Simpson gangnam
December 5, 2012 3:12 PM Subscribe
81-year-old Senator Alan Simpson does a decent gangnam while encouraging you to do something better with your time and social web skills.
I approve of the onion on his belt.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:24 PM on December 5, 2012 [8 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:24 PM on December 5, 2012 [8 favorites]
Up next: Alan Simpson dances to Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg
Although these days I hear he goes by Snoopy Snoopy Poop Lion
posted by mcmile at 3:38 PM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]
Although these days I hear he goes by Snoopy Snoopy Poop Lion
posted by mcmile at 3:38 PM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]
How you know Gangnam Style is over: Alan Simpson is doing it in a new video.
I don't think the Washington Post understands how memes work.
posted by chavenet at 3:42 PM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
I don't think the Washington Post understands how memes work.
posted by chavenet at 3:42 PM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
Yeah, sorry Grandpa Catfood, I'm not going to waste my time trying to destroy the social safety net on behalf of the insurance and investor rentiers. I'm too busy trying to deal with the real problems your generation is leaving us, like trying to stop tar sands pipelines and getting institutional investors to divest from fossil fuel corporations.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 3:43 PM on December 5, 2012 [16 favorites]
posted by [expletive deleted] at 3:43 PM on December 5, 2012 [16 favorites]
This non-yellow-skinned* Simpson is one-half of Simpson/Bowles, the bipartisan team of co-chairman of a commission that came up with an eponymous set of proposals that everybody in Washington either doesn't understand or doesn't support. (It didn't even get the support of the other commissioners, making it the "Simpson/Bowles Plan", NOT the "Simpson/Bowles COMMISSION Plan".) If you REALLY want to spend your time trying to understand the economy and Federal finances, I'd avoid what he and his can-based organization has to say.
BTW, the Original Gangnam video is on track to hit ONE BILLION views on YouTube before Christmas and its rate of 'viewering' is not slowing down (although I wonder how many of those are people just checking the video's page to see how high the number's gotten). All things considered, I would rather hear PSY's economic proposals.
*as in "The Simpsons", NOT a racist reference.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:51 PM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]
BTW, the Original Gangnam video is on track to hit ONE BILLION views on YouTube before Christmas and its rate of 'viewering' is not slowing down (although I wonder how many of those are people just checking the video's page to see how high the number's gotten). All things considered, I would rather hear PSY's economic proposals.
*as in "The Simpsons", NOT a racist reference.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:51 PM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]
oh man, this guy. Anybody else read his book?
posted by boo_radley at 3:54 PM on December 5, 2012
posted by boo_radley at 3:54 PM on December 5, 2012
Alan Simpson is a moderate, pro-choice, pro-gay-rights Republican who supported a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to balance the budget and who retired as Congress began its hyper-polarization. Among the bad guys, he's one of the good guys.
posted by brain_drain at 3:58 PM on December 5, 2012 [10 favorites]
posted by brain_drain at 3:58 PM on December 5, 2012 [10 favorites]
The Economic Bridge of Psys?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:58 PM on December 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:58 PM on December 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
Things the current generation should be concerned about leaving their grandchildren:
1. A clean environment
2. Modern and well maintained infrastructure
3. Capacity to generate clean and sustainable energy
4. A strong safety net
5. An equitable economy
Things the current generation should not be worried about:
1. An arbitrary number that evidence and theory suggests is not a concern right now.
The "deficit commission" gave the game away when it started talking about tax cuts and "base broadening" anyway.
Nice that the old man is hip to pop culture though. Should go a long way towards helping him to screw young people. Con men gotta know how to appeal to their marks.
Now let's get back to hailing Paul Ryan as a genius. People should have forgot about his lies durings his convention speech. After all, it's been three months.
posted by eagles12 at 4:01 PM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]
1. A clean environment
2. Modern and well maintained infrastructure
3. Capacity to generate clean and sustainable energy
4. A strong safety net
5. An equitable economy
Things the current generation should not be worried about:
1. An arbitrary number that evidence and theory suggests is not a concern right now.
The "deficit commission" gave the game away when it started talking about tax cuts and "base broadening" anyway.
Nice that the old man is hip to pop culture though. Should go a long way towards helping him to screw young people. Con men gotta know how to appeal to their marks.
