Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Mike Rowe on QVC
I really should be doing some work, but I found this goldmine and it's distracted me for the better part of a morning. Some of you might know Mike Rowe from his hilarious Discovery Channel show, Dirty Jobs, where he looks at some of the world's worst jobs and makes you thrilled to know you're not doing one of them. What you might not know (at least, I didn't) is that he used to be one of the hosts on QVC, the shopping channel in the US. Only, unlike the perky, happy hosts that we're used to seeing, he would sit there, clearly showing his disdain for the product he was supposed to be shilling. Half the time he's on the verge of laughter, and his product descriptions are oozing with sarcasm. Check out this clip of him trying to sell a Precious Moments figurine. I was in stitches; you can tell he HATES the little trinket:



Some of my favourites:

Selling a Christmas doll, where he likens the little mouse in her stocking to the one Lenny crushes in Of Mice and Men, apologizes to the doll for sticking his hand up her dress to turn the music on, and then makes fun of the "classic" Christmas song "Oh What a Merry Christmas Day" and encourages you to sing along (then he does, just making up the words because he's never heard the freakin' thing)

Joining another woman who is selling "dickies" (think of the black one Randy Quaid wears under his white shirt in Christmas Vacation) and the look on his face when she first calls them that.

Selling porcelain cherubs, where he tries to define what a cherub is and comes up with "not a homo sapien."

Making fun of seagull jewellery that doesn't have any seagulls on it.

And another one of the best: He has to sell a paper bag for $36.50 and call it a cat toy. He spends three minutes trying not to laugh, especially when they show the "gripping video" of another cat enjoying it. It's brilliant:



I have no idea how Rowe ever managed to sell a single item to the people who would have been watching (think Ellen Burstyn's character in Dying Young) but I wish he were still on: I'd be tuning in every day to watch. You can watch more by going to YouTube and typing in "Mike Rowe on QVC".

6 comments:

The Chapati Kid said...

Oh my god! HILARIOUS!!! Thanks for putting these on, Nikki! I'm totally going to post it to my blog now. Rove is hot.

The Chapati Kid said...

Hey Nikki, Can you set up your blog headings to get hyperlinked the blog template? I wanted to cross-link your entry to my site, but I can't hyperlink that specific entry -- I have to link the entire blog. Cheers! CK

The Chapati Kid said...

I can't believe I'm posting a third time. So, did I just wake up late, or am I the first to tell you that there's an Angel comic book now too? And it picks up from the end of Season 5? And Pink is the New Blog has it on his site today?

Nikki Stafford said...

CK: Glad you liked! The permalink is there; it's on the time stamp at the bottom, not the title. Click on it and you can link to just that entry.

As for the Angel comic, I did know it was coming out, and I need to come down and pick up my copy of it and Buffy with Crissy! Argh; I was at the office just the other day and totally forgot.

Nikki Stafford said...

P.S. I knew the Angel comic was coming out, but I thought it wasn't for a couple of months. Just checked Dark Horse and it's not out until November 28th. The artwork has been released, but we still have a ways to go before the comic actually comes out. :)

Anonymous said...

sad to say my friend actually bought one of those bag cat toys for her cat...
hilarious stuff!
Kathy T