Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - April 9, 2025 [TRex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

This is the Wednesday night ONT.

A special welcome to those who have given up commenting on Ace of Spades for Lent and have assumed temporary lurker status. The rest of you know what that means. More commenting to take up the slack. Comment of the week honors are at stake.

In the before times, some commercials were entertaining.

There are exceptions but seems like everything has become high concept or fine art. They lecture the viewers or show how "responsible" the company is. They seemingly try to distance themselves from their products or services and the messy business of capitalism. They lean heavily on the crutch of some celebrity that an ad agency presumes everyone knows or cares about or put on choreographed dance numbers.

What happened to the fun commercials that created tag lines or became cultural references?

What happened to the fun??

(Yes, these are the ridiculous thoughts that come to mind while mowing the lawn.)

Not every commercial below will resonate with everybody but hope you find a few that make you giggle. Any others that were not just memorable, but were FUN?

The E Trade baby series:

Where's the beef?

Soviet fashion show was another Wendy's classic:

Had to include Hump Day for a Wednesday ONT:

SPRINKLES!

The original Budweiser frogs:

Things got a little stranger in subsequent spots with the lizards and ferret.

"Yes, I am."

Here's the companion spot with Coach K:

"I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing."

FedEx fast talker:

Another FedEx classic "Let's go with De Ferran."

ESPN SportsCenter Y2K test:

Volkswagen Darth Vader:

I don't know why the Kool Aid Man could never find the door but somehow we all got used to a giant pitcher of fruit punch destroying everything?

Since we are talking about crashing through walls, here is John Madden's first commerical for Miller Lite. The "less filling, tastes great" series of commercials made extensive use of celebrities, typically poking fun at themselves. This Madden commercial was part of his transition from football coach to TV commentator.

Wassup was not high brow humor but it sparked a universal tagline.

More of a concept piece than laugh out loud funny, but still entertaining:

I thought it was only a model. The Real-Life "Holy Grail" Castle Is Full of Monty Python References

Dear Wednesday ONT readers, I give you...the Guinness World Record for the female with the longest tongue.

I know what you're saying. If Chanel holds the record for females, what is the record for males?

Nick Stoeberl from Salinas, California has the world's longest tongue (male), measuring 10.1 cm (3.97 in).

Gene Simmons was unavailable for comment.

Interesting read on the Starliner/ISS saga: Starliner's flight to the space station was far wilder than most of us thought

Excerpt:

Gref - are you plugged in tonight? The article will likely resonate with you.

Random but thought the Horde might enjoy reading about the business of getting spy shots of pre-production cars.

Spyshots: The golden age of tip-offs, car chases and inside jobs

We've seen prototypes around Los Angeles, Munich, and near the Nurburgring but never got a great photo of a big secret scoop. Any such stories among the Horde?

Particle Man for our big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking? Come out and play. The ONT remains tariff free.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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