Now that the Richard Sherman brouhaha has settled down, it is time to bring laughter back to the NFL. This hilarious video from a man calling himself BLR (“Bad Lip Reader”) inserts twisted sentences and wacky retorts into the mouths of players, coaches and referees from clips BLR culls off highlight reels and post-game interviews. Posted on Jan. 24th, it collected more than 10 million views in three days.
Conceived, edited and voiced by one anonymous independent music producer from Texas, the BLR hit parade includes a growing library of music videos, political speeches and movie spoofs. BLR was introduced to lip reading by his mother, who became deaf when in her 40’s. "She went from having perfect hearing to having no hearing in just a matter of months,” BLR told Rolling Stone last year. Mom quickly became a skilled lip reader, but her son struggled to learn the art while watching TV with the sound off. "I was terrible at it," he admits.
But BLR has spun that early failure into comedy gold. Experiencing this clip is like falling down the rabbit hole into a strange NFL universe where silly characters speak in nursery rhymes and nonsense words. (Come to think of it, that’s not so different from the real NFL). An unnamed coach points to the field and says, “I found a girlfriend for the Latin kid” while another leans close to a player and tells him, “You smell good. What is it, pine?” The Peyton Manning bit alone is worth your time, as he tells a reporter what grosses him out. “Old folks’ allergies, that could sure do it.”
Bookmark this clip and save it for your own Super Bowl halftime show.
For more nuggets from the Digital Prospector, go here.