Now let's get back to hailing Paul Ryan as a genius. People should have forgot about his lies durings his convention speech. After all, it's been three months.
posted by eagles12 at 4:01 PM on December 5, 2012 [3 favorites]
Watching that Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg (I can't stop saying it!) video mcmile linked to, I find it hard to believe Grandpa Simpson isn't based on this guy. Mesmerizing! Onion on his belt indeed.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:01 PM on December 5, 2012
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:01 PM on December 5, 2012
Thanks for the tips on building a better society, Republican senator! wait...wait...there's an irony here somewhere...it's right there but I can't quite verbalize it....hrmdbrbrbr
posted by threeants at 5:19 PM on December 5, 2012
posted by threeants at 5:19 PM on December 5, 2012
Among the bad guys, he's one of the good guys.
Just because he's seen the light on gay marriage doesn't make him a good guy on everything else. Simpson/Bowles is a piece of shit piece of legislation that hurts the most powerless of us. Meanwhile Simpson and Bowles are raking in $40,000 an appearance to give speeches on how poor people should just suck it up. I'm not a fan.
posted by zardoz at 6:08 PM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
Just because he's seen the light on gay marriage doesn't make him a good guy on everything else. Simpson/Bowles is a piece of shit piece of legislation that hurts the most powerless of us. Meanwhile Simpson and Bowles are raking in $40,000 an appearance to give speeches on how poor people should just suck it up. I'm not a fan.
posted by zardoz at 6:08 PM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]
A search on "catfood commission."
A public service announcement from Paul Krugman.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:49 PM on December 5, 2012
A public service announcement from Paul Krugman.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:49 PM on December 5, 2012
I'm really sick of the "these kids and their inane tweeting and social networking" narrative. Everyone is sort of inane and gossipy and boring to outsiders when they're talking to their friends; the fact that this generation does that online doesn't mean we're wasting time, it means we're socializing differently. If we stopped using social networking platforms to watch cat videos and remixes of Gangnam and used them for petitions, everyone would leave them, because for the most part, we don't give a shit about petitions.
Perhaps if Senators would stop attempting to push responsibility about the debt onto the shoulders of the young people who didn't get a say in creating it and would, I don't know, do their fucking jobs instead of making YouTube videos, taking gigantic piles of money for speaking fees, etc, we'd be in a better position. But every patronizing piece of bullshit about Millennials and text messaging/Instagram/Tumblr/Twitter/Pintrest/etc and how inane and self-absorbed we are fills me with rage, because we're the ones graduating to a fucked economy, a corrupt political system and an increasingly clusterfucked climate. Maybe the collected amount of joy that we got out of being able to watch a lot of cat videos and share photos of our breakfast will make up for a tiny amount of what we'll lose from never being able to retire.
posted by NoraReed at 8:44 PM on December 5, 2012 [5 favorites]
Perhaps if Senators would stop attempting to push responsibility about the debt onto the shoulders of the young people who didn't get a say in creating it and would, I don't know, do their fucking jobs instead of making YouTube videos, taking gigantic piles of money for speaking fees, etc, we'd be in a better position. But every patronizing piece of bullshit about Millennials and text messaging/Instagram/Tumblr/Twitter/Pintrest/etc and how inane and self-absorbed we are fills me with rage, because we're the ones graduating to a fucked economy, a corrupt political system and an increasingly clusterfucked climate. Maybe the collected amount of joy that we got out of being able to watch a lot of cat videos and share photos of our breakfast will make up for a tiny amount of what we'll lose from never being able to retire.
posted by NoraReed at 8:44 PM on December 5, 2012 [5 favorites]
Much more interesting and humane than some asshat ex-senator on the verge of dementia is seeing popular beat artist Jay-Z taking the subway.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:38 PM on December 5, 2012
posted by MartinWisse at 10:38 PM on December 5, 2012
A few summers back I was in Wyoming, for an event related to a history project in which I am involved.
One night we had a special reception at the ranch of a very wealthy patron of the project. We historians got into a bus and rode high into the mountains. Finally we came to what I thought was the mansion, but turned out to be only the pavilion. It was huge--a vast rustic roof, open sides, a fireplace with a massive fossils in raw stone. Waiters glided by with trays of food and drink that were perfectly unfamiliar to we gaping rubes.
I sipped on a glass or wine that cost as much as a case of what I usually buy and looked at the sun setting on the mountains. To another history professor from a state college I said, "Frank, I am just trying to take it all in."
At that moment an alarmingly tall, elderly man thrust himself in between us and stuck out his hand. "Al Simpson! Glad to meet you!"
