"It's driving me crazy" says mefioso to Ask Metafilter, "There's these new South Park commercials on Comedy Central that's a take on some interstitial, show intro, or commercial from my childhood (born in '76). It's the quasi-pinball roller coaster ad, where the silver ball goes by and flips up 3 flags. What are these ads a parody of?" The answer is still blowing in the wind, as no one has solved the mystery though everyone is having a jolly good time walking down memory lane. Do you recognize this south park ad? Is it a homage and if so, of what?
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My adgrunt status is currently "unspectacular" (a far cry from super) and I cannot see the video, but from just the clip I would say that it's a parody of a little clip that was shown on the PBS show, 3-2-1 contact. A red ball was released at the top, and it rolled along, knocking down flags and starting a ferris wheel type thing in motion, etc. Sort of a Rube Goldberg roller coaster. i think at the end a cherry was put onto a sundae or something. (or maybe I am just confusing that with the red ball).
Also on 3-2-1 contact were the bloodhound gang (whenever there's trouble, we're there on the double!), spiderman, and a thing where when people would talk, typography would fly out of their mouths. (possibly involving spiderman).
Now you can finally go to sleep.
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PermalinkNoah, methinks you're getting your 3-2-1 Contact confused with your Electric Company (Hey you guuuuuuuuyyyyyssss!!!!!)
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PermalinkOh yeah maybe so, they came on one after the other.
I found a video of the intro to 3-2-1 contact but it didn't have this clip. They also have electric company:
http://www.80stvthemes.com/
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PermalinkCan't view the video either, but it sounds to me like a segment that used to appear on Sesame Street, which also featured a pinball. It definitely ran on Sesame Street and not on Electric Company--the pinball also flipped up flags with numbers and stuff on them, and seemed to be educational for learning how to count, etc.
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PermalinkIt reminds me a little of an older version of the Pressman/Ideal/Parker Brothers/Hasbro game 'MouseTrap'. I'm pretty sure the version in the 70's had pop-up flags. Here's the URL for the present version.
http://www.hasbro.com/games/pl/page.viewproduct/product_id.9461/dn/defau...
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PermalinkI don't know about 3-2-1 Contact, but the red ball maze with the ice cream sundae first appeared on Sesame Street, one of the pioneering shows on PBS.
What a comfort to me it is that the creative forces behind South Park's house ads have the same cultural touchpoints as me.
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PermalinkWasn't it a Sesame Street deal? A counting exercise where the ball would trigger numbers?
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Permalinkit's modeled after a sesame street clip intended to help kiddies with numbers, specifically the counting of them.
a compliation containing the clip lives here:
http://www.boredguru.com/shop/page_us_6302276063_134_126.html
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PermalinkHehe, even in that ask metafilter thread that you link to people suggest it's both 3-2-1 contact and sesame street. In any case, we all remember those flags.
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PermalinkWish I caught this earlier. I worked on the spot.
Its definitely Sesame Street. Its on a sesame street dvd "Learning About Numbers".
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Permalinkaha! Thanks for solving the mystery for us eucho. You had a lot of people scratching their heads. ;)
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