Two things-ism

I figured I should get the new Old Spice ad out of the way quickly, because while it is awesome and hugely effective, I don't know how much I have to say about it other than just, "This ad is great." So here it goes:

This is ad is great.

The End.

I think I realized how much people who were not just me liked this ad when I was at a bar and it came on without volume, so I tried to narrate it to the friend I was with who hadn't seen it, and discovered the guy at the stool next to us was doing the same with his friend. Speaking of which, if you haven't seen it:



Watching it again has caused me to sit here for a few minutes trying to figure out what it is about the way the actor says the line, "I'm on a horse" that makes it so damn funny, and I'm at a bit of a loss. It's a funny line anyway, but his delivery is matter-of-fact, commanding, and deadpan, all at the same time.

To be hyperbolic for a minute it is clearly the Mona Lisa smile of commercial catch phrases. Mona Lisa smile, in that there are several different subtle emotions that make it successful. Not in that the catch phrase is from an all-girls school with Julia Roberts and Maggie Gyllenhaal. (In retrospect, that probably didn't need to be specified. I don't think anyone even remembers that movie's existence. In further retrospect, why do I remember that movie's existence?)

While we are running away from the topic with Burt Munro-like speed, I remember reading that someone has tried to map the emotions in Mona Lisa's expression, and come up with statistics for how much she is expressing each emotion. According to Professors Nicu Sebe and Tom Huang, Mona is feeling: "83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry." (source). While I'm not sure how many emotions are present and visible on the average person's face, I find it funny that Mona Lisa's second most visible emotion is disgust. Maybe she precognitively became aware that centuries later people would stop associating her with great art and would instead associate her with the plot of a pulp novel by a failed pop musician. (Rim shot).

For more on Dan Brown's unintentionally hilarious music career, check out these actual samples of some of his songs on Buzzfeed.

In Conclusion: I was right I really didn't have a whole lot to say about the Old Spice ad, but that didn't stop me from making this post really long. Though really I'm just glad I got an opportunity to link the instant rim shot website. Hopefully some post soon I will have a chance to link the instant sad trombone sound effect website and all my life's work will be complete.