Bobby Fingers Plays Fowl...Fabio-usly
May 15, 2024 1:39 PM Subscribe
Greatest human alive today, Bobby Fingers, has released another video, researching and creating a diorama of the 1999 incident where heartthrob Fabio came back bloodied after participating in the inaugural ride of the "Apollo's Chariot" roller coaster at Busch Gardens.
Fingers also tries to get in good enough shape to become a "romance novel" cover model, and gets some help from Adam Savage and the Slow Mo Guys (Dan and Gav) test-firing ballistic gel "geese" at a recreation of Fabio's head at 75MPH. Fingers has also written a romance novel of his own, which he shares an excerpt from in the vid.
Fingers also tries to get in good enough shape to become a "romance novel" cover model, and gets some help from Adam Savage and the Slow Mo Guys (Dan and Gav) test-firing ballistic gel "geese" at a recreation of Fabio's head at 75MPH. Fingers has also written a romance novel of his own, which he shares an excerpt from in the vid.
I saw this post in my RSS feed, and closed the tab I'd opened titled “Post a link | MetaFilter”.
Just an absolutely fantastic trio of videos. Absolutely view Bobby Fingers's video first, and if possible, try not to see the thumbnail for the Slow Mo Guys's video before you've seen that.
posted by ambrosen at 2:45 PM on May 15 [5 favorites]
Just an absolutely fantastic trio of videos. Absolutely view Bobby Fingers's video first, and if possible, try not to see the thumbnail for the Slow Mo Guys's video before you've seen that.
posted by ambrosen at 2:45 PM on May 15 [5 favorites]
Bobby Fingers is the greatest human being alive today.
posted by aramaic at 3:27 PM on May 15 [4 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 3:27 PM on May 15 [4 favorites]
My household just had such a good laugh at the closing montage of the first video that we may need to take a break before the other two lest someone rupture something.
posted by Stacey at 3:59 PM on May 15 [4 favorites]
posted by Stacey at 3:59 PM on May 15 [4 favorites]
Can't get over him showing his face so casually, after so many years of that being the whole bit with the Rubberbandits
posted by jason_steakums at 4:29 PM on May 15 [7 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 4:29 PM on May 15 [7 favorites]
This is honestly one of the most brilliant things I've seen on the internet ever. That's it. That's the whole comment.
posted by onebuttonmonkey at 4:50 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]
posted by onebuttonmonkey at 4:50 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]
I gasped upon reading this. I am so excited for more Bobby Fingers.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:55 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]
posted by Rock Steady at 4:55 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]
she groaned like a door in a sexy haunted house
posted by Rock Steady at 5:21 PM on May 15 [5 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 5:21 PM on May 15 [5 favorites]
Anyway, we greased up the ballistics gel goose with animal birthing lubricant.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:07 PM on May 15 [10 favorites]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:07 PM on May 15 [10 favorites]
Man, I needed this today.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 6:16 PM on May 15
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 6:16 PM on May 15
Not enough Laura, but it was still excellent. And I'm still trying to process Fabio being vindicated. That slo-mo...
posted by queensissy at 6:22 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]
posted by queensissy at 6:22 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]
Love that he starts this project off by having a go at the bird crowd.
posted by zenon at 7:52 PM on May 15 [3 favorites]
posted by zenon at 7:52 PM on May 15 [3 favorites]
Yeah he got me good for my Canada Goose pedantry.
posted by whuppy at 5:23 AM on May 16 [5 favorites]
posted by whuppy at 5:23 AM on May 16 [5 favorites]
Pre/post watch soundtrack to set the mood: Fabio After Dark
(Released in 1993, a few years before the goose incident.)
posted by mubba at 7:27 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]
(Released in 1993, a few years before the goose incident.)
posted by mubba at 7:27 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]
Hey does anyone know what he means when he is talking about "Brendan Board"? It looks like mat board or foam core, but in this video he softens it up for bending in boiling water, so it must be some kind of plastic? I realize that Bobby Fingers is probably not the place to go for model making tutorials, but I'm curious.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:25 PM on May 16
posted by Rock Steady at 12:25 PM on May 16
As always in a Fingers video, it's worth it to pay attention to the small details. For example, the title of other tabs in his browser if he's using the internet.
