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« Here's something else Darwin didn't have | Main | More crazy from that homeschooling mom »

I've got to vote with Opie

Category: Politics • Weirdness
Posted on: October 23, 2008 11:00 PM, by PZ Myers

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

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Comments

Posted by: Mystyk | October 23, 2008 11:24 PM

Fantastic! Best of the web...at least until November 5th.

Posted by: Chris (in Columbus) | October 23, 2008 11:25 PM

I'm a huge fan of Ron Howard. I LOVED Arrested Development, was pretty much the funniest show ever.

But this wasn't that funny. Maybe I missed it? I just never found it that amusing.

Oh well, at least it's one more person voting for Obama!

Posted by: Kel | October 23, 2008 11:29 PM

I'm a huge fan of Ron Howard. I LOVED Arrested Development, was pretty much the funniest show ever.

The first two seasons of the show were pure gold. By season 3 it started to get a little repetitive and then got rushed at the end (thanks to the cancellation). But yeah, brilliant show!

Posted by: Lady Fu | October 23, 2008 11:30 PM

Like the sentiment... stupidest execution ever.

Posted by: Realist Golfer | October 23, 2008 11:38 PM

I thought this was VERY well done, and will be viral. If you grew up in the sixties or seventies this hits home...too bad "Andy" wasn't wearing his uniform.

Posted by: «bønez_brigade» | October 23, 2008 11:38 PM

Nay, Lady Fu, the execution was rather brilliant.

Posted by: Strider | October 23, 2008 11:54 PM

So help me that was goddamned charming.

Posted by: Hank Fox | October 24, 2008 12:00 AM

I love this kid. And this was a fun approach to a serious subject. Sure to get some attention.

Posted by: cactusren | October 24, 2008 12:00 AM

Brilliant! How can anyone vote against Opie?

#10

Posted by: Benny the Icepick | October 24, 2008 12:05 AM

Cantaloop by Us3 as background music?

#11

Posted by: Trent1492 | October 24, 2008 12:06 AM

This is sooo much better: vlad and friend boris presents 'Song for Sarah' for mrs. Palin

#12

Posted by: Trent1492 | October 24, 2008 12:11 AM

Sigh. Trying the link again. Song for Sarah

#13

Posted by: Charlie Foxtrot | October 24, 2008 12:20 AM

This election certainly is making for some interesting multimedia...

just found this amusing idea linked from the front page of the The Age website (Australia)...

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/

#14

Posted by: Andy Allen | October 24, 2008 12:21 AM

Well, I thought it was a pretty laid back delivery, but a good message.

On the other hand you should check out the anti-Ron comments on that page:

You suck Hi Ron I was a big fan of you. But now you are supporting a Muslum terrorist for president and I don't ever want to see you on TV or anywhere else. Your career is history pal.

You suck Ron Howard,
Say what you want about the GOP. However, I do know one thing for sure. SARAH PALIN has MORE EXPERIENCE than the blatantly and disdainfully proud Obama who is the infanticide, voter fraud, race card, and redistributionist candidate of the Scam-ocratic Party.

Vote Republican. Vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Ron, My sister just showed me your little promo ad
How sad. I am soooo very disappointed in you!

I know you and the Obama family do not live as most Americans do and you probably can't relate to the serios situtations many of them now face. (You sure will when it begins to hit you with the fact that many will not be able to afford your movies.) Both of my neighbors have lost their home to forclosure. Perhaps you may want to investigate how this whole housing crisis started ten years ago!

I will no longer watch any movie you have anything to do with. I agree with another person on this comments section...how about you stick with what you do know about...movies and hollywood

Proud of ya there buddy!!!! I too hope your little ad has a backlash for you as it did the Dixie Chicks and for Alec Baldwin!!! Welcome to America buddy! Still the land of the FREE!!!

Maria

There's good replies too, but the ignorance and irrationality out there still floors me. This belief that Obama's policies are-the/will-be-the cause of the economic problems, that Liberals rather than the GOP are the ones that don't understand the way common people live, and that the McCain/Palin ticket is their savior and champion. What on earth are they thinking?

