An unfortunate 15 minutes of fame.
Apparently this video made the blogging rounds about a month ago, and if I was a better member of the blogging culture I would have seen it earlier. But I’m not, and I didn’t.
Regardless, it is at once very funny and also very pity-inducing and very difficult to watch because of the awkwardnessful (this word, introduced to me/coined? by a friend of a friend years ago, is also known as the word awkward, as they mean the same thing) nature of it. It is definitely worth a watch, if only for the highlight discussed later on.
It is a clip of a sports segment from the Ball St. University student TV program NewsLink@9, that stars sportscaster Brian Collins. It seems that Mr. Collins, filling in for the usual anchors, stepped in to do this broadcast only hours before it was scheduled, and as a result apparently wasn’t able to prepare fully. This is clearly (and painfully) evident as he completely loses his grip on what he is doing and struggles mightily to stay afloat for the four minute broadcast.
To give you an idea of just how bad this guy freezes up, when I first watched the video I was sure it was fake. Then for fleeting moment I thought that perhaps there was something wrong with the guy, mentally speaking. Then I thought that perhaps he was completely reliant on a malfunctioning teleprompter or something. But cursory exploration of the intranets (in honor of a good friend of mine I prefer intra to inter) has given me no indication that any of these are the case.
A large part of me feels very bad for this guy and for laughing at this and for the fact that video footage of his nervous fiasco has spread all across the intranet to millions of people. But the video is already out there, so I suppose we might as well watch it, right?
The lowlights of the video are a) when he apologizes mid sentence (about 1:18 into the video) and b) when he gets flustered and loses it and instead of saying anything he just loudly sighs, multiple times.
The highlights come when he manages to regain a bit of form (um. Sort of.) when presenting the Indiana pacers highlights (segment starts about 2:00).
Best parts:
- “Stephen Jackson to david…[then trails off mid sentence without finishing the name or saying what happened in the highlight] (2:07)
- starting at about 2:16: “[very awkwardly…] reggie miller’s looking good…he shoots a three…and it’s good!”
- when he refers to college basketball players Wayne Simien as “Wayne Summers” and Hakim Warrick as “Hekkin Warrick” while the correct names are being shown on the screen at the same time (at about 3:05).
and of course the ultimate highlight, the one that has brought him so much fame (and, if some rumors on the intranets are to be believed invitation for appearances from ESPN, Fox Sports, Letterman, etc.):
(at 2:25): “later he gets the rebound, passes it to the man, shoots it, and boom goes the dynamite”.
This section is rife with hilarity, thanks in part to (but not exclusively):
- the fact that he doesn’t say who gets the rebound, he just says “he”
- then even better and far more hilarious fact that he says “passes it to the man”. A sports reporting showing highlights and referring to participants that are known, famous people as “the man” is very very funny.
- And then of course, the now-ubiquitous (or so they say) phrase that has made him famous (it has apparently been stolen and used by ESPN sportscenter anchor Scott Van Pelt): “boom goes the dynamite”, the hilarity of which is caused in large part by the inflection he delivers it with, at once filled with confidence (for once…you can tell this is his signature phrase and even though he has completely lost any sense of any sort of preparedness or training that somehow this phrase has managed to break through the fog and find its way into the broadcast) and lack of enthusiasm when delivering the actual phrase (I’ve never heard anyone say the word boom with less excitement before).
Great stuff.
Here’s a link from the Ball State Daily News about the whole thing: http://www.bsudailynews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/19/4264ab008830a
And here’s a link to an article from the Star Press, which is apparently the East Central Indiana news source:
http://www.thestarpress.com/articles/7/038178-8117-004.html
Here’s the link to download the video again:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~pete2122/sportsnews.wmv
Regardless, it is at once very funny and also very pity-inducing and very difficult to watch because of the awkwardnessful (this word, introduced to me/coined? by a friend of a friend years ago, is also known as the word awkward, as they mean the same thing) nature of it. It is definitely worth a watch, if only for the highlight discussed later on.
It is a clip of a sports segment from the Ball St. University student TV program NewsLink@9, that stars sportscaster Brian Collins. It seems that Mr. Collins, filling in for the usual anchors, stepped in to do this broadcast only hours before it was scheduled, and as a result apparently wasn’t able to prepare fully. This is clearly (and painfully) evident as he completely loses his grip on what he is doing and struggles mightily to stay afloat for the four minute broadcast.
To give you an idea of just how bad this guy freezes up, when I first watched the video I was sure it was fake. Then for fleeting moment I thought that perhaps there was something wrong with the guy, mentally speaking. Then I thought that perhaps he was completely reliant on a malfunctioning teleprompter or something. But cursory exploration of the intranets (in honor of a good friend of mine I prefer intra to inter) has given me no indication that any of these are the case.
A large part of me feels very bad for this guy and for laughing at this and for the fact that video footage of his nervous fiasco has spread all across the intranet to millions of people. But the video is already out there, so I suppose we might as well watch it, right?
The lowlights of the video are a) when he apologizes mid sentence (about 1:18 into the video) and b) when he gets flustered and loses it and instead of saying anything he just loudly sighs, multiple times.
The highlights come when he manages to regain a bit of form (um. Sort of.) when presenting the Indiana pacers highlights (segment starts about 2:00).
Best parts:
- “Stephen Jackson to david…[then trails off mid sentence without finishing the name or saying what happened in the highlight] (2:07)
- starting at about 2:16: “[very awkwardly…] reggie miller’s looking good…he shoots a three…and it’s good!”
- when he refers to college basketball players Wayne Simien as “Wayne Summers” and Hakim Warrick as “Hekkin Warrick” while the correct names are being shown on the screen at the same time (at about 3:05).
and of course the ultimate highlight, the one that has brought him so much fame (and, if some rumors on the intranets are to be believed invitation for appearances from ESPN, Fox Sports, Letterman, etc.):
(at 2:25): “later he gets the rebound, passes it to the man, shoots it, and boom goes the dynamite”.
This section is rife with hilarity, thanks in part to (but not exclusively):
- the fact that he doesn’t say who gets the rebound, he just says “he”
- then even better and far more hilarious fact that he says “passes it to the man”. A sports reporting showing highlights and referring to participants that are known, famous people as “the man” is very very funny.
- And then of course, the now-ubiquitous (or so they say) phrase that has made him famous (it has apparently been stolen and used by ESPN sportscenter anchor Scott Van Pelt): “boom goes the dynamite”, the hilarity of which is caused in large part by the inflection he delivers it with, at once filled with confidence (for once…you can tell this is his signature phrase and even though he has completely lost any sense of any sort of preparedness or training that somehow this phrase has managed to break through the fog and find its way into the broadcast) and lack of enthusiasm when delivering the actual phrase (I’ve never heard anyone say the word boom with less excitement before).
Great stuff.
Here’s a link from the Ball State Daily News about the whole thing: http://www.bsudailynews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/19/4264ab008830a
And here’s a link to an article from the Star Press, which is apparently the East Central Indiana news source:
http://www.thestarpress.com/articles/7/038178-8117-004.html
Here’s the link to download the video again:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~pete2122/sportsnews.wmv
posted by Josh Peterson at 8:36 PM
2 Comments:
you are horrible.
but not as horrible as he is.
so I guess you are both horrible, but he is worse.
Did you notice during the pacers highlights when he says "reggie millers looking good... he shoots a three!", the player is not even shooting a three pointer!
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