posted by maxwelton at 12:32 PM on May 16 [2 favorites]
posted by maxwelton at 12:32 PM on May 16 [2 favorites]
Fabio's face is the Randy Johnson fastball of faces.
posted by mhum at 3:35 PM on May 16 [1 favorite]
posted by mhum at 3:35 PM on May 16 [1 favorite]
I have a strong desire to Photoshop goose-deformed ballistics gel Fabio faces onto his body on his romance novel covers
posted by jason_steakums at 4:39 PM on May 16 [3 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 4:39 PM on May 16 [3 favorites]
I have a strong desire to Photoshop
I would strongly encourage you to do this. I believe Mr. Fingers would approve.
posted by aramaic at 5:00 PM on May 16 [3 favorites]
I would strongly encourage you to do this. I believe Mr. Fingers would approve.
posted by aramaic at 5:00 PM on May 16 [3 favorites]
what he means when he is talking about "Brendan Board"? It looks like mat board or foam core
I'm pretty sure he is talking about PVC foam board, maybe a brand name?
posted by Celatone at 5:01 PM on May 16
I'm pretty sure he is talking about PVC foam board, maybe a brand name?
posted by Celatone at 5:01 PM on May 16
Have you even been to Norway?
posted by gwint at 8:17 PM on May 16 [1 favorite]
posted by gwint at 8:17 PM on May 16 [1 favorite]
I enjoyed when Adam Savage was reminiscing about the MythBusters crew, and how it became a polished machine for pulling off crazy stunts weekly.
I work in practical special effects for film and tv, and I still can't get over the scale of the machine required to do an air cannon, or any other mechanical effect reliably and repeatedly.
You start with crew, often holding a hundred years experience between them, ideally with a diverse selection of trades from welding to plumbing to electronics.
Most crews have a shop that stores all the specialty equipment like cannons, fog machines, pneumatic ratchets, car hoppers etc etc.
If it was built in the past, and it was figured it would come up again it was kept, and crated, and labeled, with instructions inside on how to run it, because it was probably a pain the arse to figure out the first time.
The shop also has full fabrication facilities for welding, machining, woodworking, mold making and casting. Which allows you to take on any common request quickly, with at least a basic stock of materials on hand to get you started.
If you are doing a build on a weekend you need all the hardware fast so the shop gets stocked with every conceivable size of nut and bolt, as well as a pretty comprehensive selection of plumbing, gas, hydraulic and air fittings. There are also boxes upon boxes of everything you might need that takes a while to source, all on shelves, all organized and labeled.
On set you'll have close by an effects trailer, that like the shop also has everything you could conceivably need to pull off most any mechanical effect on set on short notice. Plus a wide selection of fittings and a full drawer of metric hardware (which we never use but is on all the camera equipment, and we like thank you beers). There are racks upon racks of valves, springs, hoses, rigging etc etc etc.
And there is always a mono kit, with a comprehensive selection of every size and type of fishing line for when things need a bit of help getting to where they need to be on
Having all this kit helps us pull off miracles. The director wants an impromptu rainstorm? (hydrant kit and some rain heads are in the belly bin), to a sudden need to write in a campfire scene (propane, hoses, a selection of custom fabricated nozzles to cover everything from a candelabra to a blast furnace are with the propane gack).
All of the above has to be constantly maintained, checked, tested, restocked and organized.
The reason for all this prep? Even on a small tv production there will be a few hundred people on the shooting crew, add up the wages, the equipment, rentals and actors and every minute on a film set represents tens of thousands of dollars being set on fire. Delays or failures are unacceptable.
So yeah, safely pulling off an air cannon gag on his own (or with a smaller crew that doesn't do this kind of thing weekly), full props to Adam, that's damn hard, and stressful.
I know whenever I'm working at home or on a small indie film I feel like I've amputated a limb not having the huge machine backing me up.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 10:46 PM on May 16 [8 favorites]
I work in practical special effects for film and tv, and I still can't get over the scale of the machine required to do an air cannon, or any other mechanical effect reliably and repeatedly.
You start with crew, often holding a hundred years experience between them, ideally with a diverse selection of trades from welding to plumbing to electronics.
Most crews have a shop that stores all the specialty equipment like cannons, fog machines, pneumatic ratchets, car hoppers etc etc.
