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Submitted by Mike K, lover of snarky voiceovers
Okay, so the kid is pretty annoying (no more annoying than the Dell guy though), but it doesn’t make these commercials any less iconic. I do think it’s funny that they try to pitch the Encyclopedia Britannica as something you’d sit down on your couch and read from cover to cover.
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Oh look… Another commercial…
yeah, got tired allready
Why do you do this?
No more boring than trying to do a report for school that had anything useful in it. E.C. was a waste! Now you can do better research with the “Net”!! And with more current information.
I doubt this is the first time this has been said, but, ScruffyKat, there actually was a time when there was no internet, at least not available to regular people. And, people who did even have computers in their home rarely ever had a modem. WAY BACK in the OLDEN DAYS people did all research by books, and it wasn’t but, what, 15 years ago?
And, gosh, I remember when cable television consisted of HBO and Showtime only, with no commercials ever.
Or what about NO Cable? Three channels, and the president is on—EVERY CHANNEL!!!! Jeff Foxworthy puts the right amount of panic in for a kids’ expression at this foul occurance.
Heck I volunteered at the library in the late 70’s early 80’s and I remember stamping inserts and the Card Catalog– now you only see them as scrap paper by library computer systems.
Sure, computerized databases are nice– and so is cable, and internet— but sometimes I wonder.
My mentored young adult was trying to make out a resume and kept asking me to spell things. I told him to use the dictionary. So he said he couldn’t find the file. I said its the big red book three inches from the mouse pad with “dictionary” written on the side. he said “Oh, I never thought of a book.”
Yeh but, when I was in school, not everybody had even a T.V. Still, if I turned in a report based on the encylopedia, I got a failing grade. the kids have it a lot easier with the internet today but I bet they still screw up a good report by not doing the research.
Scruffy, you’re right! Turning in reports or whatever based on encyclopedia ‘research’ stopped being acceptable at about middle school. Certainly by high school, encyclopedia research wasn’t an acceptable source by most of my teachers. Good point, I forgot about that.
Huh. I’m constantly astonished by how much TV I missed (and never missed) while in the Army in the late 80s.
I had a Funk & Wagnalls set that I actually DID read all the way through. Chronic insomnia is not fun. I sure did learn a lot, though…
Um, I read the encyclopedia (World Book) when I was a kid. Lots of interesting stuff in there.
No friends to Poupon your face.
I recently got a complete 1955 Encyclopaedia Britannica set (including the “book of the year” add ons through 1970) for $5 at a thrift store. As soon as I have enough time I plan to read it from cover to cover.
Get crackin’! I’ve got an equily old set and they are sooooo much fun to read. My internet was down and I was cravin’ some Wiki, got into the World Books instead. Seriously, look up stuff like Indians or Home Ec.
You both need a dictionary to go with your “Encyclopaedia” because that would be “equily” funny.
Fun fact!
That kid in the commercials is Stan Freberg’s (Dragonet)!!!
And Childcraft FTW!!!
Not only that, but he was originally cast to appear in Nirvana’s ‘In Bloom’ video as the MC!
And YES! Someone nominate Childcraft Annuals!
Really? I recognized Freeberg’s voice over, but didn’t know the kid was related to him.
Gosh, that 80’s hair cut!
John! Marsha!
Oh, yeah!! Forgot that was Stan Freberg’s voiceover, too!
Good ear, good ear!
That is indeed Donovan Freberg.
Ayup… Donovan Freberg, son of the legendary Stan Freberg, etc. etc. You all beat me to it.
Such is life.
Fun fact, the voice in the commercials is Stan Freberg. Nope, not making that up.
That commercial makes me hungry for Chun King for some reason…
Anyway, wouldn’t surprise me if Donovan is reading these comments and laughing. Hope you talk with your old man soon, D.
I used to read the encyclopedia for curiosity’s sake. Some of us have a natural love of learning.
Encyclopedias may seem a little dry or droll to most, but one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read was the two People’s Almanac books from the late 60s and mid 70’s. 1800 pages each, and I read them both cover to cover in a few months.
And I remember we got a Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia set in the late 70’s at the grocery store. First volume was like 29 cents and the rest were like $5 each. They’d release one volume per month. I was a young brat and don’t think I used them hardly ever.
I have my father’s old (1958) edition of Encyclopedia Americana. It’s fun to look for stuff that’s NOT in there… and countries that no longer exist… or old “facts” that have been disproven (Pluto as a planet, anyone?)…
I hate to admit it, but i was the kid that would actually read the Encyclopedia for fun…I was a really huge nerd when i was a kid…
Oh, yeah, I remember these commercials, but we had already read the World Book cover to cover, all the Childcraft’s (loved the ones towards the end of the set with all the stories of famous and historical people) AND done all the modules in that learning thingy they had with the big circles that had questions and the little paper circles you wrote your answers on….Cyclo-teacher?? dang, I’m old!!!!
