Obit: ButWait! TheresMore! Ron Popeil 1935-2021

Subject: Obit: ButWaitTheresMore! Ron Popeil 1935-2021
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Aug 21 - 08:00 PM

This guy has been a part of American popular culture for a generation. Apparently he got his start from his old man.

I rarely watched infomercials, but this guy hypnotized me. He gave me the impression that if I wanted to chop a potato in a fraction of a second, or cook several chickens at once in a rotisseries which sat on a kitchen counter, I could have an affordable well made tool that might last more than a year, in other words, longer than I would be inclined to use it.

I just read that there was an English musical group out of Sheffield called "Bassomatic" which is a meme of a meme. For a comparable development recall there was an indie group in the 90s called "Ned's Atomic Dustbin".

For the Wikipedia article.

For the SNL 'Bassomatic '.

There's also 7 minutes of Terry Gross interviewing Ron Popeil

Subject: RE: Obit: ButWait! TheresMore! Ron Popeil 1935-2021
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Aug 21 - 09:55 AM

I'm in search of a meme of a meme of a meme. (meme to the 3rd power)
but wait! Steven Weinberg also just passed away and will be known as the Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Feynman and Hawking of our generation.
He united the fundamental forces of electromagnatism with the weak force in a 2 1/2 page paper paving the way to multi dimensional string theory and a unified field theory.

(Newton united local gravity with cosmic gravity, Maxwell united electricity with magnatism, Einstein united mass and energy, Feynman united the quantum with reconstructed prediction and Hawking must have united more than popularity with science.)

Subject: RE: Obit: ButWait! TheresMore! Ron Popeil 1935-2021
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 07 Aug 21 - 12:17 PM

It's magnEtism unless you are American.

Not picking a fight!

Subject: RE: Obit: ButWait! TheresMore! Ron Popeil 1935-2021
From: robomatic
Date: 07 Aug 21 - 02:24 PM

No.

It is magnetism across the Atlantic unless you are Donuel and want to have your covfefe and eat it too! It is worth coming up with a name for it beyond creative incompetence, but that will have to do for now.

In the maybe hopeless effort to get this thread more or less on track I feel that Ron Popeil, led by his father, hit on a reinterpretation of the show barker and snake-oil salesman, not that he was a con artist, which I don't think he was, but he encompassed some of the techniques of them, a blending of showmanship and simple but memorable wording, such as a phrase I remembered ever after hearing the ad for the microphone that could be tuned to broadcast through a nearby radio: "Hey good looking! We'll be by to pick you up later!"

The use of language to encompass a simple idea to sell a platform goes almost seamlessly between the commercial and the political. With the simple words: "But Wait! There's more!" or "Set it. And forget it!" or other words: "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit!" or "Take back control!" and you can make millions or move millions.

Subject: RE: Obit: ButWait TheresMore! Robo Matic 1955-2029
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Aug 21 - 05:16 PM

Robo can have his blue light special hero. I can have my beyond light heros.
I suggest he study communication in school.
Psychology wouldn't hurt either.

Subject: RE: Obit: ButWait! TheresMore! Ron Popeil 1935-2021
From: robomatic
Date: 07 Aug 21 - 07:27 PM

I'll settle for something remotely relevant to the OP. But you have your own covfefer to march to. Which is relevant to Popeil who clearly made his own unique path to success, and then was imitated by others in the true flattery sense.

Subject: RE: Obit: ButWait! TheresMore! Ron Popeil 1935-2021
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Aug 21 - 09:49 AM

I was kidding when I gave Hawking short shrift. His idea of black hole radiation can pave the way to understanding dark matter.
Hawking and mini black holes