If it was built in the past, and it was figured it would come up again it was kept, and crated, and labeled, with instructions inside on how to run it, because it was probably a pain the arse to figure out the first time.
The shop also has full fabrication facilities for welding, machining, woodworking, mold making and casting. Which allows you to take on any common request quickly, with at least a basic stock of materials on hand to get you started.
If you are doing a build on a weekend you need all the hardware fast so the shop gets stocked with every conceivable size of nut and bolt, as well as a pretty comprehensive selection of plumbing, gas, hydraulic and air fittings. There are also boxes upon boxes of everything you might need that takes a while to source, all on shelves, all organized and labeled.
On set you'll have close by an effects trailer, that like the shop also has everything you could conceivably need to pull off most any mechanical effect on set on short notice. Plus a wide selection of fittings and a full drawer of metric hardware (which we never use but is on all the camera equipment, and we like thank you beers). There are racks upon racks of valves, springs, hoses, rigging etc etc etc.
And there is always a mono kit, with a comprehensive selection of every size and type of fishing line for when things need a bit of help getting to where they need to be on
Having all this kit helps us pull off miracles. The director wants an impromptu rainstorm? (hydrant kit and some rain heads are in the belly bin), to a sudden need to write in a campfire scene (propane, hoses, a selection of custom fabricated nozzles to cover everything from a candelabra to a blast furnace are with the propane gack).
All of the above has to be constantly maintained, checked, tested, restocked and organized.
The reason for all this prep? Even on a small tv production there will be a few hundred people on the shooting crew, add up the wages, the equipment, rentals and actors and every minute on a film set represents tens of thousands of dollars being set on fire. Delays or failures are unacceptable.
So yeah, safely pulling off an air cannon gag on his own (or with a smaller crew that doesn't do this kind of thing weekly), full props to Adam, that's damn hard, and stressful.
I know whenever I'm working at home or on a small indie film I feel like I've amputated a limb not having the huge machine backing me up.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 10:46 PM on May 16 [8 favorites]
"I bought a goose off the internet and I printed it and I painted it and I stuck it in the goose hole."
"Fabio!"
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:50 PM on May 16 [3 favorites]
"Fabio!"
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:50 PM on May 16 [3 favorites]
In the opening moments he says "Canadian Goose". I opened my mouth to say something to my friend about it, thought about it for a moment, and then just said, "he's trolling me."
posted by WaylandSmith at 12:23 AM on May 17 [7 favorites]
posted by WaylandSmith at 12:23 AM on May 17 [7 favorites]
then just said, "he's trolling me."
We don't know: Busch Gardens is 400 miles from the border, so a highly motivated Canadian Canada goose could fly that in a day if it was clear sighted enough to see the opportunity to one day become immortalised in this diorama.
posted by ambrosen at 3:56 AM on May 17
We don't know: Busch Gardens is 400 miles from the border, so a highly motivated Canadian Canada goose could fly that in a day if it was clear sighted enough to see the opportunity to one day become immortalised in this diorama.
posted by ambrosen at 3:56 AM on May 17
“He took a duck in the face at 250 knots.”
― William Gibson in Pattern Recognition
posted by neuron at 11:50 AM on May 17 [1 favorite]
― William Gibson in Pattern Recognition
posted by neuron at 11:50 AM on May 17 [1 favorite]
Fingers's YouTube account has 8 videos. Has there been more in the past? I'd never heard of him before.
posted by neuron at 3:05 PM on May 17
posted by neuron at 3:05 PM on May 17
You may know him from half of the rubber bandits: (NSFW, strong language) https://youtu.be/ljPFZrRD3J8?si=K971T7-qYTHc1wYG
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 3:51 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 3:51 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]
Adam Savage with a little epilogue on the Bobby Fingers collaboration
posted by jason_steakums at 6:27 PM on May 17 [6 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:27 PM on May 17 [6 favorites]
I'm pretty sure he is talking about PVC foam board, maybe a brand name?
He has a long running joke that products in Ireland have special names.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:12 PM on May 19
He has a long running joke that products in Ireland have special names.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:12 PM on May 19
Best bit of this was the start when the axe was taken to the head of Jeff Bezos. Worst bit was finding out it wasn't Jeff Bezos.
posted by bigZLiLk at 12:19 AM on May 20
posted by bigZLiLk at 12:19 AM on May 20
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