The Pirate Guys are back!  Yes… I’ve mentioned it before… and today I’ll mention it again.  Tomorrow is September 19th… also known as International Talk Like a Pirate Day!  It’s that little day that began as an inside joke between two goofy Northwesterners (one of whom happens to be my uncle) and has grown into a worldwide phenomenon.  This year Ol’ Chumbucket (my uncle) and Cap’n Slappy (my uncle’s friend) are in Los Angeles for the day itself.  There are festivities scheduled around the globe.  They have just released their third book - a children’s book (The Li’l Pirate’s ABSeas) - with another book in the works.  They are plastered all across YouTube with pirate lessons, pop culture parody and serious debates.  You may even have caught them on last season’s season premiere of Wife Swap.  Between Pirates of the Caribbean and various pop culture references… Oh yes… Pirates are everywhere.  So here’s my question:
Why haven’t people gotten tired of this yet?

I think it’s because the beauty of this holiday/international insanity is its simplicity.  Pirates are fun.  There’s a silliness, an over-the-topness, a child-like fantasy that taps into people on a basic level.  We can’t explain it, but we can’t ignore it either.  Pirates give us an opportunity to imagine that part of us that isn’t bound by social mores and expectations.  You want something?  You take it!  You feel something?  You express it!  You’ve got ale?  You drink it!  We’re a very polite society… yet we’re fascinated by the impolite.  A basic human truth that made way for a pop culture craze.  Neat.

So hey… practice your chanteys and dust off your parrot… cuz tomorrow’s your chance to be impolite.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 8:25 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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