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

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

With you there. I mean, serial murder isn't usually a reliable source of income; one would also need a day job. When do they sleep? I'm apparently too lazy to have the right outlook ...

I'd be bad at it, for other reasons, too. There'd be the book thing, but there's also the procrastination: "Now would be a perfect time to snag my next victim! But first I'm going to finish this chapter, then surf Livejournal, play a few rounds of Minesweeper ..."

Not to mention that my tendency to panic when asked questions like "What time is it?" means I'd have a hell of a time running rings around the police, jeering arrogantly at their every effort to stop me.

I guess Serial Killer is just not the career I'm looking for ...

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Look, if you can teleport after people and run around with monomolecularly edged weapons, jobs really aren't an issue, but, history has shown us that they do hold down jobs.
To wit:
- Psychiatrist
- Photo lab technician
- Janitor
- Blue law enforcer
- Mutant miner
- Mutant and/or inbred redneck

There are many possible careers open.