Al entertained us for a quarter hour with stories--getting arrested for hitting a cop, adventures in Wyoming, and serving on the Simpson-Bowles commission. Funny. As. Hell. He would not break radio silence on the commission's work, but he did talk about the hate mail he was getting from the right for serving on a commission appointed by Obama. He thought it was disgraceful, said he had never seen such hatred as some Republicans exhibited towards the president. "If the President of the United States asks Al Simpson to do something, he does it. I don't care if the president is a Martian!"
My friend asked Al what he though was the cause of the hatred? "Racism of course!" Simpson thundered. Then he went off to entertain another group of unsuspecting academics.
I never did see the inside or even the outside of the mansion.
posted by LarryC at 11:56 PM on December 5, 2012 [6 favorites]
One night we had a special reception at the ranch of a very wealthy patron of the project. We historians got into a bus and rode high into the mountains. Finally we came to what I thought was the mansion, but turned out to be only the pavilion. It was huge--a vast rustic roof, open sides, a fireplace with a massive fossils in raw stone. Waiters glided by with trays of food and drink that were perfectly unfamiliar to we gaping rubes.
I sipped on a glass or wine that cost as much as a case of what I usually buy and looked at the sun setting on the mountains. To another history professor from a state college I said, "Frank, I am just trying to take it all in."
At that moment an alarmingly tall, elderly man thrust himself in between us and stuck out his hand. "Al Simpson! Glad to meet you!"
Al entertained us for a quarter hour with stories--getting arrested for hitting a cop, adventures in Wyoming, and serving on the Simpson-Bowles commission. Funny. As. Hell. He would not break radio silence on the commission's work, but he did talk about the hate mail he was getting from the right for serving on a commission appointed by Obama. He thought it was disgraceful, said he had never seen such hatred as some Republicans exhibited towards the president. "If the President of the United States asks Al Simpson to do something, he does it. I don't care if the president is a Martian!"
My friend asked Al what he though was the cause of the hatred? "Racism of course!" Simpson thundered. Then he went off to entertain another group of unsuspecting academics.
I never did see the inside or even the outside of the mansion.
posted by LarryC at 11:56 PM on December 5, 2012 [6 favorites]
I've never intentionally clicked on a video of gangnam style dance but I've seen enough snippets to know what it is.
Surely there will be some worthy social cause that uses gangnam to draw me to their video fundraising or awareness effort. Not you, Sally Struthers. Not you, Sarah McLachlan, not even with your sad sad dogs.
posted by surplus at 4:32 AM on December 6, 2012
Surely there will be some worthy social cause that uses gangnam to draw me to their video fundraising or awareness effort. Not you, Sally Struthers. Not you, Sarah McLachlan, not even with your sad sad dogs.
posted by surplus at 4:32 AM on December 6, 2012
Sorry, but I can't find anything about that old bastard to laugh about.
posted by Twang at 5:21 AM on December 6, 2012
posted by Twang at 5:21 AM on December 6, 2012
I love Al Simpson even when I don't agree with him.
posted by fontgoddess at 10:42 AM on December 6, 2012
posted by fontgoddess at 10:42 AM on December 6, 2012
NoraReed: I'm really sick of the "these kids and their inane tweeting and social networking" narrative. Everyone is sort of inane and gossipy and boring to outsiders when they're talking to their friends; the fact that this generation does that online doesn't mean we're wasting time, it means we're socializing differently. If we stopped using social networking platforms to watch cat videos and remixes of Gangnam and used them for petitions, everyone would leave them, because for the most part, we don't give a shit about petitions.Yes.
Perhaps if Senators would stop attempting to push responsibility about the debt onto the shoulders of the young people who didn't get a say in creating it and would, I don't know, do their fucking jobs instead of making YouTube videos, taking gigantic piles of money for speaking fees, etc, we'd be in a better position. But every patronizing piece of bullshit about Millennials and text messaging/Instagram/Tumblr/Twitter/Pintrest/etc and how inane and self-absorbed we are fills me with rage, because we're the ones graduating to a fucked economy, a corrupt political system and an increasingly clusterfucked climate. Maybe the collected amount of joy that we got out of being able to watch a lot of cat videos and share photos of our breakfast will make up for a tiny amount of what we'll lose from never being able to retire.
posted by IAmBroom at 3:18 PM on December 6, 2012
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posted by anewnadir at 3:16 PM on December 5, 2012