February 9: Close Enough

I had a dream last night that my husband and I hosted a game show called "Close Enough." In the dream, I remember explaining why we chose to call it that.  Apparently we were inspired by one of our favorite radio game shows, Says You: while each of their questions is always worth 10 points, the host gives partial points when the contestants get close enough to the answer. So that was the main idea of our show, that even if you got close to the answer, you would still get some points.

My husband has often used this quote "Close Enough" in life, and I always thought it came from South Park. But when I told him about the dream, he told me that in fact the quote comes from an old Labatt Blue beer commercial that his brother introduced him to back in 2007. He then played it for me on YouTube. I had never seen it or heard of it before, and had NO CLUE that this is what he had been quoting since we met. 

In the commercial, the mascot of Labatt Blue beer, a bear, meets people from Japan in a sushi bar. The Japanese men help the bear with his chopsticks. They introduce themselves- they are from Japan, the bear is from Canada. Then the whole bar excitedly shouts "Canada!" The bear says he is drinking Labatt Blue. The Japanese men repeat back "Bwue!" The bear says, "no, no, no, Blue!" and the men repeat back, "Bwue!" The bear gives up and says "Close Enough!" and the men repeat back "Cwose enough!" I thought it was hilarious and delightful and I totally see how it inspired my husband to say "Close Enough!" I love how my brain turned this quote into a game show in my dream. I also love the idea of my husband and I hosting a game show together. I mean, we already kind of do, with Jeo-Party with our friends. Maybe one day we can turn this into something official. Wouldn't that be delightful?

With delight,

♥Jamie

[[On a side note: I know that technically the ad can be seen as racist, as it is making fun of the Japanese accent, but the Japanese men in the ad look like they are having a genuinely good time and everyone is toasting to each other, and later they sing karaoke together. Can this type of humor exist in a post-racist society? I'll have to do more thinking about this. Because I delight in humor, but not humor that hurts anyone. I hope that one day we can become such a tolerant society that we can be respectful of each other while harmlessly poking fun at each other. Is that wrong of me to hope for? I make fun of my accent all the time, and I delight when others make fun of it as well. But I also want people to feel respected. So I sincerely hope that no one is hurt by this ad. Can we find humor is each other's differences? Or is the fact that I'm even questioning this just an excuse for me to be complicit with racism. Life is so complicated.]]