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Darwin Award Finalist...

by travlinguy
14 replies
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Not sure if this is funny or sad...

  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    It's hilarious.

    It could have been pretty sad but I was able to turn my head when I spewed my coffee in time to miss the keyboard.
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    Sal
    When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
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  • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
    Neither...Scary as heck is what I'd say!

    I literally jumped up and out of my chair, not to mention the shot of adrenaline that ran throughout my whole body too, lol!

    But in hind site, making fireworks for Halloween should have been a clue.


    Terra
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  • Profile picture of the author Brady Partridge
    It's funny and staged.

    Could have done without the banjo plucking. The implication that all Southerners are stupid is offensive.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
      Originally Posted by Brady Partridge View Post

      Could have done without the banjo plucking. The implication that all Southerners are stupid is offensive.
      As a lifelong Northerner, I can assure you it is not the banjo plucking that makes him look stupid.
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Brady Partridge View Post

      It's funny and staged.

      Could have done without the banjo plucking. The implication that all Southerners are stupid is offensive.
      Banjos are not exclusively played in the South nor did they originate in the South. In reality the banjo originated hundreds of years ago somewhere on the African continent, so maybe this video is a slur on Africans.

      Honestly, if background music is a slur and offensive to you, you should probably give up on the Internet altogether. Did you happen to note that the man in the video did not have a deep southern accent?

      The banjo is a four-, five- or (occasionally) six-stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity as a resonator. The membrane is typically a piece of animal skin or plastic, and the frame is typically circular. Simpler forms of the instrument were fashioned by Africans in Colonial America, adapted from several African instruments of similar design.[1]

      The banjo is frequently associated with country, folk, Irish traditional and bluegrass music. Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in African American traditional music, before becoming popular in the minstrel shows of the 19th century. In fact, slaves both were influenced by and influenced the early development of the music, which became country and bluegrass, particularly in regards to the innovation of musical techniques for both the banjo and fiddle.[2][3][4] The banjo, with the fiddle, is a mainstay of American old-time music.

      History

      There are several theories concerning the origin of the name banjo. It may derive from the Kimbundu term mbanza.[5] Some etymologists believe it comes from a dialectal pronunciation of the Portuguese "bandore" or from an early anglicisation of the Spanish word bandurria, though other research suggests that it may come from a West African term for a bamboo stick formerly used for the instrument's neck.[6]

      Various instruments in Africa, chief among them the kora, feature a skin head and gourd (or similar shell) body.[7] The African instruments differ from early African American banjos in that the necks do not possess a Western-style fingerboard and tuning pegs, instead having stick necks, with strings attached to the neck with loops for tuning.[7] Banjos with fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17th century.[7] 18th- and early 19th-century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as bangie, banza, banjer, and banjar. Instruments similar to the banjo (e.g., the Japanese shamisen, Persian tar, and Moroccan sintir) have been played in many countries. Another likely banjo ancestor is the akonting, a spike folk lute played by the Jola tribe of Senegambia, and the ubaw-akwala of the Igbo.[8] Similar instruments include the xalam of Senegal and the ngoni of the Wassoulou region including parts of Mali, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire, as well as a larger variation of the ngoni developed in Morocco by sub-Saharan Africans known as the gimbri.[citation needed]

      Early, African-influenced banjos were built around a gourd body and a wooden stick neck. These instruments had varying numbers of strings, though often including some form of drone. The five-string banjo was popularized by Joel Walker Sweeney, an American minstrel performer from Appomattox Court House, Virginia.[9]
      Helmholtz notation Note: This article uses Helmholtz pitch notation to define banjo tunings.

      In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage.[9] Because the instrument was a novelty to many Americans, Sweeney was able to tour the East Coast in the 1830's with some success. He played in a style that is similar to what is known today as "clawhammer" or "frailing." His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. This new banjo was at first tuned d'Gdf♯a, though by the 1890s this had been transposed up to g'cgbd'. Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeney's group, the American Virginia Minstrels, in the 1840s, and became very popular in music halls.[10]
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  • Profile picture of the author SShip
    Definitely scary even though I laughed in the end after seeing he was ok and after I just about jumped out of my seat.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    It MUST have been staged. BESIDES, if it were that loud, I doubt he would have fared so well.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Hey, even if it was staged, sh1t, I almost peed myself laughing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      I was cracking up when he started talking and that particular music was playing in the background. It didn't disappoint.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ricardo Furtado
    Amazing the things people do. That to such a mature man. Should have had brains not to do that – at his age!
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    Ricardo Furtado

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  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    damn, it would have been funnier had it not been faked

    but still funny LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    It was well-played and funny. Like others have said, it was also staged. The light magically being on after the explosion when he turned it off to light the "firework" is a dead giveaway.
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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    • Profile picture of the author Zhunda
      Looks like he was just gaggin around
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    • Profile picture of the author garyv
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      It was well-played and funny. Like others have said, it was also staged. The light magically being on after the explosion when he turned it off to light the "firework" is a dead giveaway.

      Maybe he has the clapper?

      The fact that it was staged made it even funnier for me. I love it when a person can make themselves the butt of the joke.
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