A Happy Folklore Professor ...

[bloodyrosemccoy]

International Moment of Laughter Day
National Stress Awareness Day
National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day
Birthday - Charley Chaplin's Birthday (comedian)

… is a folklore professor who just found out about one feature on the Volvo S80—the infamous “heartbeat detector.” And who listened to his students describing the commercial where a woman is walking in an empty parking lot toward her car, and looks at her key fob and sees a little light, and she runs the hell away because someone is in her car LYING IN WAIT FOR HER.

He seems to find the fact that the urban legends of The Guy In The Backseat* and the Guy Under The Car Waiting To Hamstring You have become the basis for a car’s safety feature absolutely fantastic.**

Granted, he also got excited when I told him the story of Redshirts, and how I’ve met a couple of Star Trek fans who warn against wearing a red shirt in various circumstances.

Doesn’t take much to make this guy happy, I guess.


*My favorite version of this was in the really bad slasher movie Urban Legend when the would-be heroic but freakish gas station guy is played by Brad Dourif, King Of Serial Killer Typecasts,*** and instead of just being alarmed the woman actually beats the living shit out of him and gets away, and leaves Brad lying in the mud yelling after her. Then the guy in the backseat beheads her with an axe. I’m impressed he managed to get a swing like that going in the constricted space of a car.

**I also like the underlying message of the ad. Broken down to its barest components, it seems to boil down to “Buy this feature or you will get RAPED and then DISMEMBERED.” I am often darkly amused by antics reflecting the pure greed of capitalism (just ask _wastrel), and the outright threats used to sell items is getting funnier and funnier. 
 
***I will watch almost anything containing this dude, except the Chucky garbage. He's my number one CREEPY crush.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

A thing of beauty. >_>

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Much like their apparent ability to teleport, psycho serial killers in movies also use monomolecularly edged weapons.

And now you know (which, according to GI Joe, is half the battle ).

[marajade893.livejournal.com]

If you love Brad (and don't we all?) you'd better watch him in Deadwood if you haven't already. He's a PTSD Civil War doc who basically holds the camp together.

And let's be honest, was he not especially gorgeous when he was younger? Yes. Yes, he really was.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

I guess if you're a folklore prof, people's endless ability to make up crap to freak themselves out would be a pretty constant source of amusement.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Folklore is endlessly fascinating. ;-)

At my previous job, I was chatting with some of the women in (oh, heck, I forget which department) and mentioned that I didn't bother to lock my doors anymore after the number of times my locks had frozen shut in the winter. With very wide, round eyes one of them asked me if I wasn't afraid someone would sneak into my car and hide in wait in the back seat for me. From her co-workers smirking I think she was the only one at that job who *didn't* know I drove a standard-cab pickup truck.

[shadesofmauve]

Jeez, where do all these serial killers find the TIME, that's what I want to know! If I was lurking in someone's back seat with an axe, I think I'd bring a book.

...I'd probably get so into it that I wouldn't notice the victim, and they wouldn't notice me until they'd already driven home or the grocery store or something. It'd be really kind of embarassing.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

My all-time favorite sneaker commercial involved a masked stalker dude trying to catch a female jogger. She ran like a deer, until he staggered to a halt wheezing, and the last thing you saw was the bobbing white flash of her sneakers disappearing briskly into the distance.

Now that's power.

Moral: Stay in shape so that if your life is ever threatened, you will prevail. Good running shoes are an asset.

Snood for Sale!

[lycheetwist.livejournal.com]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Renaissance-Gold-and-Pearl-Crocheted-Snood_W0QQitemZ140225580480QQihZ004QQcategoryZ125473QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A person I watch on LJ has quite a nice gold snood for sale. You never know. Might look good on you. It's kind of an FYI rather than OMG BUY THIS!!!

I have a feeling it's going to be just a little bit harder to get in my car from now on. Probably not too much, but just that teeny little bit.