe you could find one of his shticks online.
Classic Eddie on religion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60T_6ubNFp4&feature=related
Eddie on top of a video by Charming Daughter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhB09NGzWEc
eemom
@Linda Featheringill:
It’s a good start, but the comparison is SO fucking ridiculous that it seems to call for several million more tons of retaliatory ridicule.
Perhaps we should look at it from the opposite perspective.
Palin can give Rich Lowry Starbursts and Obama cannot.
Palin can publicly demonstrate jaw-dropping stupidity and ignorance for two solid years and still be taken seriously and Obama could not.
Palin can be a serial liar and never get called on any of her lies, and Obama could not.
Palin could help crazy, incompetent people win primaries, and Obama could not.
Ah, never mind. It’s just too depressing.
TrishB
@Mike in NC: Then you’ve never tried MD 20/20. I once bought a bottle of that crap, and 2 seconds after tasting it, poured the rest of the bottle down the drain. If I found it undrinkable with my last 3 dollars on a Friday as a college student, there’s no way the stuff is intended for human consumption.
J Edgar
@Dennis SGMM:
“he didn’t actually drink it.”
Hey, whipper-snapper, in the distant past it was against US codes and laws to show someone drinking alcohol in a TV commercial.
James Mason could chew the scenery and the script of any movie thrown at him, so I think he could have handled the Thunderbird (except that it was illegal).
bostondreams
@Steve:
That schmuck’s middle name IS Cheap Shot.
Chris
@TrishB:
After several weekends in high school…I made the connection that each time I drank MD 20/20 I ended up hurling out the window. Mind you I wasnt all that scientific back then but eventually I figured out that that shit made me sick each time I drank it. I was stubborn and didnt accept the results at first but eventually was confronted with the hard cold facts. Thank FSM I aint a teabagger. I’d be dead.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Ailuridae:
I agree. What I find amazing is that in baseball, last I checked, the owners claimed to be losing money but refused to open their books for an independent audit. So most likely concessions, parking, merchandising, etc. is off the books in some money-making subsidiary company. It’s ridiculous. And, yeah, the fact they can say “these lazy negroes” is what allows them to get away with it.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@J Edgar:
When did that change? Is it legal now?
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
That MyDD post is unreal. Hot, fecund woman warrior.
God damn.
monkeyboy
That commercial appears to be from 1964/1965.
That is the time when the American middle class mass market started to become aware of wine. Before then they mostly drank beer, whiskey, or gin. Only if they were brave enough to patronize an ethnic restaurant (Italian), and few were, might they be familiar with Chianti. The beat generation were wine drinkers and wine may have been associated with dirty fucking beatniks. Gallo must have hoped they could mass market Thunderbird to the middle class.
This was around the same time that the middle class became aware of cheese that wasn’t slices of American or Swiss. I heard one story of a woman who hung around with some major beats, Bob Dylan, etc., who didn’t know how to serve brie at a party and wound up cutting it into cubes and providing tooth picks.
asiangrrlMN
@Kryptik: I. Love. Eddie. Izzard. He IS God in my eyes.
gogol's wife
I’m so glad that James Mason advertising Thunderbird has made it to the front page. I love this blog.
Three-nineteen
@Kryptik: Izzard did call himself an action transvestite last year on Top Gear, but I have not seen him in women’s clothes in a few years.
To add to the clips and complement bostondreams’ comment, here’s Izzard’s Star Wars offering (in Legos for fun).
Three-nineteen
@asiangrrlMN: I have seriously thought about changing my handle to CakeOrDeath.
monkeyboy
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
It is hard to find out what is “legal” now because some of the restrictions are advertisers and TV station self regulation to avoid real legal regulation (sort of like how the Hays Code, 1930-1968 regulated movie content).
As far as I know in the US a TV advertisement for an alcoholic beverage can’t show it being drunk and hard spirits ads are not permitted.
evap
I went to college in Chicago in the late 70’s (U. Chicago, class of 1980) and I remember the ads in the subway for Thunderbird wine: “That’s baaaaad wine” (accompanying picture was a young badass black dude – think Shaft – with a bottle sticking out of his pocket). I’m not making this up.
But… James Mason? … I love this blog :)
zed
Has no one mentioned this yet!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5LkDNu8bVU
Watch with captions on for more hilarity.
monkeyboy
@efgoldman:
I gave up on owing a TV and watching it years ago so I blessedly have no recent experience with ads.
Are those ads that appeared on broadcast TV or cable TV? The regulations (self or legal) differ between them.
frosty
@efgoldman: ‘zactly. Our SoCal version was a gallon of Red Mountain Pink Chablis for $1.50. Mixed with cheap beer, it wasn’t too bad.
