Another outstanding South African invention [permalink]
Some of you might be confused by the new Vodacom ad running at the moment which features our very own Robbie Wessels. Robbie is one of our local Afrikaans singers and I can't help but laugh at his name clearly being the afrikaans version of Robbie Williams. It's like a friend of mine who is said to look similar to Brad Pitt. We call him Brad Smit - the South African version of Brad Pitt.
Anyway, The Fruit Farmer called me this morning to check if I had a full understanding of the Vodacom ad. I admitted that I hadn't focused on it and he went on to tell me that Robbie is singing (on the Vodacom ad) about a new dance called the "Leeuloop". For our ex-pats who have forgotten how to speak Afrikaans, this means "The Lion Walk". The dance has apparently become quite popular in the smaller, more rural parts of South Africa.
For those of you who have not seen it - please enjoy (ex-pats be careful, you could get emotional and home sick). For those of you who have seen it, I think you might need a quick recap.
The video begins with Robbie explaining that there is a guy sitting on a bar stool at a braai ('barbecue' for the foreigners) somewhere in Parys (South Africa's flagship Afrikaans stereotype town). He explains that the guy is eating his salad and he leans over and asks his wife very nicely if he can do the Leeuloop. He goes on to say that his mates had asked very nicely. Cute.
So, The Fruit Farmer explained exactly how the "Leeuloop" works. Just like there were special choreographed moves for the Macarena, the Leeuloop has it's own series of 'moves'. It's not very difficult and is strictly for men. It is quite simple and contains only three steps. This is how it works:
STEP 1: The hopefully inebriated, hopefully Afrikaans gentleman should begin by removing his clothes completely - after all, lions don't wear clothes. And if you want to walk like a lion, this would be a good start.
STEP 2: The naked man should now tuck his testicles between his legs and 'knyp' (squeeze) so as to keep them there.
STEP 3: The naked man with his balls between his legs should get down on the dance floor on all fours and walk around like a lion.
You can probably visualise the effect by now. The image you have in your mind will be something like this. This is an actual lion resting after doing a genuine Lion Walk. If you run the video again you will see it again (at the 15 second point of the video).
Absolutely fantastic! Once again, we as South Africans are filled to the brim with a sense of pride and achievement.
