I Hate Karl Marx
June 7, 2013 1:33 PM   Subscribe

 
Served an ad for the new AMG E63 Merc prior to starting.

Because if there's anything Chinese like better than Karl Marx it's ultra high performance luxury German automobiles.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:45 PM on June 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


Did this guy just take his first Marxism class in senior high school? Because that disclaimer at the end, absent hamburger, is fucking comedy.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 1:48 PM on June 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


That woman's Mandarin is about 800 times better than my terrible ABC Mandarin. That being said, this video is really weird. I'm not sure I understand what the filmmaker is going for here, even after reading the statement at the end.
posted by strangecargo at 1:49 PM on June 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Here are the links mentioned at the end of the video, and the website for the artist who made the video:

pleaseteachmechinese.com
ganahlmarx.com
ganahl.info
posted by burnmp3s at 1:54 PM on June 7, 2013


So a man who is upset that a Chinese company purchased a Swedish automobile manufacturer makes a video set in Berlin with a woman berating a bust of Karl Marx in Mandarin?



Makes sense to me!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:56 PM on June 7, 2013 [9 favorites]


That woman's Mandarin is about 800 times better than my terrible ABC Mandarin.

Either she's a super expert/native speaker, or a native speaker is dubbed in.
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:57 PM on June 7, 2013


Because if there's anything Chinese like better than Karl Marx it's ultra high performance luxury German automobiles.

Actually: Yep.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:09 PM on June 7, 2013


SysRq - Reading my post over I see how it's possible, nay likely to infer I'm unaware of the Chinese affinity for prestige auto brands. I'm not. I was trying to make light of the fact that Mercedes represents China to a far greater extent than Herr Marx.

Not funny as I'm currently explaining my thought process, and jokes that need explanations were likely never funny.

I'll go sit in the corner for a few minutes.
posted by Keith Talent at 2:43 PM on June 7, 2013


Marx has taken the rap for a lot, but I'll bet this is the first time he's been blamed for a global takeover by the heathen Chinee.
posted by octobersurprise at 2:43 PM on June 7, 2013


This has given me a great idea for an SF short. All I need is a bust of Kemal Ataturk and a Norwegian actress fluent in Tagalog...
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:05 PM on June 7, 2013 [7 favorites]


This has given me a great idea for an SF short.

Don't you mean a bust of Jules Verne with a Jedi fluent in Klingon?
posted by FJT at 3:12 PM on June 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


How about an alternate history SF short, using only a bust of Robert E. Lee and a Quebecois woman fluent in Arawak?
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:42 PM on June 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


I don't really get the concept but I enjoyed this video because I used to Study Chinese and I was able to pick up a lot of the words and that made me feel smart. The subtitles certainly helped.
Served an ad for the new AMG E63 Merc prior to starting.
Really? Served me no ad for anything because I have adblock.
posted by delmoi at 4:13 PM on June 7, 2013


Mayor Curley: "Either she's a super expert/native speaker, or a native speaker is dubbed in."

Her Mandarin's not actually that great; she pronounced 甚至美国都不在了 as "shènzhì Měiguó dōu bu cài le", and Hunan Province came out as "Hénán" (or maybe the subtitler goofed that up).

I will definitely show this to my Australian friend who's fluent in Mandarin and German. I'm sure she'll get a kick out of it.
posted by jiawen at 6:13 PM on June 7, 2013


The Mandarin was decent, though definitely had some weird pronunciations. The subtitles didn't always match up with what was actually spoken either.
posted by kmz at 7:34 PM on June 7, 2013


Served me no ad for anything because I have adblock.

Great. Now does anyone have any tips for an app that'll block incoherent YouTube videos?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:13 AM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


Seems a bit unfair to upbraid old Karl when Li Dazhao plainly owed as much to Kropotkin and the general nationalist 'whither China' tenor of the times. Because if this video calls for anything, it's clearly a re-visitation of Dirlik's work on early Chinese socialist thought.
Beans for tea again is it?
posted by Abiezer at 5:55 AM on June 8, 2013


Spoke nipples are brass, but there isn't really that much brass in a bike. Ferules, but nowadays even those are mostly plastic with little brass inserts. Marx's head would make a lot of bicycles, but only carried on the back of masses of other material. How bourgeois.
posted by Chuckles at 2:25 PM on June 8, 2013


Marx's head will be used to make steampunk fixies.
posted by hattifattener at 6:53 PM on June 8, 2013


octobersurprise: Marx has taken the rap for a lot, but I'll bet this is the first time he's been blamed for a global takeover by the heathen Chinee.
Pretty sure that some Cold War "veterans" are doing the same.
posted by IAmBroom at 3:05 PM on June 10, 2013


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