Jimmy Johns Thinks I'm Too Serious

Two posts below, on May 15, I went on a mini-rant about the Jimmy Johns commercial depicting hostages calling for Jimmy Johns sandwiches, while cowering under furniture in what turns out to be a bank, not a school, and vowed to eat no more Jimmy Johns. Now, some anonymous commenter from Los Angeles, who was involved in making the commercial, takes me to task for taking myself too seriously, saying the commercial is meant to be funny. Here's the comment:

"This was in fact a bank robbery situation, and I know first hand as I was involved in the making of this commercial. It is meant to be humorous, and I believe it achieved that. Now you can either laugh at this commercial and make your day much better, or you can choose to take yourself way too seriously and add years of stress on to your life for worrying about things like this.

7:13 PM, May 29, 2009"

I'll leave it up to regular readers to decide whether I take myself too seriously or not. What I'm interested in is whether people think the intention to make something humorous and the author's subjective belief that it, indeed, is funny, is sufficient to label any critics sour pusses who add years of stress to their lives (another interesting question: which is better to add years of stress to your life or live a shorter life? I think the Anonymous commenter meant that I will shorten my life because of the stress, not add to it, but precision in communication is not Mr. Anonymous's strong point, as you will see if you watch the commercial.) I guess Mr. Anonymous's point is that everything is fair game, as long as the author intends it to be funny. So, what commercials is Mr. Anonymous working on next? Starving children in Africa finding a cell phone in the sand and using it to call for a Jimmy Johns delivery? Airplane hijackers diverting their crash into the World Trade Center at the last minute because they want to finish their Jimmy Johns sandwiches before going to Paradise?

I'm sorry, I don't believe my only choice is to laugh at the commercial and make my day better or lengthen (actually shorten) my life by taking myself too seriously. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to continue not taking myself too seriously and laughing at myself. I'm also going to continue to be outraged at stupid commercials that are not funny, no matter what the inarticulate authors of it intended. And, I'm still not going to eat Jimmy Johns sandwiches. Ever. Again.

JACK Report: Playing This Weekend in Chicago and New York

If you're in the Chicago area, you can catch the JACK Quartet Saturday night at The Music Institute of Chicago. The Wife and I are going up, hoping to catch a glimpse and a word or two, maybe even a meal with Son Number Two. Sunday night, the Quartet is back in New York City, playing at (Le) Poisson Rouge, opening for The Respect Sextet.

No More Jimmy Johns

I don't watch much television, so I am probably naive about what is considered acceptable these days. Last night, the commercial for Jimmy Johns sandwiches shown on our local NBC station during The Office shocked me as I haven't been shocked for a long time. It depicts a Columbine school massacre with masked terrorists shooting up a school as children and teachers scream and try to hide. While cowering under a desk, a teacher pulls out a cell phone and calls for a sandwich delivery from Jimmy Johns. The delivery boy shows up, and the terrorist rips off his ski mask and says, "Who ordered Jimmy Johns?"

Is nothing over the limit these days? What's next, an ad for shampoo that keeps hair looking gorgeous through a 9/11 disaster? A spot remover that can take the blood and brains off Jackie Kennedy's jacket?

Since the Supreme Court's ridiculous decision giving First Amendment free speech rights to corporations, such despicable advertising is legal and cannot be made illegal. But there is no law that says I have to eat Jimmy Johns sandwiches, ever again. And I won't. Here's the ad, if you have a strong stomach:

JACK Report: The DVD is Out

Mode Records on Monday released JACK Quartet's first album. I haven't heard it yet because I have been promised a free copy by Son Number Two. You can buy directly from the record company for $14.99 for the CD; $19.99 for the DVD. You can get it from Amazon for as low as $16.74 plus $3.00 shipping. Or, you can order it from Netflix. I have to warn you though, that this is not easy listening music.