Go commie, it's your birthday

October 13, 2005 5:12 PM

Happy 60th Anniversary, Worker's Party of Korea(.swf)
posted by mr.marx (27 comments total)

That place looks like paradise.
posted by dhoyt at 5:18 PM on October 13, 2005

Yea!!!!!
posted by snsranch at 5:23 PM on October 13, 2005

You have to admit, that song is pretty catchy. Definite earworm material.
posted by shoepal at 5:26 PM on October 13, 2005

To celebrate the occasion, everyone gets to eat tonight!
posted by clevershark at 5:42 PM on October 13, 2005

Four legs good! Two legs bad.
posted by meh at 5:50 PM on October 13, 2005

Great song, in that socialist-realism depressing sort of way.

One minor and possibly pointless observation: On a lot of the female performers, the skirts were shorter than what I thought was allowed. Doesn't the DPRK enforce a more conservative dress code?

A small sign of things liberalizing slightly or just a pointless detail which means nothing?
posted by pandaharma at 5:52 PM on October 13, 2005

The U.S. is falling behind in flip-card technology! We cannot let the Communist menace dominate this crucial field!
posted by mr_roboto at 6:03 PM on October 13, 2005

KJI is mighty selfish keeping all those sexy ladies cloistered like he does.
posted by shoepal at 6:04 PM on October 13, 2005

Mandatory Fun. I'm surprized this hasn't caught on better in the US...
posted by Balisong at 6:11 PM on October 13, 2005

I saw A State Of Mind, a British doco that follows two young girls preparing for these 'mass games' at this year's Sydney Film Festival. A brief google reveals a screening on PBS. The footage also got used for a video for UK dance act Faithless (embedded QT).

Mass brainwashing at its best. I'll be curious to see the impact of the shit hitting the fan in NK as it is inevitably bound to do..
posted by nonemoreblack at 6:29 PM on October 13, 2005

"No Motherland Without You (Kim Jong Il)" is a ripper of a showtune. They should take this to Broadway, or Vegas.

...though it might cost too much if all the human pixels demanded Equity rates.
posted by achilles_hunt at 6:52 PM on October 13, 2005

Kim Jong Il: Now you see, the changing of the worrd is inevitabre!
Lisa: I'm sorry, it's what?
Kim Jong Il: Inevit, inevitabre.
Lisa: One more time.
Kim Jong Il: [shouts] Inevitebre! Jesus Christ, open your fucking ears!
posted by fungible at 6:56 PM on October 13, 2005

I like that mr.marx posted this. I also like the use of the batshitinsane and especially the koreography tags. My toes were tapping, and I tried to shake my booty to it, but that didn't work, maybe because I don't have much booty to shake, but I'm ok with that. I'm also sure I'd be taller than everyone else there, except for KJL's hair, which is a monument unto itself.
posted by Zack_Replica at 7:38 PM on October 13, 2005

I, also, like commas.
posted by Zack_Replica at 7:41 PM on October 13, 2005

Chicks in skirts with swords give me a hard-on.
posted by pmbuko at 9:23 PM on October 13, 2005

The main site is flooded.... metadotted? But Coral is working reasonably well. Coral Cache link.
posted by Malor at 9:56 PM on October 13, 2005

Oh and 'koreography' is funny stuff. :)
posted by Malor at 9:56 PM on October 13, 2005

*humps mr. marx's leg, whimpering*
posted by matteo at 12:02 AM on October 14, 2005

This looks like a montage from the North Korea Mass Games. The International Herald Tribune has an article on how batshit insane it is.

Mass gymnastics foster particularly healthy and strong physiques, a high degree of organization, discipline and collectivism in schoolchildren ... The schoolchildren, conscious that a single slip in their action may spoil their mass gymnastic performance, make every effort to subordinate all their thoughts and actions to the collective.

For more, see this 2000 era travelogue from North Korea. And more here.
posted by Nelson at 3:18 AM on October 14, 2005

*humps mr. marx's leg, whimpering*
down, boy! down!
posted by mr.marx at 9:34 AM on October 14, 2005

That was amazing. Echo chicks and swords comment, also.

Can you imagine being the one guy out of sych in the "spell the word" march? You'd never live that shit down man, no matter how much you tried.
posted by Peter H at 9:38 AM on October 14, 2005

What do you imagine it's like over there on a weeknight?
posted by Peter H at 9:38 AM on October 14, 2005

Sometimes I think the kindest thing to do for North Korea is to nuke it to glass.

On the other hand, Kim II is gonna die one of these days, and it wouldn't surprise me if he has the entire nation mass-suicide on his death.

It also wouldn't surprise me if he decides to nuke the world at the same time.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:37 AM on October 14, 2005

You'd never live that shit down man, no matter how much you tried.


More likely, I think you just wouldn't live.
posted by unreason at 11:04 AM on October 14, 2005

What do you imagine it's like over there on a weeknight?

Probably... quiet. Just quiet.
posted by Zack_Replica at 11:24 AM on October 14, 2005

And very hungry.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:45 AM on October 14, 2005

Probably... quiet. Just quiet.

hunting wabbits?
posted by mr.marx at 4:29 PM on October 14, 2005