I was the only fool who would drink T-Bird — one bottle to celebrate the last day of class. About a third of the way down your taste buds got numb and that industrial taste sort of went away.
frosty
@TrishB: Hmmm. The only time I drank a bottle of MD 20/20 I got the feeling that the sugar had precipitated out on my teeth. Yuck.
Still, I drank the whole thing. I had a rep as a Cheap Wine Connoisseur to uphold, after all.
monkeyboy
@efgoldman:
In the early 1960s the middle class rarely ate in restaurants except when they were traveling on vacations. One of the successes of the proto restaurant chain Howard Jonson’s was to transition from a safe place middle class families could eat at on vacation to a local place families could go to for special occasions such as birthdays.
A restaurant with a sommelier existed mainly for upper class patrons or upper-middle class patrons who aspired to be upper class. The mass market middle class in the early 1960s were not in that league.
A lot of middle class anti-restaurant sentiment still exists. When I asked an old woman in Heber Springs Arkansas if any of the local diners were any good she was shocked. She told me those places were for truckers and other men that don’t have women to cook for them, and should be avoided.
chicago dyke
maybe someone has said this already, but gosh. james didn’t actually drink that swill, did he? he’s got too much class to let the ‘bird run down his cultured throat, i’m thinking. and agreeing! since i was 14, which was the last time i had teh bird or the night train or 20/20 “wines.” whew. those are some, um, “memories.”
Mr Sippi
@Dennis SGMM: Back then the Advertising Code, which all broadcasters scrupulously followed, dictated that you could not show anybody actually drinking alcohol
Mnemosyne
You guys are reminding me that I keep meaning to see Bottle Shock, with Alan Rickman. Maybe it’s on Netflix streaming.
Quaker in a Basement
Thunderbird: “Not quite like anything I’ve ever tasted.”
This is obviously a man who has never enjoyed an ice cold refreshing glass of paint thinner.
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: ALAN RICKMAN! Damn it. I still have to watch the rest of that movie. I watched the first half hour and hated it, but…ALAN RICKMAN!
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Quaker in a Basement:
Wild Irish Rose has a much fuller bouquet imho.
Ripley
Graduated from Thunderbird to Almaden White Zinfandel when the okay-with-trashy 1970s morphed into the greed-is-good 1980s. Now I drink small batch whiskey and beer, both as bitter as my ex-wife. Not sure how to piece that together.
The one time I drank Mad Dog 20/20 I threw up in the bottle after swallowing the last drop. This happened in a trailer-home.
Vote Democrat: Convince me now is better.
Brooklyn Johnny
Am I seeing things or did he just pour that over ice?
fucen tarmal
@Brooklyn Johnny:
its rock salt actually, the preferred way to drink thunderbird, that any by a roaring barrel fire.
HeartlandLiberal
Google is so helpful sometimes:
bumwine.com
HeartlandLiberal
Since this topic reminded me of my youth, growing up in Alabama in the 1950’s and 1960’s (John, when you are ribbed about West Virginia, just point South to Alabama with an ‘I rest my case’ attitude), I did some more searching on Google, looking for info on Red Dagger wine. It appears it is no longer made, but I found this absolutely fascinating personal reminiscence plus local history and color piece at a web site for Montgomery, Alabama.
Prohibition in Alabama
It is well worth the short read for some insight into how bizarrely Americans can and will twist their society out of all recognizable logical shape, starting with the rise and fall of prohibition, up through the dry vs. wet counties of Alabama even into the present day.
sam
Christ, I hadn’t thought of this in almost 50 years:
“What’s the word?”
“Thunderbird!”
“What’s the price?”
“Thirty twice!”
Nancy Assaf
Let’s see…Sarah Palin.
Wife and Mother (Mother of a Special Needs Child)
Governor of Alaska(Obama was barely a Senator and voted “present’ on almost everything)
Vice Presidential Nomination
DID write her own book in her own words, “Going Rogue”
Speaks without a teleprompter most of the time (Obama can’t even speak to kindergartners without one)
Wants to let YOU keep and spend your money instead of re-distributing it to those who do not work
Pays for her own hotels on trips when she takes her family (Obama has a special plane just for his dog)
ETC…..and so forth.
Try reading something real such as National Review or Human Events instead of watching main stream media tv for your erroneous information on politics and politicians.
Sloegin
What’s the difference between wine and T’bird?
Every year is a good year for the ‘Bird
Binzinerator
That’s a funny ad. Gawd, that’s nasty stuff. Guess no-one knew better in those days but I’m sure they found out fast.
BTW, did you notice the level of liquid in the bottle in that ad? It changes after he pours his drink. The ever-full bottle of fortified wine! A bum’s dream!
edit: Independently verified via bumwine.com: Thunderbird is the the undisputed leader in foulness of flavor among bum wines.