A great drive in a great car needs to be complemented with a great soundtrack. If the engine itself doesn’t provide that, maybe your music can. I have no doubt that countless car nuts have played the Van Halen track “Panama” innumerable times over the past decades. I know I often queue up the song when I’m getting a bit hot and heavy on the throttle.
Today, Jason wrote about the absolutely silly cupholder in the Morgan Supersport that almost requires you to fondle your passenger. All of us in the Autopian Slack began joking about the hilarious ways this could work out, but the readers had even better comments. Ash78:
“Yeah, the coffee is a bit hot tonight
I can barely see the road over the length of my…bonnet
I reach down between my legs and
Take the lid off”
–Sir David Leigh Roth, Earl of Panama
Now, listen to this and try not to break any laws:
In other car news, Nissan has reportedly replaced its CEO with an apparent car guy. But does this new CEO meet the job requirements? As noted by Ranwhenparked:
Important question: does he own any large musical instrument cases? Maybe harp or upright bass sized?
Now, I must hit rewind because I was out for a press event and missed a really great comment. Last week, Jason wrote about VW’s “Inside Job,” a campaign to poach mechanics from the competition by sending them broken cars with messages stickered on parts. I joked with myself that VW must have sent those cars directly from the factory, but Canopysaurus had me beat:
I hope that someone gets our
I hope that someone gets our
I hope that someone gets our message in a throttle , yeah
Message in a throttle
Finally, we’ve been learning some new words lately, like a different way to say bump stop. Now, I present to you, a new way to say VW Cabrio, from Martin Ibert commenting on Jason’s convertible post:
These things were commonly called “Erdbeerkörbchen” or “little strawberry basket” in German because of the roll bar and the similarity with the little baskets fresh strawberries used to be sold in.
Excellent, have a great evening, everyone!
(Topshot: Warner Bros.)
I try to time it when the song comes on so I say “Dave, name an isthmus” right before a “Panama.” Mostly because I like to say “isthmus.”
Other variations are:
“Name a canal?”
“What country did Manuel Noriega rule?”
“What’s the name of that company that had those hats…something Jack’s”
A friend of mine would sing this a the top of his lungs.
Enema! Enema!
I always like to confuse my kids by signing “Canada” to the tune of VH’s “Panama”.
Sometimes you see a comment and know you don’t even have to nominate it because it’s just
>perfect<
-and you then have the song in your head the rest of the afternoon.
But, the melding of Van Halen & the Police was a bit off-putting I must say
Thank you, MS.
Belated congrats, Canopysaurus. That Police reference was epic and perfectly timed.
I see you are also an aficionado of 80s musical parody 🙂
Thnx and yes. Probably comes from too many hours spent listening to Dr. Demento and Weird Al.
That’s pretty much ALL I listened to in the 80s, so that tracks…
I never had a chance to see Weird Al in concert, but we’re going in July and I get the pleasure of showing my 12 and 14yo kids the magic.
Oh that’ll be great! Hopefully, you’ve brought them up right so that they’re familiar with the original songs and will get the humor of the parodies, though most of his songs can be enjoyed for their own sake. He’s fun live on stage.
There are many examples of cases where I know Weird Al’s lyrics but have never heard the original. Then one day I happen across the original and I’m thrown for a loop when the words are all wrong.
Erdbeerkörbchen is no gummipuffer, though.
Just sayin’…
It’s a hell of a lot nicer than the type of baskets they were often called in the US.
That was more of a slam of the occupants rather than the basket though.
A distinction without a difference.
I explained that term to my spouse once and now she gleefully calls it out every time she sees one.