Schweddy Balls

[Dave (imported)]

>>Oh my lord!

>>Someday I feel the world is ganging up on me...

>>Most days, I know that true...

>>

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the ... le2159868/

Will women or men go for this one? Schweddy Balls is the latest ice cream offering from Ben & Jerry’s.

Released in a limited run in the United States this week, it’s loaded with fudge, rum and malt balls and references an infamous Saturday Night Live sketch that saw Alec Baldwin sending up National Public Radio as Pete Schweddy, a guest on a fake show called Delicious Dish.

As Mr. Schweddy proffers popcorn balls and rum balls from a family recipe, the silky-voiced hosts (played by comedians Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer) fire off increasingly lewd double entendres, straight-faced and seemingly unaware. The women wear their best Christmas sweaters: Somewhat depressingly, Schweddy Balls is a holiday flavour.

Debate is fomenting online about whether the company bastardized the sketch by changing Pete’s family name – which sounds like Schwetty in the sketch – to a less crude Schweddy. (For the record, NBC.com spells it Schweddy.)

No matter – the flavour is blowing up online, with even the stars of the sketch plugging the treat.

Alec Baldwin lost it on Twitter after the stuff was officially launched: "Mama Schweddy is proud of her boy. Schweddy Balls Ice Cream. From the secret Schweddy Family recipe," he wrote.

Even NPR employees got into the spirit, sampling the ice cream this week.

Eyder Peralta, an NPR writer and Cherry Garcia-diehard, was less than moved: “Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no prude, but the flavour – like the name suggests – was missing a bit of delicacy.”

Some NPR commenters weren't impressed either: “That was one of the dumbest SNL skits ever, marking their decline into juvenile humour. I'm not a prude, but I like my humour to be above the snickering 15-year-old level.”

Sean Greenwood, a spokesman for the company, denied it was “shock marketing.”

“It isn’t, ‘Let’s try to put a dirty name on a pint and sell it,’ but, ‘Let’s try to put a tie on a show that’s been running for 37 years,” Mr. Greenwood told Reuters.

“It’s really that kind of irreverence and double entendre that we like.”

Right.

Ben & Jerry’s has long employed pop-culture references for its flavours. There was Neapolitan Dynamite, Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream, Marsha Marsha Marshmallow, not to mention a ton of hippie references: Wavy Gravy, Cherry Garcia and at least two flavours devoted to Phish and Dave Matthews Band.

The company has also nodded to historical moments. Economic Crunch was named in honour of the 1987 market crash and Chubby Hubby was temporarily renamed Hubby Hubby as Vermont (Ben & Jerry’s home state) fought to legalize gay marriage in 2009.

A spokeswoman broke the bad news for Canucks: "We will not be selling 'Schweddy Balls' in Canada," Katharine Williams, communications manager with Unilever Canada wrote in an e-mail.

What do you make of the stunt? Vulgar, pre-emptive holiday marketing or good fun? Any SNL moments seem more worthy of an ice cream flavour?

[savannacox (imported)]

Thank you for providing such interesting topic in this forum. The brand new flavor “Schweddy Balls” was titled after a “Saturday Evening Live” skit that features Alec Baldwin and pokes fun at National Public Radio (NPR). However, a parents' group has inexorably gotten angry over the ice cream flavor, and this group which is called One Million Moms is calling for Ben & Jerry's treat to be boycotted. Some consider it as shallow, on the contrary, others support the group. There are lot of reactions about this hot controversy, and this becomes a trend not only in the internet forums and blogs, but also in ordinary conversation. Now, what is your opinion about this issue? From what I know, this is not the first controversy faced by the company. One of the first protests against Ben & Jerry’s was in 1999, when Vermonters protested Ben & Jerry’s selling itself to Unilever, according to the New York Times. oh well! It will cost them personal loans (http://personalmoneynetwork.com/personal-loans/) if this continues. Well, I just hope that this will be solved soon.

[Eunuchorn (imported)]

It's so they can say, Oh, I am playing with my sweatty balls... only lisping it so come out Schweddy Balls... and of course, the RepuKKKe group of a Million Moms is steadfastly against it, as if it weren't for balls they would not be moms in the first place...

[BossTamsin (imported)]

"*Gasp* There's an ice cream with a double entendre on it! We must stop it! Won't somebody think of the children?"

Newsflash - They created the flavour because they were thinking of the children. Your kids are better off without the ice cream. Try some fresh fruit instead.

