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Sprint - James Earl Jones

Printed From: Commercials I Hate!
Category: Commercials You Hate!
Forum Name: Television / Streaming Ads
Forum Description: You hate them. Tell us why.
URL: http://www.commercialsihate.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=16878
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 1:53pm
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Topic: Sprint - James Earl Jones
Posted By: Puppydogpants
Subject: Sprint - James Earl Jones
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 9:22pm
Ok, I don't necessarily hate this commercial. I just don't get it. What is the deal with the look on James Earl Jones' face when the guy says "You and Greg are now friends"?

Is the girl in this scenario supposed to be his daughter and he doesn't want his daughter talking to boys? Umm, for one thing, he is waaaay to old to have a daughter that he would be that protective over when it comes to talking to boys. Am I missing something? 



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I don't patronize bunny rabbits!



Replies:
Posted By: aka ron
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 9:31pm
Who's the other guy? Is that Bill Murray?  I think its funny.


Posted By: Puppydogpants
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 9:54pm
^It's Malcolm McDowell of "A Clockwork Orange" fame.

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I don't patronize bunny rabbits!


Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 10:07pm
 
I don't get it.
 
 


Posted By: PaWolf
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 10:43pm
Pretty much reminds me of a rip-off of James Lipton's 'Inside The Actors Studio'
~~~
(now - for all the 'stuffed shirts' out there: for '5 PaWPoints', who can tell me what 'Socail Service' helped hone Lipton's skills with others?LOL


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X               <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike


Posted By: Crackicus
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 10:47pm
James Earl Jones is all like "I don't get paid enough for this sh*t."


Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 11:40pm
Originally posted by PaWolf PaWolf wrote:

Pretty much reminds me of a rip-off of James Lipton's 'Inside The Actors Studio'
~~~
(now - for all the 'stuffed shirts' out there: for '5 PaWPoints', who can tell me what 'Socail Service' helped hone Lipton's skills with others?LOL
 
I think he was a pimp or something.  Maybe in France.
 
 


Posted By: PaWolf
Date Posted: 06 Nov 2013 at 11:49pm
Originally posted by Thor Thor wrote:

Originally posted by PaWolf PaWolf wrote:

Pretty much reminds me of a rip-off of James Lipton's 'Inside The Actors Studio'
~~~
(now - for all the 'stuffed shirts' out there: for '5 PaWPoints', who can tell me what 'Socail Service' helped hone Lipton's skills with others?LOL
 
I think he was a pimp or something.  Maybe in France.
 
 
LOLBINGO!

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X               <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike


Posted By: caroln242
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2013 at 1:46am
I don't care if I don't totally get it...it's James Earl Jones, folks! I love that guy!


Posted By: MrTim
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2013 at 4:42am
Pretty sure the other guy is Malcom McDowell.  For some reason I keep expecting Christopher Walken to show up, then they all pull guns out and start shooting....  LOL

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http://mrtim1k.blogspot.com/ - WKRP closing theme lyrics HERE!


Posted By: DKS
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2013 at 6:11am
Originally posted by Puppydogpants Puppydogpants wrote:

Ok, I don't necessarily hate this commercial. I just don't get it. What is the deal with the look on James Earl Jones' face when the guy says "You and Greg are now friends"?


You heard wrong, mate and you're missing a lot. McDowell says "Greg has sent you a friend request" and Jones gives the look...he never says "You and Greg are now friends", and Jones is certainly not playing anyone's father.

The bit that they are acting out is "Jenna's Facebook page".  McDowell and Jones are essentially playing Facebook. When McDowell says "so and so sends you a friends request, it's a melodramatic "acting out" of Facebook's notification system(Facebook notifies you, albeit less enthusiastically when you get a friends request), so then Jones is playing "Jenna's facebook" by accepting the friends requests. Then "Greg" sends a friends request, and apparently, "Greg" is not someone Jenna likes.


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"I see the sadness in their eyes
Melancholy in their cries
Devoid of all the passion
The human spirit cannot die"


Posted By: NubianP6
Date Posted: 11 Nov 2013 at 2:46pm
THANK YOU DKS for explaining that, because I was actually going to create a login simply to say exactly what you have already succeeded in explaining! Neither James Earl Jones, nor the other gentleman are acting as Jenna's dad, nor are they acting as "people" at all...they are acting as Facebook, and J.E.J.'s lack of a response, i.e., "the face" indicates that Jenna has not confirmed Greg as a friend...and judging by the look he gave in response to the request, nor does she intend to. Lol! Quite a simple, yet clever commercial IMO!


Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 11 Nov 2013 at 3:42pm
 
^  I guess I'd have to be familiar with the ins and outs of Facebook to have gotten that.  I don't have Facebook nor do I plan on ever having such a thing, so it's lost on me.  Of course then, I wouldn't be their target for such a commercial.
 
The whole idea of accepting or not accepting people who want to be my "friend" seems really odd to me.  It smacks of high school cliques.
 
 


Posted By: insanity213
Date Posted: 11 Nov 2013 at 4:12pm
I hate the whole "Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter" that corporations & network outlets constantly throw out there.  It almost sounds like they're promoting stalking.




Posted By: strifeknot
Date Posted: 11 Nov 2013 at 5:09pm
I've never been on Facebook and was completely baffled by this commercial. At first, I though they were just reciting an IM or text conversation.

Knowing what it's about, it still doesn't seem effective. What a waste of two fine actors.


Posted By: 70s80s
Date Posted: 11 Nov 2013 at 5:36pm
I prefer to remember THIS James Earl Jones! 



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"Cottage cheese is not a 'feminine product'!"


Posted By: DKS
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2013 at 6:29am
Originally posted by Thor Thor wrote:


The whole idea of accepting or not accepting people who want to be my "friend" seems really odd to me.  It smacks of high school cliques.


Has nothing to do with "high school cliques". It's not uncommon to get friends requests from total strangers-some of them are just trying to get as many "friends" as possible(no, I don't know why either), others are glorified spam, and some are totally random..one of my Aussie friends routinely gets friends requests from Turkey(often in Turkish), even though she's not of Turkish descent, has never been to Turkey, knows nobody from Turkey, and doesn't speak a word of Turkish, and she has no idea why. I got a friends request once from a dude in California, who was REALLY into skateboarding. I didn't know the guy, had never met him in my life, my interest in skateboarding is roughly equal to my interest in staring at the wall, and after looking at his page, he seemed to have no common interests with me. He watched different TV shows than me, listened to different music, wasn't into blades or firearms like I am...to this day I don't know how he wound up at my Facebook page much less why he wanted to add me as a friend.


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"I see the sadness in their eyes
Melancholy in their cries
Devoid of all the passion
The human spirit cannot die"


Posted By: Puppydogpants
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2013 at 6:58am
Thank you for explaining this ad. Because it totally went over my head.

However, I still think it makes no sense. 


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I don't patronize bunny rabbits!


Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2013 at 3:02pm
Originally posted by DKS DKS wrote:

Originally posted by Thor Thor wrote:


The whole idea of accepting or not accepting people who want to be my "friend" seems really odd to me.  It smacks of high school cliques.


Has nothing to do with "high school cliques". It's not uncommon to get friends requests from total strangers-some of them are just trying to get as many "friends" as possible(no, I don't know why either), others are glorified spam, and some are totally random..one of my Aussie friends routinely gets friends requests from Turkey(often in Turkish), even though she's not of Turkish descent, has never been to Turkey, knows nobody from Turkey, and doesn't speak a word of Turkish, and she has no idea why. I got a friends request once from a dude in California, who was REALLY into skateboarding. I didn't know the guy, had never met him in my life, my interest in skateboarding is roughly equal to my interest in staring at the wall, and after looking at his page, he seemed to have no common interests with me. He watched different TV shows than me, listened to different music, wasn't into blades or firearms like I am...to this day I don't know how he wound up at my Facebook page much less why he wanted to add me as a friend.
 
