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“Oh my gosh, I REMEMBER THAT!”
Have you said those words recently? I bet you have. We’re living in a golden age… an age in which the proliferation of internet video means you’re always a mere mouse-click away from a faceful of nostalgia. Thanks to YouTube and similar sites, a child of the 1970s, ‘80s, or ‘90s can now find gallons and gallons of memories in the form of old toy commercials, TV theme song sequences, and sketches from Square One.
It may be that you haven’t seen these clips in years. Maybe you haven’t even thought about them since before you were old enough to pay for your own Froot Loops. But as soon as you start watching, it all comes rushing back to you. An old file cabinet in your brain bursts open, and you find you can remember every detail: You can sing along with Easy Reader, or anticipate what Grimace is going to say to Ronald, or recall with perfect clarity how Alvin the chipmunk’s dance-off with Michael Jackson is going to play out. Wow!
Shouldn’t there be a name for this… this thing that happens? I mean a name other than “Oh my gosh, I remember that!” which isn’t very graceful. A while back, my buddy Scott over at the Tough Pigs Muppet fan forum suggested the need for a simple, catchy label for this phenomenon, so I invented an acronym: SIRE. It stands for “Sudden Instant Recall Effect,” which I believe accurately describes this commonly occurring moment of “a-ha!”
We’ve been using SIRE a lot at Tough Pigs, especially when viewing old Sesame Street clips, such as those found on the Sesame Street: Old School DVD set. “The Alligator King?” I remember that! Total SIRE! Wanda the Witch? SIRE SIRE SIRE!
SIRE is a flexible term – You can say “I just got an acute case of SIRE!” or “Boy, that video gave me some SIRE!” or even “I just got SIRE crammed down my throat!” It doesn’t even have to refer exclusively to video. I recently heard someone discussing a bout with SIRE that happened while listening to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 1990 album Comin’ Out of Their Shells. I suppose you could even get SIRE while reading a book… I could easily imagine The Pants with Nobody Inside ‘Em from The Sneetches packing a SIREful punch.
And that, my friends, is SIRE. It’s a snazzy, effective acronym, and if we all use it, I think it can really take the internet by storm. I encourage all of you to use it whenever possible.
I also encourage you to tell me about your recent encounters with Sudden Instant Recall Effect. How have YOU, the readers of this journal, experienced SIRE lately?
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| SIRE's a great term--I got a big dose of it when my sister showed me some old My Little Pony clips on YouTube. God, I nearly died from screaming...it's kind of sad how often I watched that stuff when I was a kid. |
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That's a great example. It reminds me of that time you and I watched my old Fraggle Rock tapes, and you had a moment during the animated HBO logo.
Next time it happens, be sure to say, "SIRE!" |
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| My brother got some wii points for Christmas and he promtly informed me "I'm going to get a game we haven't played in nine years, but we loved - Gunstar Heroes." I looked at him blankly, but when the game started I was like "Holy Canoli! That's some sweet tasty SIRE!" (well, that's not an exact quote, but next time it will be!) |
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Props to you for spreading the SIRE word. Did you explain to your brother what it meant?
Also, I think I'm going to have to try this Gunstar Heroes game when I get a Wii. I've heard good things about it. The Wii virtual console game I want is Altered Beast... although it probably won't count as SIRE if I'm giddy with anticipation, expecting the muscular hero to say "POWER UP!" |
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| SIRE is also what happens when you replay Super Mario Bros. 3, and get stuck in exactly the same place in world eight you remember getting stuck in when you were 10. And then you have flashbacks of The Wizard... oh yes... |
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