[moi621 (imported)]

Chef did a similar routine on South Park about his Salty Chocolate Balls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnNYXgV7L-c

Just another example how Canada does not understand freedom.

Beware the Canadianization of America!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCavKL2zdjM

Moi

Populist are Freedom Loving.

They killed Louis Riel.

[Cainanite (imported)]

Just another example how Canada does not understand freedom.

Beware the Canadianization of America!

Moi

Populist are Freedom Loving.

They killed Louis Riel.

Moi. You missed the point. The Globe and Mail is lamenting the fact that Ben & Jerry's won't sell it to Canadians. They wouldn't sell us Colbert's Americone Dream either.

As to Louis Riel... I grew up about 20 miles or 40 odd kilometers away from Batoche, where he and Gabriel Dumont had their big stand-off and eventual battle with the North West Field Force. Riel was a religious leader, and quite the nut-job. He wasn't seen as the great hero until long after his death. In fact, if Dumont hadn't listened to Riel, they would have won that battle before it began, but Riel was waiting for God to talk to him, and wouldn't let Dumont do his job.

Dumont was the real hero, and stands as an icon among Canadians and Metis people alike. Riel was a flake, and an instigator who seized a popular movement for his own petty goals. He was executed as a traitor, when in reality the only thing he was guilty of was being a religious nut-job who preached taking down the government by violent means. Oh, and he was also guilty of being a traitor. He was given a posthumous pardon by the Canadian government about a hundred years after his death, mostly because it didn't matter any more, and because the government was tired of people not remembering history the way it actually happened. They figured, what the hell? If people want to re-write history, let them. Riel is no longer a danger.

I've walked the grounds at Batoche. I've lived in close proximity to that history. I'm technically Metis myself. My grandmother on my father's side was Metis. My family history can be traced to the battle of Batoche, quite directly. Trust me when I say, Louis Riel was a crackpot. He would be a member of the Tea-Party in the USA if he were alive today. He was someone who tried to meld religion with politics, and tried to violently impose his ideas on others. It could be argued that if he didn't interfere, and insert himself into the Metis uprising, then Dumont would surely have succeeded, and Canadian History would have been extremely different from what it is today.

Riel interfered and sullied what should have been a defining moment in Canadian History. Most Canadians agree that Dumont should have won that fight. Most Canadians would have been on his side. Riel's leadership took the Metis movement away from its intended goals, and made himself into a false prophet. It is Riel's fault that freedom was damaged. If he hadn't taken the leadership from Dumont, things would have been very, very different. If it weren't for Riel, freedom for the Metis people would have been acheived much earlier in Canadian History.

Don't prop Riel on a pedestal. He is what was went wrong with the Battle of Batoche. He wasn't a civil rights leader like Martin Luther King. He was a David Koresh type wacko.

Sorry. I grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Riel is a bit of a hot button for those of us who have family that lived those times. Only people who haven't met the Saskatchewan Metis people, or look at the full history think Riel was a hero.

Oh and I would definitely try Shweddy Balls if it were available where I live... In Canada.

[moi621 (imported)]

Thank You, Really Thank You for that education about Gabriel Dumont

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Du ... _leader%29

But, I remember Louis featured in one or two episodes of different western series. That is how I first learned of him. It was fiction of the period he hid out in "the land of the free", I think he was a school teacher in one story. And I followed it up.

Would it mean as much if I wrote "Viva Gabriel Dumont" the more deserving or does Riel still strike the chord more?

Up there I mean. No one down here knows them.

Now more about Schweddy Balls

Highly recommended is the first fifteen minutes if not the whole program. SNL 9/24/11

http://news.yahoo.com/snl-opens-record- ... 38287.html

" . . Baldwin also responded to protests of the new Ben & Jerry's flavor, Schweddy Balls, named after a late '90s sketch featuring Baldwin. In his monologue, Baldwin said there was a new flavor being released for the flavor's critics: "Go Fudge Yourself." A group of mothers, One Million Moms, has threatened to boycott the ice cream maker. . ."

The debate parody at the beginning is excellent.

Here is the Ron Paul portion clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

newKNT0ATrw

The whole program is not yet online but should be shortly.

Moi

The whole SNL version of the GOP debate. Worth the watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

f6l5zfGzwog

doesn't really start until 4:30 minutes.

[moi621 (imported)]

Has anyone located the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream?

This flavor is Fair Trade vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and is loaded with fudge covered rum and milk chocolate malt balls.

I have looked at three market chains.



Chef's Salty Chocolate balls make a good X-Mas present too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

aW07abjQ8b0&feature=related