January 26, 2004
They had a scream
Presidential candidate Howard Dean's on-stage scream (RealAudio | MP3) sounded strangely familiar last week, but I couldn't put my finger on it until someone else pointed out the striking similarity to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's own "yeaaaaaggggghhhh!" (RealAudio | MP3) at the end of his famous "Get on Your Feet" dance sequence -- better known on the Internet as the "monkey boy" incident -- a couple years back. (Hear the screams alone and back-to-back, for comparison, in this file: RealAudio | MP3.)
There are already a bunch of musical remixes of Dean's outburst, and there were tons of similar remixes and variations on the Ballmer episode (including this funny iPod advertising spoof). But I haven't yet seen anyone combine the two in one song. Seems a digital duet would definitely be in order.
Posted by Todd Bishop at January 26, 2004 10:50 AM
Another, non-tech industry similarity to Dean's ballroom scream comes to mind: That of Ensign Chekhov's ear-rending screams in various episodes of the original Star Trek series and movies. Unfortunately, I can't find a Web link to any of them, but they're quite memorable. Howard Dean's should only last so long in reruns.
This issue is so ignorant!
It just goes to show you that the big empire of the six or seven media companies DO INDEED NEED to be broken up.