Andy

#15

Posted by: Matt | October 24, 2008 12:39 AM

P to the zed, you better get out there and vote too. I'm just so scared. Hold me? Please?

#16

Posted by: Autumn | October 24, 2008 1:13 AM

I was glad to discover that even my wife, who has extremely conservative views fiscally, is going to be voting for Obama because she looked at McCain's website, and a few Republican sites, and came to the conclusion that McCain "just sounds crazy! He has no idea what's going on".

And we live in Florida, so her one vote may, in fact, matter just a little bit.

#17

Posted by: Patricia | October 24, 2008 1:16 AM

Oh now Matt, don't get frightened honey.

Let me make you up a sugar tit, and a drink.

#18

Posted by: dave | October 24, 2008 1:22 AM

WOW! He reminds SO much of Phil Plait! (when he doesn't wear his toupee)

#19

Posted by: Pdiff | October 24, 2008 1:57 AM

Andy Allen,
Those are rich! Especially like the oblivious nature of "Maria" at the end:
"You and Obama do not live as most Americans do" -- as if McSame and his millionaire trophy wife do :-) (Sorry PZ, she meets the real criterion for TW).

"Perhaps you want to investigate how this whole housing crisis started" -- perhaps she should look into Charles Keating and the Keating Five, aka Senator McCain.

"I hope your little ad has a backlash like it did for the Dixie Chicks..." -- Yes, I'm sure he would as they produced their most successful album and won several awards and accolades from the whole affair :-)

The conservative wakos are getting really desperate now. They can't believe they might be wrong. Ohhh Noes. That black man might win!!

Pdiff

#20

Posted by: Patricia | October 24, 2008 2:18 AM

It's all about the weiner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVJtXiujDVQ-weiner-

#21

Posted by: Luger Otter Robinson | October 24, 2008 2:27 AM

I thought the Paris Hilton one was better. Also she seemed to be more qualified and made more sense than Sarah Palin. Just one question though. Who is Paris Hilton?

#22

Posted by: peter | October 24, 2008 2:41 AM

Well, the video is content-free, and so I suppose it would appeal to you guys.
Come to think of it, "change we can believe in" is just as moronic as anything Sarah Palin has said, but doesn't seem to attract anything like the same venom.

#23

Posted by: Nibien | October 24, 2008 2:50 AM

Well, the video is content-free, and so I suppose it would appeal to you guys. Come to think of it, "change we can believe in" is just as moronic as anything Sarah Palin has said, but doesn't seem to attract anything like the same venom.

I really enjoy this post for the intended irony and plain ignorance of the poster. I give it a 8/10.

#24

Posted by: peter | October 24, 2008 2:56 AM

Nibien @23
You're right about the ignorance on one thing at least: who is this guy, and why should I prefer his opinion to that of my butler, or of the bus-conductor?

#25

Posted by: ao9news@yahoo.com | October 24, 2008 3:12 AM

Oh, yeah Sarah "I read 'em all" Palin, vote for a non-moron!

#26

Posted by: Your Mighty Overload | October 24, 2008 3:24 AM

Andy at 14

Unfortunately, those people ARE the Republican base - and they see things pretty black and white, so to speak. Either you are with them, or you are their enemy.

Perhaps, before the next election a movie needs to be made about the Republican base, showing what a crazy bunch they are. That might make swing voters, who one can only imagine must be a pretty moderate bunch, think more carefully about which "team" they want to be on - the rationalist moderate one or the fanatical extremist one.

#27

Posted by: Walton | October 24, 2008 3:26 AM

"The kind of change that will make us trust our government again..."

Trusting government is an incredibly silly thing to do, no matter who your leaders are (as the Founding Fathers were very well aware). Trusting government with more control of the economy is especially silly.

#28

Posted by: andyo | October 24, 2008 3:32 AM

I'm just watching Indiana Jones 4, and this rang a bell! Indy in baggy pants same as the Fonz.

By the way, those Arrested Development fans, can you name all of the Happy Days references?

