Michael Hurst in action

[marycrawford]

Gacked from cyloran: A 1994 beer commercial for a New Zealand beer called Lion Red, with Michael Hurst in the starring role, now up on YouTube.

This is just hysterical. I keep watching it, and it keeps putting a mad grin on my face. Just. HEE.

The song is all about how Lion Red is a beer for real New Zealanders, being for 'red blooded blood brothers' (who have all got 'different mothers' or is it 'different others?') but the imagery is so over the top macho it turns into camp, what with Michael strutting in his working man's shirt and jeans mesmerizing an entire bar, the huge pool players trying to intimidate him, the guitar-swinging girls straight out of Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love video, the singing 'mothers' in the portrait who are all transvestites (and that's Michael Hurst in the middle doing a Twanky, I'm almost sure).

And then there's the moment where he goes 'And there's a little lion on the label! Yeah!' and jumps in the air, cut to a shot of the label with the lion rampant. Heeee. (Also, I keep thinking that they should have flipped the shot of Michael jumping, horizontally, so it would line up with the lion more. *cough* This is what vidding does to ya.)

ETA: You can save this video (and anything else you fancy) off YouTube with KeepVid. The only catch is that it saves to a special format (FLV), and you will need the free FLV player to play it. I just tried this out, and it worked fine.
ETA 2: mmapmaker pointed out that you could just use VLC player instead, which is the best allround player out there, and also free.

Comments

[unmasked-icons.livejournal.com]

xD omg, I'm laughing so hard. That's classic.

[mmapmaker.livejournal.com]

ooh, thanks for both!

You can also play flv files with VLC Player (http://www.videolan.org). It has the allows the vid window to be resized. I don't know if there are other advantages/disadvantages.

[in-vulnerable.livejournal.com]

SQUEEEEEE!! OMG, I used to have this as a soundfile (before my PC crashed and it was irretrievably lost), but I've never actually seen it! That was priceless! Must save it. Thank you for the link!

[ravenwings-7.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! Thanks for posting the link, it's hilarious! I'd already found keepvid (this is the first time I'd used it, though), but not the player, so thanks for that, as well. ::bounces::

Except now the song is stuck in my head, dammit.

[cyloran.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeee!! Thank you for the links to the KeepVid and VLC player! I was finally able to save a copy.

Now, if I could only find my video of the Auckland Christmas tree lighting ceremony with Michael and Kevin to put up on YouTube. It's around here somewhere!

[amorettea.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, Mr. Hurst loathes Red Lion beer and won't drink it! Which makes it even funnier.

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

OMG, hysterical!!!!

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I remember that ad. Thanks so much for the link. Am totally gonna snag a copy of it b/c I haven't seen it in years. Someone brought it to a fan gathering once and all of us promptly died laughing.

[mickeymvt.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up on saving this. I wanted to, since it's a total riot,but didn't know how.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

He he he... He sure looks cute in that thing. And thanx for pointing out the Addicted to love vid! Always fun to see old classics like that. :-D