I understand that a lot of Facebook "friends" are people that you don't even know.  But if you want to limit your "friends" to people you know, and then you start accepting or rejecting certain ones because they fall in or out of favor or because you just don't want them, it seems cliquish to me.  If someone from my past who I was never friends with, suddenly wanted to befriend me on Facebook, I'd have to actually decide to reject them or ignore them or "unfriend" them, or perhaps welcome them into my world.  Or they, me.  It seems a bit high-schoolish to me.
 
I have people in my past who I don't necessarily dislike, but who I just don't feel compelled to get back in touch with.  I'd rather just leave it at that than have to let them know I want no contact with them.
 
Social networking just reems rife with social problems to me.  Facebook just seems like a bucket of worms. 
 
 
 


Posted By: Puppydogpants
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2013 at 4:14pm
^I tend to agree with this. It kind of reminds me of the days of Myspace where people would "rank" their friends in order for everyone to see. It always ended with hurt feelings. "You like Joey better than me? Why is he before me on your top friends?" It doesn't get anymore Jr. High than that. At least Facebook doesn't have that feature (I don't think).

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I don't patronize bunny rabbits!


Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2013 at 4:31pm
Originally posted by Puppydogpants Puppydogpants wrote:

^I tend to agree with this. It kind of reminds me of the days of Myspace where people would "rank" their friends in order for everyone to see. It always ended with hurt feelings. "You like Joey better than me? Why is he before me on your top friends?" It doesn't get anymore Jr. High than that. At least Facebook doesn't have that feature (I don't think).
 
It's actually even played a big part in the possible dissolution of my brother's 18-year marriage (they're working on it).  Without getting into details, it involved old boyfriends and secret Facebook accounts.
 
 


Posted By: SJames
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2013 at 8:18pm
Originally posted by DKS DKS wrote:

The bit that they are acting out is "Jenna's Facebook page".  McDowell and Jones are essentially playing Facebook. When McDowell says "so and so sends you a friends request, it's a melodramatic "acting out" of Facebook's notification system(Facebook notifies you, albeit less enthusiastically when you get a friends request), so then Jones is playing "Jenna's facebook" by accepting the friends requests. Then "Greg" sends a friends request, and apparently, "Greg" is not someone Jenna likes.

"Yeah, Greg can stick that friend request." is what I got from it the first time I saw it, and I don't have Facebook, or get the appeal of it. I just see way too much of the drama and damage that gets caused by it. 


Posted By: DKS
Date Posted: 13 Nov 2013 at 6:52am
Originally posted by Thor Thor wrote:


I understand that a lot of Facebook "friends" are people that you don't even know.  But if you want to limit your "friends" to people you know, and then you start accepting or rejecting certain ones because they fall in or out of favor or because you just don't want them, it seems cliquish to me.

To me it seems no different than ignoring a phone call from a coworker/friend/family member that you don't feel like talking to, which adults have been doing as long as caller ID has existed.


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"I see the sadness in their eyes
Melancholy in their cries
Devoid of all the passion
The human spirit cannot die"


Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 13 Nov 2013 at 2:46pm
^  That's different.  With a phone call, there's always the possibility that you didn't answer their call because you weren't home (at least the caller can think that), so it's not such an obvious rejection.  With a Facebook account, it's not so likely that you never look at it---especially among younger users.
 
Also, while caller ID has been around awhile, phones with caller ID readout have not---or at least they haven't been the norm for that many years.
 
I'd say that a more realistic equivalence would be hanging right up on the person when you answer their call and realize who it is.  Unless it's a solicitor, most people wouldn't do that.  It's too uncivil.  I can't imagine some old acquaintance from high school calling me, and me hanging right up when I find out who it is.
 
I don't think Facebook is the end of the world; I just think it's created some new weird realm of social interaction for people to have to learn to navigate.  And that's created some weird new problems---for instance, married women "friending" old boyfriends.
 
 


Posted By: DKS
Date Posted: 14 Nov 2013 at 7:15am
Originally posted by Thor Thor wrote:

^  That's different.  With a phone call, there's always the possibility that you didn't answer their call because you weren't home (at least the caller can think that), so it's not such an obvious rejection.  With a Facebook account, it's not so likely that you never look at it---especially among younger users. 

I know a lot of people actually who use FB regularly but don't check their notifications nearly as often. So you can send them a friend request, or comment on their wall, or whatever, and they may not see it till a week later.


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"I see the sadness in their eyes
Melancholy in their cries
Devoid of all the passion
The human spirit cannot die"


Posted By: Tech
Date Posted: 14 Nov 2013 at 11:46pm
Originally posted by lkl005 lkl005 wrote:

Who's the other guy? Is that Bill Murray?  I think its funny.


Bill Murray? WTF?


Posted By: Jimmy
Date Posted: 24 Nov 2013 at 3:33am
Originally posted by Puppydogpants Puppydogpants wrote:

^It's Malcolm McDowell of "A Clockwork Orange" fame.


Good ole Malcolm!

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One man gathers what another man spills


Posted By: PaWolf
Date Posted: 24 Nov 2013 at 3:44am
Originally posted by Jimmy Jimmy wrote:

Originally posted by Puppydogpants Puppydogpants wrote:

^It's Malcolm McDowell of "A Clockwork Orange" fame.


Good ole Malcolm!
(Big smileHey Chef! Long time! Hope this finds You and Yours at only the very best - Happy Holidays!)
 
I WAS going to say, "Thats's SIR Malcolm, to YOU, Sir!"...but then I realized he, along with Albert Finney, actually turned down 'Knighthood'....no matter - changes NOTHING. The man is incredible.


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X               <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike


Posted By: d4everman
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2013 at 7:06pm
Originally posted by DKS DKS wrote:


Originally posted by Thor Thor wrote:



The whole idea of accepting or not accepting people who want to be my "friend" seems really odd to me.  It smacks of high school cliques.




Has nothing to do with "high school cliques". It's not uncommon to get friends requests from total strangers-some of them are just trying to get as many "friends" as possible(no, I don't know why either), others are glorified spam, and some are totally random..one of my Aussie friends routinely gets friends requests from Turkey(often in Turkish), even though she's not of Turkish descent, has never been to Turkey, knows nobody from Turkey, and doesn't speak a word of Turkish, and she has no idea why. I got a friends request once from a dude in California, who was REALLY into skateboarding. I didn't know the guy, had never met him in my life, my interest in skateboarding is roughly equal to my interest in staring at the wall, and after looking at his page, he seemed to have no common interests with me. He watched different TV shows than me, listened to different music, wasn't into blades or firearms like I am...to this day I don't know how he wound up at my Facebook page much less why he wanted to add me as a friend.


Sometimes you get friends requests from people you don't know because they know someone else you are friends with.

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished


Posted By: Papa Lazarou
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2013 at 8:09pm

I wish there were some way to make it so that people who send you a friend request HAVE to send you  a message, saying who they are and why you should add them.



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Banana!
BANANA!!
BANANA!!!
BANANA!!
Banana!


Posted By: DKS
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2013 at 7:03am
Originally posted by d4everman d4everman wrote:


Sometimes you get friends requests from people you don't know because they know someone else you are friends with.

Yeah, those I understand, BUT, those people's pages will also say something like "1 Mutual Friend" or "3 Mutual Friends" and tell you who you know that are friends with them. I'm talking friends requests from people you do not know, and who have NO mutual friends with you. I get those semi-regularly.


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"I see the sadness in their eyes
Melancholy in their cries
Devoid of all the passion
The human spirit cannot die"


Posted By: tommydkat
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2013 at 2:32am
The reason he is saying nothing is because Stephanie is not responding to Greg's friend request.
Watch it again, Stephanie is getting friend requests from all female friends.
So… Either she does not like Greg and does not want to Deny the friendship (for fear of hurting his feelings).  Or some other reason.

James Earl Jones is just silent because the Facebook activity fell silent.

Pay attention to the title of the commercial.  "Today we honor Stephanie's Facebook activity"
Excellent banter.


Posted By: MrCleveland
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2013 at 4:39pm
I actually like the James Earl Jones and Malcom McDowell Sprint commercial.
 
Have these two acted together in real life? I heard they were both in Stanley Krubick films "Dr. Srangelove" and "Clockwork Orange" respectively.


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Thank God for kids who love Obscure Things.

Lee Hazelwood (1929-2007)


Posted By: Moochamoocha
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2013 at 8:01pm
I thought James Earl Jones fell silent because he realized how stupid this whole thing is and refused to take part in it anymore.

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http://www.sloganizer.net/en/" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2013 at 8:14pm

Originally posted by MrCleveland MrCleveland wrote:

I actually like the James Earl Jones and Malcom McDowell Sprint commercial.
 
Have these two acted together in real life? I heard they were both in Stanley Krubick films "Dr. Srangelove" and "Clockwork Orange" respectively.

There used to be a way to go into IMDB under a particular actor's name, then type in the name of another actor, and come up with the stuff they've done together.  I haven't seen it there in awhile.  It might still be somewhere in IMDB, but who knows where?  I'm not inclined to go searching their site.




Posted By: Papa Lazarou
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2013 at 8:25pm
I like the one about the tickets and that brilliant "You made me this way"

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Banana!
BANANA!!
BANANA!!!
BANANA!!
Banana!


Posted By: sgtrock21
Date Posted: 07 Dec 2013 at 8:31pm
Originally posted by MrCleveland MrCleveland wrote:

I actually like the James Earl Jones and Malcom McDowell Sprint commercial.
 
Have these two acted together in real life? I heard they were both in Stanley Krubick films "Dr. Srangelove" and "Clockwork Orange" respectively.

 

I don't know if they have ever worked together in a film. Dr. Strangelove (1964) was James Earl Jones' first film. A Clockwork Orange (1971) was Malcolm McDowell's fifth. 



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EEEEts All so REEEdEEEculous


Posted By: PaWolf
Date Posted: 07 Dec 2013 at 9:20pm
As much as I enjoy and respect those two, there cannot be a bad commercial made - whenever they come on, I have to admit, I 'stop, drop, and watch'.

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X               <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike


Posted By: sgtrock21
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2013 at 1:02am
Originally posted by PaWolf PaWolf wrote:

As much as I enjoy and respect those two, there cannot be a bad commercial made - whenever they come on, I have to admit, I 'stop, drop, and watch'
 
 
I have to agree. Dr. Strangelove is my alltime favorite film. So many great actors brought together for a very contemporary subject. I suffered the kneeling under your desk or nose to tail in the hallway "kiss your a** goodbye drills through elementary school. I don't know if you did the same thing in Europe. I can't believe the performance of all actors in the film. Especially Peter Sellers in his triple role. One of my duties as a military and civilian military support technician was aviation survival training. I used a clip of Slim Pickens inventory of his bomber crews survival kit as comic relief for my much more serious training ("Shoot! a feller could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all this")! Stanley Kubrick was a cinematic genius. I hope there are more of the same in our future. A Clockwork Orange is well wthin my top 10 favorites. I hope Jimmy reads this.  

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EEEEts All so REEEdEEEculous



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