ShamWow Vince and his trademark headset have returned, with higher production values and without those edits that remove more cola than the ShamWow does. Even though he’s tried to sell me a ShamWow hundreds of times now, I still can’t peel my eyes away from the screen each time that brilliant commercial comes on. Imagine the thrill I felt when I stumbled across Vince’s new commercial for the Slap Chop. I must have rewound and watched it at least a dozen times. Do they give out awards for this kind of stuff?

As with the ShamWow Vince works all the angles. His skill at product demonstration is undeniable. This time however, the Slap Chop’s features are almost beside the point. It’s a chopper and it’s handy. What works about this commercial is that builds on the qualities that make Vince great (attitude, bombastic mugging for the camera, humor and of course, the headset) while refining his technique and losing nothing of his original appeal.

While I don’t buy into the hyperbole that correcting my boring tuna (how did he know?!?) will lead to an exciting life, it does seem that the wiseguy Vince of the ShamWow ad is rapidly evolving. Vince put his toe right up to the line with the “you’re gonna love my nuts” joke, but it’s impact is softened by his goal of making “America skinny again, one slap at a time.”

The Slap Chop offers us our first glimpse of the wiseguy-philosopher. “Life’s hard enough as it is, you don’t want to cry anymore.” Not one to miss an opportunity, Vince is appropriately in tune with today’s tough times and he has exactly the product we need.

Billy Mays has jumped the shark, trying to sell everything from health insurance to hair dye (ok, I made that up).  If Billy and Vince were politicians, Billy would obviously be John McCain, representing the stale ideas of the past whereas Vince represents a bold new future, the Obama of TV pitchmen.

You know you’re arrived when you start inspiring parody. Here are but two examples.

http://parody.videosift.com/video/Shamwow-Parody

http://www.gigglesugar.com/2743243

When is Bill Hader going to do him on SNL?

Move over Kim Kardashian. At last the great question has been answered. The world’s most beautiful bottom belongs to Melanie Nunes Fronckowiak of Brazil. Melanie’s great achievement was recognized in a Paris posterior pageant run by Sloggi. Her bum is definitely a sight to behold. Pay no attention to the guy standing next to her. My rump is sexier than his.

This angle puts THE derriere in perspective. Wow!

This one is my favorite. If you still don’t agree that this is the most wonderful sitting device ever affixed to a human, this closeup of the champion will help you recognize it’s power. Do you detect a flaw? NO! It is perfect in every way.

Bow down before the butt. Still not convinced? Try this on for size. Uh huh.

As if you required anymore persuasion, here’s my girl reveling in her victory. What poise, what confidence. Her hiney rules and she knows it.

Warning! Do not watch this if you are on drugs.

Dear Red States:

We’ve decided we’re leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss. We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of America’s quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

Finally, we’re taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,
Blue States

I was looking at my blog stats and I’m a little annoyed.  My number one post is a little crumb I tossed off about the ShamWow. I’ve even had comments on it from ShamWow Vince himself. In one of them that I didn’t publish he even offered me a free sample.  I’ve had more hits on that single post than all my pearls of political wisdom combined.

It’s obviously a testament to the mighty power if the ShamWow! Dismayed that Vince had beaten me I tried to resist. My delete finger got itchy, but I couldn’t go through with it. I struggled for several minutes, torn between ideological purity and commercialism. My love of all things political vs. my need for a cost effective way to soak up my many, many spilled beverages.  Can I be true to myself and free from paper towels forever?

I surrender to the ShamWow’s magnificent absorbency, it’s limitless versatility, it’s uh… German-ness. You can even wash your dog with it.

I say “wow”.    Every time.

I love Paris Hilton’s response to McCain’s ridiculous “celebrity” ad.  If I were advising her, I would have made it more of a satirical endorsement of McCain. Paris could have raved about the estate taxes she stands to save under McCain etc. Notwithstanding Hilton’s rejection of my genius idea, her reponse works well. She even proposes a rational sounding energy policy.

A friend just sent this to me. Apparently it is for real. Kinda makes me regret sneaking off and getting married in the Judge’s office.

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/ftp/multimedia/waffleweddingx/publish_to_web/

Yay! The trailer for controversial director Oliver Stone’s controversial film “W.” has leaked out to the Internets. I’m a fan of Oliver Stone despite his embellishments because his movies are almost always good. But if the movie sucks then in a way it would be doing Bush justice since he sucks.

I noticed that he doesn’t show W. snorting coke. Stone must be saving the good stuff. This is so going to get the Rapeublicans’ panties in a wad. I want to see it!

I’m trying to make sense of the Knoxville, TN church shooting on Sunday. According to news reports, Jim D. Adkisson, burst into a Unitarian church killing two people and wounding six others.

Apparently what drove Adkisson to commit murder was his hatred of the “liberal movement”, which he blamed for his own state of unemployment. Adkisson had also received a letter from the state of Tennessee informing him that his welfare benefits would soon be cut or eliminated.

Adkisson “stated that he had targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country’s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of the major media outlets,” according to the police report. Adkisson ”could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement,” so he chose instead to ”target those that had voted them in to office.”

A Knoxville News report yesterday revealed that inside Adkisson’s home investigators found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” ghostwritten on behalf of Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by Bill O’Reilly. Are these hate mongers responsible? Not directly at least. None of them told Adkisson to pull the trigger. I can’t help feeling however, that Adkisson’s reading list must have had an impact on him.

Maybe Adkisson is just the first in a new onslaught of pathetic losers who blame liberals and the media for their problems. The kind of wretched nutjobs who are so easily manipulated by talk radio and the trash churned out by right wing “pundits.” Savage and his ilk certainly have to be aware that they are inciting lunatics like Adkisson, the ones who turn to violence as their only option.

Is this what the right wing means when they say that an Obama victory will make America less safe? A new upsurge in homegrown terrorism of the kind we experienced the 90’s? Think Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, Waco, Ruby Ridge, abortion clinic bombings and murdered doctors.