Thoughts
While confined to bed in the hospital I finally turned on the TV to stop people from asking if I wanted help to get it working. Other than the weather channel, the only thing I found interesting were some of the commercials.
One commercial in particular, this video, by my insurance company, resonated with the recent passing of one of my favorite comedians, Stan Freberg.
Among his many accomplishments, he convinced TV advertisers to make funny commercials – essentially creating the genre. The insurance commercial was typical of a Freberg ad: most the run-time was spent on the humor with the sponsor showing up at the end, there was always music, and they tend to be rather absurd.
I grew up with my Dad’s Freberg records playing in the many places where we lived that lacked TV, and often even radio. Early exposure to “St George and the Dragonet” (mix of the traditional story told as if it were an episode of the old Dragnet show) really perverted the way I read fairy tales to my niece and younger cousins. In my version of Goldilocks, she was arrested for burglary, criminal mischief, and theft at the end.
