Pardon me?

Our pal Robert Popper located this gem, complete with The Final Cut Transitions Time Forgot. So much to love about "Pardon Me," even the uploader's description: "Maxine Swaby performs the classic. An instant classic." The video's from 2001. Wonder what she's up to now.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Brainspore

That was unpardonable.
Anonymous

you cannot unwatch this
Anonymous

Estonia’s Got Talent.
Anonymous

“Anyone remember the low-budget Christian pop videos on TBN?”

You mean like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VPcPCwK_G0

Keep watching for the breakdancing interlude…
Uncle_Max

That dead stare in extreme close-up at 2:54 is the cherry on top of this delicious musical sundae.
Anonymous

“Pardon me, I didn’t want to go. Pardon me, I want you to know…” Who is she hypothetically singing to, a bouncer?
nemofazer

What were they thinking?
tumes

When you think about it, American Idol has pretty much destroyed the chance that anyone will be motivated to make anything like this unironically. It’s a sad thing.
UncommonSense

This looks even better if you close one eye and cover the other. That lady sure is shiny.
ill lich

Any relation to Horace Swaby, a.k.a. the late great roots-reggae legend Augustus Pablo? (I don’t see this being improved with a melodica solo.)
Alan

I guess the videographer thought it was time to move beyond cheesey wedding videos. Too bad he thought wrong.
SkullHyphy

That’s an unflattering aspect ratio she’s wearing.
- Anonymous
  
  That is the funniest thing I’ve read all day. You have won the internet.
- Teller
  
  Copy that.
iguanoid

I like the finger waggle for emphasis.
Anonymous

this is a complete jan terri ripoff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ94vnmvPrw
Anonymous

This hit goes way up there, right next to Dogg’s “Why Must I Cry?”

gotta love when they show the piano playing a scale down while the music plays a scale up.
jasongnc

I was like, Ha-Ha, and then on to the next article, until I caught myself singing it! argh. Must play this repeatedly for coworkers to infect their brains!
Cigarsam

I think that abomination deserves a squid chaser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RodOodcxEc
corn

That made my daughter cry.
Anonymous

Reminds me of something from our local Assyria Vision channel, we have videos like that all the time-especially the opening with the flowers, water, and instrumentals.
searconflex

can. has. unicorn. chaser. ?
Anonymous

Florence Foster Jenkins anyone? Especially the ‘i want you to know~~~~’ bit??

I really want to unwatch this.
bornonbord

Clearly no one sat through to the end.

“Pardon Me sang by Maxine Swaby
Written by Patrick McNeill
Arranged by Tim Constable
Video Edited and Direction by Patrick McNeill
Copyright 2001 BrightFaceMedia
brightfacemedia@hotmail.com”

Anyone want to contact Patrick at brightfacemedia@hotmail.com?
lovelystrangeness

I have never seen anyone express less emotion while singing. Her eyes stayed creepily empty.
jeligula

Ouch. Thanks, Xeni. That’s 48 seconds of my life I’ll never get back. Didn’t expect us to watch the whole thing, did you? However, you have my pardon.
Anonymous

It was a college project made 10 years ago while Mr McNeil was LEARNING about multimedia and making films. Mr Popper scammed him into letting him put it on YouTube. I guess you’d get the same reaction if someone found one of your junior school pictures and posted it as an example of your pathetic attempt at art! But what the hell, it’s entertained more people than anything done by those posting comments about it. And there WILL be a re-mix. AND there ARE ringtones available. All being well, it will be heard in holday camps, lifts and supermarkets all through the summer. And you’ll brag you were there at the start! And just for the record, Maxine IS a wonderful singer: how dumb to judge on a bad copy of a copy of a VHS.
Anonymous

looks exactly like something that would be on Tim and Eric Awesome Show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3St5ywbuU
Jebediah

Wow. If I taught editing, this would be a great example of doing it wrong. (Directing, cinematography, and non-zombie singing/performing, too.)
Looks like they got the field order wrong, too.
Anonymous

Oh man, someone needs to re-mix this.
Red Leatherman

OK, watch this one and follow with Henrietta and Merna and you start the apocalypse.
blueelm

why?
skeletoncityrepeater

As bad as this is, there is a LOT worse out there. Anyone remember the low-budget Christian pop videos on TBN? I mean, as uninspired and depressing as this whole production is, at least it’s a song, with a melody, and nothing about it really stands out or seems incredibly laughable. It’s just a bad demo.
- 3eff_jeff
  
  But they got absolutely everything wrong. The video quality is terrible–it looks like they used a VHS tape camera from the ’80s to make it and then royally screwed up the de-interlacing when creating the digital version. People have already commented on the transitions and zombie-like performances, but even on top of that, the mix is abominable.
  
  In a song like this, the vocalist is the centerpiece, instead she’s faint, muddled and sounds like a background singer. The backing music has a crisp, electronic feel to it. This probably means they recorded the background as direct-in or they sequenced all the background music, and it never touched air before your speakers. They neglected to even run a simple reverb filter over the two recordings when mixing, so they sound like they are in different rooms.
  
  They made every horrible rooky mistake in the book. A band just putting a mic in a room and running it into a four track is going to sound better. Normal crappy-demo practices are better than this.
  
  I’m using some heavy doses of Aurally delivered mind-bleach to clear that out of my head. (This a chaser for those who need something Heavy. Something really Heavy. Something that is Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing. Indeed.)
PapayaSF

She should do a duet with Wing.
Anonymous

I watched this once ironically, then found myself with a craving a second listen that was anything but ironic. It IS an instant classic.

Paaaaaaaardon Meeeee…
Rellimz

Her delivery reminds me of this classic “Kids in the Hall” video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr3E94fVifk

“I’m not Gonna Spread for no Roses”
phlavor

A minute and a half in I realized she wasn’t supposed to be a stewardess.
splatocaster

If you didn’t watch this the whole way through, you missed so very much.
miasm

2 sodding years!