Is it just me, or did the announcer for the inauguration today sound more like Ed McMahon or a WWF announcer than a sober and somber master of ceremonies? The tone seemed quite inappropriate to the occasion, to my ear.
7 thoughts on “And Heeeeeerrrre’s Barack”
Comments are closed.
Not just you. When I heard “Ladies and Gentlemen” my first thought was it would be finished with “let’s get ready to rumble”. It certainly sounded like the same MC hired for boxing matches.
In many ways, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
Hm, we’ve has the “Thrilla in Manila” and the “Rumble in the Jungle” – maybe this event would be the “Romp in the Swamp.”
Can you imagine Biden as a luchador?
HBO did have the inauguration coverage contract. Perhaps they provided their fight night announcer.
“The tone seemed quite inappropriate to the occasion.”
Probably, though I can’t judge from personal experience.
I was too busy watching oil paint dry.
The Boston Globe had an article on the guy who did the voice for the inauguration.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2009/01/20/navy_musician_to_set_tone_of_history/
I’m guessing he had too much time to think about it.
I’m reminded of that hilarious series of GEICO commercials, in which an ordinary customers ordinary story was told with breathless drama by an actor.
And then…HE BECAME PRESIDENT! Hosanna!
What is it with 21st century America and all the bubbles? First we have a dot-com bubble, then a housing bubble, and now a Barack bubble. I feel like I’m living on the set of Life of Brian, waiting for the director to yell “cut” and all the loonies to break out into smiles and laughter, relax, and become normal again.
Well, what is a “bubble” in the first place? I claim it’s a matter of perception. Something is collectively perceived as being of far greater value than it really is to the point that members of a herd invest in this good “knowing” some greater fool is out there to buy the good from them in turn. The bubble bursts when you run out of greater fools.
Given the propensity of just about everyone with some power to manipulate perception, effective and often cheap forms of mass communication, the amazing laziness of modern media (on top of its bribability), and a fairly gullible public, then you have the ingredients for repeated attempts at public propaganda and mass movements/hysteria much as Carl mentions above.