The other day, while I was searching for the video “Soju Mama” in a recent post, I ran across this commercial:

The fact they used this song, and this celebrity, in this commercial, suggests one of these two possibilities:

1. They figured most people don’t know what “I like big butts” means. Which is maybe plausible, since I find most Koreans who aren’t really high-level in English translate whichever Korean word indicates both (is it 엉덩이? That’s the one I learned first and remembered because I heard it so often, so I assume it’s the most common) as “hip” to indicate both hips and butt. Or…
2. Korean culture really does have an extremely different sense of what “big butts” means.

My guess is maybe both are true.

It’s telling that my main reaction to that video was when they do that chicken-leg move, about 17 seconds in, and I’m thinking, “Damn! How come I can’t do that stretch?” (Because it looks exactly like a leg stretch my swimming instructor taught me, but which I’ve never been able to do correctly.)

Bonus: the best ever renditions of that song (and yeah, I know I’ve posted them before, but…), the first brought to my attention by the estimable and wonderfully mad Tina Connolly:

And the latter being the scarily Vegas Richard Cheese:

Which brings me to this video, which I’ll definitely have to show my students:

Given how popular Friends is here and given how in my Media classes this year, we’ll touch on the formation and negotiation of genres at some point along the way. Show ’em this video and ask, “What kind of TV show would you expect with this version of the theme song?”

And, okay, Richard Cheese and SF geekery? You probably have seen this, and I’m so not into Star Wars — really! — but one can’t help but be amused at the intricate fondue of all these varieties of cheese: