So I was watching German MTV this morning and really enjoying not understanding much of the blah blah blah between the "25 Years of MTV" celebration, when a commercial for a German ringtone company came on. Now these things are hugely popular in Germany and for one VeriSign-owned company in particular, Jamba, a single ringtone made them millions of dollars and gave it a widely-recognizeable European mascot with the controversial genitalia: Crazy Frog. Now the order-a-ringtone-by-SMS craze in Europe is still a big thing and you're constantly bombarded with infomercials during late night cable TV. Combine all the Billy Blanks and Christie Brinkley / Chuck Norris spots, add all of the Magic Bullet and Ginsu knives infomercials, and you have about the volume of SMS ads late at night.
Well, it was nothing all that odd to me. What WAS odd was the fact they were advertising a ringtone called, and I shit you not, "Crazy Arab". The "Crazy Arab" ringtone consists of a man yelling gibberish, apparently cracking fun at the nearly incomprehensible verbal patterns. Now at any other point in time of my life I may have considered that a bit amusing, but my prudish American sensibilities were abit taken aback. To validate my disbelief, I flipped up 10 channels to CNN International to see Hezbollah rockets fired into Haifa while Israeli ground incursions were happening. There are some people, I will admit, who proclaim themselves to be a "crazy arab" like examples of this on MySpace and YouTube. And although I'm thoroughly amused at the YouTube rendition of Fast and the Furious: Dubai Drift, I find it hard to believe that today's Arab youths want to self-identify with the phrase.
Want to download the ringtone and offend your friends? Website is here .
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