MajorMike
10-31-2007, 08:20 AM
He's a man ... he's 40 ... and now he's known nationwide
By Berry Tramel
Staff Writer
Mike Holder sat down in front of his TV a couple of weeks back, and on came the Fowler Toyota commercial that spoofs Mike Gundy's tirade.
Holder, one of the more stoic people God ever made, says he almost fell out of his chair. Laughing.
"Pretty funny,” said Oklahoma State's athletic director. "People are ingenious.”
The Gundy tirade, delivered Sept. 23 at Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson over a piece she wrote about State quarterback Bobby Reid, has migrated to parody.
No longer does the Gundy rant incite discussions about the treatment of college athletes and Gundy's defense of his player. No longer does the rant send OSU fans spilling into the streets, celebrating their coach's dressing down of a villainous scribe, or OSU public-relations personnel into executive session.
The rant has grown bigger than all that. It has risen to the level of national pop culture.
"Nothing is local anymore,” said Brent Gooden, president of the Gooden Group, a PR firm that handles some OSU public relations. "It is all global, and it is instant.
"Information travels at the speed of thought in the digital age. It didn't take long for the video to launch skyward into the digital sphere. The YouTube effect kicked in immediately, and sharp, creative types started to work in the middle of the night on some pretty clever parodies.”
Car commercials. Radio lampoons. More Internet knockoffs than you can possibly watch in one day. All that's missing is Saturday Night Live, the king of spoofs, and don't laugh. It could be coming.
"I thought they were all funny,” said OSU offensive coordinator Larry Fedora, whose 15-year-old son showed the old man all the Gundy farces on the World Wide Web. "Amazing that people have that much time on their hands.”
And that much time to watch. Some of the spoofs have hundreds of thousands of views each.
The Internet caricatures, representing the new media, are mostly amateurish. Not so the Fowler Toyota commercial.
Chad Stevens, who runs Skyline Media Group, has parodied the Mathis brothers and weathermen, among others, in pushing Toyotas, but his Gundy send-up was his finest moment.
"We got a lot of mileage out of that one,” Stevens admitted.
With an orange backdrop that mimics OSU's press conference setting, except substituting Fowler Toyota for the OSU logo, Stevens delivered his condensed, 30-second spiel with dead-on mannerisms of Gundy's famous harangue.
Holding up a newspaper, Stevens declared, "I'm not going to talk about football. I'm going to talk about this advertisement on new Toyotas. This was brought to me by a concerned customer.
"They have Tundras, $3,000 off. That's garbage! And the person who put it in here is garbage!
"Fowler Toyota has Tundras $6,000 off, or 0 percent for 60 months! Are you kidding? Buy from me! I'm a man! I'm 40!
"That's all I've got to say. These other dealers make me want to puke.”
The parody has been shown on CNN, ESPN, Fox News and the NFL Network. Stevens has been interviewed by outlets as prestigious as the New York Times and from as far away as the United Kingdom.
Stevens' Gundy rendition was so good, he scared off some fellow fun-seekers. Bob Eskridge, a clinical oncology specialist for Genentech, a biotechnology company, has a Halloween tradition of dressing up and going around entertaining his clients, who mostly are cancer doctors and patients.
In the past, Eskridge has been Howard Schnellenberger and an Oregon referee, among others. This year, Eskridge hatched the idea of being Mike Gundy on a rant.
"I'm a die-hard OSU fan, but you gotta be able to laugh at yourself every now and then,” Eskridge said. Alas, the Fowler commercial made Eskridge changed his mind. "Chad Stevens, I would never match up to his impersonation,” Eskridge said.
Instead, he will go as the ghost of Howard Cosell.
The Fowler commercials ran a little less than three weeks.
"Got a little bit of negative reaction,” said Fowler general manager Rick Burgess. "Most of the reaction was positive.”
Burgess said car commercials have to be innovative, "long enough to make people look at an old car ad. We try not to offend anybody.”
Stevens said he didn't even come up with the idea. An OSU fan in his office bears credit.
Gundy says he hasn't seen any of the spoofs but his wife has. "She likes it,” Gundy said. What does she like about it? "I don't know,” he said. "I didn't ask her.”
The Cowboy players have had a high time with the Internet parodies.
"We get together and look it up,” said flanker Tommy Devereaux. "Laugh about it. It's funny. It's a good time.”
Offensive lineman Russell Okung said the whole team watches and they've even discovered non-rant Gundy spoofs, including one about hair gel.
"I was thinking his hair was a little too spiky,” Okung said with a grin. "I guess everybody feels that way.”
Kicker Jason Ricks said he was stunned to wake up to ESPN the week after the rant and hear his coach being discussed. But no more stunned than by a friend who printed up "I'm a man! I'm 40!” T-shirts and turned a tidy profit.
Teammate Seth Newton wore one of the shirts into the OSU weight room and was spotted by Gundy, who turned out to be a good sport. "Hey, man, I like your shirt,” Gundy said.
And Holder admits he wishes Gundy hadn't blown his top at the Sept. 23 press conference.
"Do I defend his right to defend his players? Absolutely,” Holder said. "In retrospect, that's really not the way you want to present yourself. Better for a leader to stay calm.
"For the general public, it was refreshing. It's very popular to show emotion. People love that. But it's not what you want to see from your leader long-term.”
Yet the results ended up being unmistakably positive for OSU. Gundy rallied his fan base and raised his national identity. People all over America who never had heard of Mike Gundy have heard of him now. Some are high school football players who might just take a call from the suddenly famous guy lampooned on the Internet.
By Berry Tramel
Staff Writer
Mike Holder sat down in front of his TV a couple of weeks back, and on came the Fowler Toyota commercial that spoofs Mike Gundy's tirade.
Holder, one of the more stoic people God ever made, says he almost fell out of his chair. Laughing.
"Pretty funny,” said Oklahoma State's athletic director. "People are ingenious.”
The Gundy tirade, delivered Sept. 23 at Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson over a piece she wrote about State quarterback Bobby Reid, has migrated to parody.
No longer does the Gundy rant incite discussions about the treatment of college athletes and Gundy's defense of his player. No longer does the rant send OSU fans spilling into the streets, celebrating their coach's dressing down of a villainous scribe, or OSU public-relations personnel into executive session.
The rant has grown bigger than all that. It has risen to the level of national pop culture.
"Nothing is local anymore,” said Brent Gooden, president of the Gooden Group, a PR firm that handles some OSU public relations. "It is all global, and it is instant.
"Information travels at the speed of thought in the digital age. It didn't take long for the video to launch skyward into the digital sphere. The YouTube effect kicked in immediately, and sharp, creative types started to work in the middle of the night on some pretty clever parodies.”
Car commercials. Radio lampoons. More Internet knockoffs than you can possibly watch in one day. All that's missing is Saturday Night Live, the king of spoofs, and don't laugh. It could be coming.
"I thought they were all funny,” said OSU offensive coordinator Larry Fedora, whose 15-year-old son showed the old man all the Gundy farces on the World Wide Web. "Amazing that people have that much time on their hands.”
And that much time to watch. Some of the spoofs have hundreds of thousands of views each.
The Internet caricatures, representing the new media, are mostly amateurish. Not so the Fowler Toyota commercial.
Chad Stevens, who runs Skyline Media Group, has parodied the Mathis brothers and weathermen, among others, in pushing Toyotas, but his Gundy send-up was his finest moment.
"We got a lot of mileage out of that one,” Stevens admitted.
With an orange backdrop that mimics OSU's press conference setting, except substituting Fowler Toyota for the OSU logo, Stevens delivered his condensed, 30-second spiel with dead-on mannerisms of Gundy's famous harangue.
Holding up a newspaper, Stevens declared, "I'm not going to talk about football. I'm going to talk about this advertisement on new Toyotas. This was brought to me by a concerned customer.
"They have Tundras, $3,000 off. That's garbage! And the person who put it in here is garbage!
"Fowler Toyota has Tundras $6,000 off, or 0 percent for 60 months! Are you kidding? Buy from me! I'm a man! I'm 40!
"That's all I've got to say. These other dealers make me want to puke.”
The parody has been shown on CNN, ESPN, Fox News and the NFL Network. Stevens has been interviewed by outlets as prestigious as the New York Times and from as far away as the United Kingdom.
Stevens' Gundy rendition was so good, he scared off some fellow fun-seekers. Bob Eskridge, a clinical oncology specialist for Genentech, a biotechnology company, has a Halloween tradition of dressing up and going around entertaining his clients, who mostly are cancer doctors and patients.
In the past, Eskridge has been Howard Schnellenberger and an Oregon referee, among others. This year, Eskridge hatched the idea of being Mike Gundy on a rant.
"I'm a die-hard OSU fan, but you gotta be able to laugh at yourself every now and then,” Eskridge said. Alas, the Fowler commercial made Eskridge changed his mind. "Chad Stevens, I would never match up to his impersonation,” Eskridge said.
Instead, he will go as the ghost of Howard Cosell.
The Fowler commercials ran a little less than three weeks.
"Got a little bit of negative reaction,” said Fowler general manager Rick Burgess. "Most of the reaction was positive.”
Burgess said car commercials have to be innovative, "long enough to make people look at an old car ad. We try not to offend anybody.”
Stevens said he didn't even come up with the idea. An OSU fan in his office bears credit.
Gundy says he hasn't seen any of the spoofs but his wife has. "She likes it,” Gundy said. What does she like about it? "I don't know,” he said. "I didn't ask her.”
The Cowboy players have had a high time with the Internet parodies.
"We get together and look it up,” said flanker Tommy Devereaux. "Laugh about it. It's funny. It's a good time.”
Offensive lineman Russell Okung said the whole team watches and they've even discovered non-rant Gundy spoofs, including one about hair gel.
"I was thinking his hair was a little too spiky,” Okung said with a grin. "I guess everybody feels that way.”
Kicker Jason Ricks said he was stunned to wake up to ESPN the week after the rant and hear his coach being discussed. But no more stunned than by a friend who printed up "I'm a man! I'm 40!” T-shirts and turned a tidy profit.
Teammate Seth Newton wore one of the shirts into the OSU weight room and was spotted by Gundy, who turned out to be a good sport. "Hey, man, I like your shirt,” Gundy said.
And Holder admits he wishes Gundy hadn't blown his top at the Sept. 23 press conference.
"Do I defend his right to defend his players? Absolutely,” Holder said. "In retrospect, that's really not the way you want to present yourself. Better for a leader to stay calm.
"For the general public, it was refreshing. It's very popular to show emotion. People love that. But it's not what you want to see from your leader long-term.”
Yet the results ended up being unmistakably positive for OSU. Gundy rallied his fan base and raised his national identity. People all over America who never had heard of Mike Gundy have heard of him now. Some are high school football players who might just take a call from the suddenly famous guy lampooned on the Internet.