I’ve been blasting about my past with the Childcraft volumes. The best, in my opinion, was Storytelling and Other Poems. See http://honey.delobi.us/2009/08/childcraft-volume-two/. The artwork and poetry was so great. Even if the 1961 edition was pretty much the same as the 1941 edition.
Remember when the internet didn’t have a bunch of info on it, and we had to use Encarta?
By cracky, I remember when the concept of a computer in a person’s house was pie-in-the-sky fantasy land. How the heck was I to know that I would have one of the first home-networks in my dinky little apartment three years before they did the “You might be a computer nerd… if your house has a network” joke?
BTW, does anybody still build their own computers anymore, or do all you young ‘uns buy premade things from Dell? (Not being snarky, actually curious. People ask me what kind of computer I have and I ask ‘What part?”)
Why yes I did. Its much more cost effective. Also I find it funny when people say “What computer do you have?” and I say “A Comrade Computer 2007″ Then I either get people asking what that is, or people pretending to know what it is, and saying “Yeah, I heard that’s a great brand.”
Yep, Kitty, I will never buy any namebrand computer again. It is so much more cost effective to have one built using just the components that you want. My first computer, I bought at FutureShop for $1700 in 1996, it was a Korean brand, TriGem. My second computer was hand built in late 1998, cost me about $400 altogether and I never looked back since.
If anything, I will buy a made system from a local computer shop that built it themselves. Still half as much and more powerful than any television-advertised brand.
Print Reference Materials– oh how wonderful! I still insist on a real dictionary by my computer.
And yes, kids DID read these thigns. At least I did. I would grab a volume down and read it just to read and learn for fun. I guess only old, geeky people remember this.
Yes, the internet CAN be a better tool now a days, but its an untrained tool and an unedited tool that fewer of the younger students know how to use or determine what sources might be legitimate and what might be biased or un proven.
Now that LOL talk is logged into my Google spell check, I insist that my 1948 Oxford World dictionary is next to me at all times. For newer words, I have a Webster’s Collegiate on my desk.
No wonder kids can’t spell worth sh**!
I do think it’s funny that they try to pitch the Encyclopedia Britannica as something you’d sit down on your couch and read from cover to cover.
You mean, you didn’t? Odd.
Actually, I DID try to read it cover to cover! Didn’t quite make it
My parents bought my sister and I the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannicas and the World Atlas and the yearly books that came with it. I remember getting the mail when I was little and seeing that big heavy book and being so excited to open it and see what was included about the year before. I think my mom donated them to our public library about 5 years ago; until then they had been on the bookshelf in the living room for ages.
I remember these ads. I always wanted to smack the snot out of that obnoxious kid when I saw them…
“read about the good old days”… the cold war was considered part of the good old days?
Ah, good old Encyclopedia Britannica. It’s like having the Internet, at home, sitting on your bookshelf.
I remember wanting an up to date, complete encyclopedia set as a kid. The only one we had was from 1960something & by the time I was using them, in the 70s & 80s they were severely outdated. I also think we were missing some letters or something like that. Or if I needed to check something out from 1968, we had the yearbook from 67 or 69.
I used to sit & just read random stuff from them too.
I loved reading the EB! I also loved the Childcraft books; good grief I read those so many times…I still have them! Loved picking out a volume and reading it at random. I don’t think I’ve picked up an encyclopedia for years…(though I catch myself paging through Wikipedia and TV Tropes a lot! not the same but my ‘information junkie’ ways started way back then)
But this kid? Oh heavens I remember him. Even back then I thought he was a ‘nerd’ XD (never mind I was just as nerdy as he was!!)
Man Petting a Squirrel
i was so in love with that guy when i was a little kid. i thought he was some cool smart kid who knew everything lol.
I Just tried to call the number….the lady acted like they don’t sell them anymore…how dare she?
I am fascinated by old encyclopedias especially as they are becoming obsolete. There is a pathos about my set of Funk/Wagnalls as i imagine its previous owner collecting it volume by volume(and perhaps reading it the same way). I do think it is still very useful to have a really good 1 volume encyclopedia like the Columbia or David Crystal’s Penguin (original Cmbridge version is better).
I have another set of encyclopedias-the Oxford Junior from the 1950s. These are very well written and imaginatively illustrated.I very much like the arrangement of the volumes-volume 1 covers mankind while succeding volumes cover the living world;physical world;great lives; communications;law and order;arts;recreations and pastimes;the home;farming and gardening;industry and commerce. Much more interesting than A-Z1