Friday, June 6, 2008

Can someone explain Will Ferrell's strange power over Flint Expatriate readers?



Long-time readers know that I've shamelessly tried to get more hits for Flint Expatriates by employing saturation coverage of Semi-Pro, Will Ferrell's disappointing comedy that's supposed to be about Flint but really isn't. I promoted Semi-Pro t-shirts. I labored to somehow link the movie with free-market economic theory. I covered my own attendance at the movie's San Francisco premiere — a sure sign of desperation. Then I gave away my Semi-Pro headband in a contest to a former Flintoid now living in Indiana. (Don, just trust me, it's perfectly acceptable to wear the headband to work.)

And yet, according to Google Analytics, which lets me know the key words that draw readers to the site, posts about this largely unfunny movie continue to be very popular. Even after Rocky, the bear that rassled Jackie Moon in the movie, killed his real-life trainer, some people just can't seem to get enough Semi-Pro.

So who am I to deny the public what they want. Besides, these Semi-Pro commercials for Old Spice are a lot funnier than the actual movie.




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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.