#29

Posted by: Tony Sidaway | October 24, 2008 4:01 AM

Now show me McCain and Palin jumping sharks!

#30

Posted by: Gene | October 24, 2008 4:22 AM

I love the dissonance. My parents live in Mount Airy, NC ( the inspiration for Mayberry), it's about as red-state as you can get, and yet their most famous son, Andy Griffith, is out making videos like this.

#31

Posted by: Rey Fox | October 24, 2008 4:43 AM

"Come to think of it, "change we can believe in" is just as moronic as anything Sarah Palin has said"

Uh oh, you got us. We only like Obama because we blindly vote for whoever former child stars turned film directors tell us to. The mask is off. You get a cookie.

#32

Posted by: Matt Heath | October 24, 2008 5:01 AM

Lucifer is also in the tank for Obama.

In many ways he was the original Fonzie.

#33

Posted by: Emmet Caulfield | October 24, 2008 6:26 AM

Matt @32

Lucifer is also in the tank for Obama.

Excellent. All I need to know now is how you managed to get an article off The Onion to look like it's on Fox Noise.

#34

Posted by: DavidONE | October 24, 2008 6:49 AM

Andy Allen:

...the ignorance and irrationality out there still floors me.

Yup, it's sc-c-cary fascinating.

Much of it seems to come from the same source of ignorance and irrationality that we're used to discussing in these here parts. It's the same people who are so entrenched with their Bronze Age fairy story, homophobia, racism, denial of climate change and general knuckle-dragging moronity (sic).

Fortunately, it looks like the usual GOP shit is not sticking to its target this time around: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ + http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

#35

Posted by: Nick Gotts | October 24, 2008 7:18 AM

Trusting government with more control of the economy is especially silly. - Walton

Right, and why increase democratic oversight when the private banks and hedge funds (a.k.a. "market forces") have done such a marvellous job? You can always trust a wunch of bankers.

#36

Posted by: SC | October 24, 2008 8:19 AM

the Obama-Alinsky-Lucifer connection

I...I...Well,...I...That's just...can't...process...

#37

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT, OM | October 24, 2008 8:25 AM

Holy shit. A thread on Politics and 37 comments later SfO still hasn't shown up?

#38

Posted by: James F | October 24, 2008 8:31 AM

#32 The poor guy keeps getting a bum rap....

Why do they blame me for all their little failings? They use my name as if I spent my entire day sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commit acts they would otherwise find repulsive. "The devil made me do it." I have never made one of them do anything. Never. They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them.

And then they die, and they come here (having transgressed against what they believed to be right), and expect us to fulfill their desire for pain and retribution. I don't make them come here. They talk of me going around and buying souls, like a fishwife come market day, never stopping to ask themselves why. I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul? No. They belong to themselves....They just hate to have to face up to it.

-Lucifer, from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Season of Mists

#39

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT, OM | October 24, 2008 8:35 AM

Well, the video is content-free, and so I suppose it would appeal to you guys. Come to think of it, "change we can believe in" is just as moronic as anything Sarah Palin has said, but doesn't seem to attract anything like the same venom.

Well this is Ron Howard. See he was a child star and is now successful director. He is not an expert on politics but is usually pretty good at entertaining people.

I doubt very seriously anyone here is going to change their vote one way or another based on this person's opinions but we may get a laugh out of it. We are however open to being entertained. Something you appear to be incapable of.

And no, that phrase is no where near as blindingly stupid as some of the things Palin has said and done. Making that comparison is ridiculous.

#40

Posted by: Mikel | October 24, 2008 8:55 AM

From what I recall, Focus on the Family was in love with the way life was portrayed in The Andy Griffin Show. Well, take that Dobson! LOL

#41

Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 24, 2008 9:15 AM

Trusting government with more control of the economy is especially silly.

How often do I need to explain that the greatest force for capitalism in the world is the EU Commissioner for Competition? That competition is selected against and is therefore replaced by megamergers and cartels if you leave capitalism to itself? Capitalism requires constant intervention like Newton's model of the solar system.

a wunch of bankers.

ROTFL!

