Friends don't let friends drink Dos Equis XX

[Thommy_B]

Kazoo players may take offense to your comment.

Ha! I actually thought that. I was going after any portable instrument. I was going to say harmonica, but in the spirit of keeping it light here, I thought kazoo was funnier. But yes, to keep me honest there are tons of fine examples of the kazoo. The Beatles would make one out of tissue paper if they had to. New ad: Friends don't let friends be the Tissue Paper Guy

 

[mikelz777]

Wow, lot's of different passionate perspectives here! I thought the ad was kind of funny and I took no offense at all. It was meant to be humorous in a jestful way and I would hope the person would have a good sense of humor about it. (Though the burning the uke version is a bit extreme, I still wasn't offended.) It doesn't effect how I feel about Dos Equis XX beer but it wasn't a beer that would have made my top 10 anyway.

I belonged to a cabaret singing group in college and I'd be the first one to tell you that yes, it was dorky! Despite that it was fun and the group was comprised of good people. (We even got to sing at a Rodgers and Hammerstein performance with the Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall!) Anyway, one night we were having an end of the year party - the drinks were flowing, the music was jammin', people were dancing and having a great time. All of a sudden, without notice, one of the members had the host turn off the music and he brought out his mountain dulcimer to perform some songs. If this were a movie it's where you would hear the "needle scratching across the record" sound effect. The songs were slow, folky and performed in a very sincere, heartfelt manner. I remember the rest of the party attendees exchanging glances and I thought to myself, "Is this really happening?!" It was not going over well and the awkwardness was palpable. He performed one number, two at the most, before someone stepped in and as tactfully as was possible, thanked him and steered the situation back to resuming the party which had lost all of its momentum. You could tell by the look on his face that the situation didn't go as he had envisioned it at all and he looked humiliated. We all liked the guy and no one would dream of discouraging him from doing something he obviously enjoyed doing but there is a time and a place for everything and busting out a dulcimer and singing slow, sad songs at a celebratory party was not it. Had he suggested to someone that he was going to do that at a party I would hope someone would care enough about him to gently suggest that he not do it and maybe suggest a better, more appropriate time.

I could/would never break out a uke and start singing amongst a group of people uninvited. (As an introvert, it would probably take considerable persuasion to do it invited by the group! ) I wouldn't ever presume that anyone would want to hear me sing and/or play or that I was even good enough for anyone to want to hear me. When I tell someone that I play the ukulele, 99.5 times out of 100 it's met with polite indifference or a perfunctory, "Oh that's nice/fun/different/cool/etc.". Even amongst people who want to get together and play there are people who bring songs for the group to play that I don't like and I'm sure that there are songs I like and enjoy that they don't like. Music is such a personal thing and it's heard and felt differently from person to person so inflicting music of my choosing upon a group with diverse tastes uninvited is a low-odds gamble at best. One would be better advised to "Just not do it!" (I twisted and borrowed that from Nike.) In the end you have to read the room. I'm guessing that much more often than not, the situation isn't going to have people going, "You know what we need right now? Someone to sing and play the ukulele!" (substitute harmonica, kazoo, banjo, violin, dulcimer, etc. as you see fit)