#42

Posted by: scooter | October 24, 2008 9:19 AM

OT
.....WARNING Shameless Self Promotion!!!!....

Check it out:

NOT from TX-TX school Board Hijacked by Fundamentalist Creatards ((audio))

You're NOT from Texas!! Carpetbagger Special.
Plus Greg Palast, Danny Schechter-News Dissector, Tim Kanova, AronRa

http://acksisofevil.org/audio/inner198.mp3
or download from
http://acksisofevil.org/innerside.html

#43

Posted by: Cappy | October 24, 2008 9:20 AM

Get this clip out to folks and grandparents. If they know that Matlock is for Obama it could swing the senior vote!

#44

Posted by: Reginald Selkirk | October 24, 2008 10:03 AM

I could have done without the nose hair trimming scene.

#45

Posted by: Sili | October 24, 2008 10:55 AM

Trouble is - I only know the guy from The Simpsons ...

And Henry Winkler from Little Nicky and that detective show with the psyschic ... Profiler? (And of course tonnnnnnnnnes of pop-culture references to 'the Fonz'.)

Ah well - desperate times call for desperate measures.

#46

Posted by: negentropyeater | October 24, 2008 11:50 AM

Walton,

Trusting government with more control of the economy is especially silly.

And trusting the free markets, when they become dominated by speculators and Ponzi investors, to control the economy, is not only even more silly, it's criminal.

Read :
http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1014734.shtml

"The Credit Crisis: Denial, delusion and the "defunct" American economist who foresaw the dénouement"

Friedman was WRONG, markets do not self regulate, they will wait for a Minsky moment, and the longer they wait, the worst the crisis will be.

Walton, how do you explain that between the 1980 and 2007, the DJIA was multiplied by 15 (fifteen !), when the real income of the average American was only multiplied by 1.25 ?

By comparison, between 1950 and 1977 the DJIA was only multiplied by 3, and the real income of the average American was multiplied by 2.

Hey, it's not difficult, a free market will always want to accelerate its growth as much as possible by borrowing always more and keeping labour costs as low as possible. There's no invisible hand pushing it to do anything else.

"A system where individual bank traders had no reason to co-operate with other departments while they have millions of dollars of incentives to go it alone with high-risk, high-return strategies with no payback required if the rainmaking turns to disaster, contains the seeds of its own destruction.."

#47

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT, OM | October 24, 2008 12:22 PM

And Henry Winkler from Little Nicky and that detective show with the psyschic ... Profiler? (And of course tonnnnnnnnnes of pop-culture references to 'the Fonz'.)

Night Shift for the win.

#48

Posted by: Marc Abian | October 24, 2008 12:52 PM

Oh sure, like the guy in the $5000 suit is going to listen to anything Ron Howard says. COME ON!

#49

Posted by: andyo | October 24, 2008 1:57 PM

Oh sure, like the guy in the $5000 suit is going to listen to anything Ron Howard says. COME ON!

But maybe you could listen to someone who's both an analyst and a therapist.

#50

Posted by: Arnosium Upinarum | October 24, 2008 6:15 PM

Marc, #48: Why not? Ron Howard consistently makes lots of money for guys in $5000 suits. It helps them to afford it.

Those guys listen to him. Really. They do. They're called "producers" or "film studio executives", etc. They're rich, they're powerful, they love profits, and they listen to their earners who deliver it.

#51

Posted by: Arnosium Upinarum | October 24, 2008 6:27 PM

And Marc? Remember when almost ALL $5000 suits listened intently to a B-movie actor?

#52

Posted by: Calton Bolick | October 24, 2008 10:18 PM

Personally, I'm more surprised by the Andy Griffith endorsement, not because of his age, per se, but because I'd thought he was a pretty politically conservative guy.

#53

Posted by: andyo | October 24, 2008 11:02 PM

Arnosium Upinarum,

This was... Arrested Development.

#54

Posted by: Fatpie42 | October 25, 2008 8:34 AM

*Yawn*

#55

Posted by: Ranson | October 25, 2008 8:57 AM

@Calton

That's what got me, too. I think Winkler is a Republican, too.