Foolish Satisfaction
From Scratchpad
Foolish Satisfaction is the Ship of Fools parody of the Benny Benassi music video "Satisfaction."
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[edit] The Idea
The original "Satisfaction" video was shown during a game of Quach in October, 2006. See Quach. During a weekly Ship of Fools business meeting in late 2006, Stu "Bottle Opener" Ogle brought up to the group his idea to make a parody of the "Satisfaction" video using Ship of Fools members. Most of the Fools were in favor of this, as well as the addendum to have the video shown during a game of Quach behind SoF captain Ryan "T-Rex" Garwood, who had just left the room to visit the restroom and was the only Fool to have no knowledge of Stu's idea.
Stu's idea was kept secret and sat dormant for awhile before being brought up again in March, 2007. During planning, the idea was made to film the video in time to be shown during the Purdue Improv Club's Spring Semester Finale meeting, as the last game of Quach for the year.
[edit] The Filming
On the morning of Purdue's annual Grand Prix Race, April 21, 2007, Hallway, Bottle Opener, SOG, Peace, and Cowboy met in the lobby of Hillenbrand Hall to begin filming the video. It was a crystal clear, sunshiny day with tons of students, parents, and other people walking around campus for the Grand Prix celebration.
Stu had watched the original "Satisfaction" video many times to get it broken down scene-by-scene, girl-by-girl. At about 11:00am the Fools began filming just outside Hillenbrand Hall. Most of the scenes were shot essentially in order; although this proved more time-consuming, Director Stu felt it was the best thing to do, despite several objections from the Mass Communications major/videographer.
At one point, a girl who was noticably inebriated from the previous night's activities came across the five scantily clad men and asked what they were doing. The girl took two pictures of the five sexy guys and one of the Fools wrote on the girl's hand the place and time of the next Improv Club meeting. There was much speculation among the group about what the girl would remember when she woke up from her hangover to find writing on her hand and two strange pictures on her camera. Unfortunately, she never made it to Friday night improv and the Fools have never heard from her again.
Including lunch, it took the five Fools about 4 hours to film footage for a 2 1/2 minute video. This included some improvised scenes, experimentation, a trip to Stu's dorm to watch the original video, and the typical joking and fun that comes whenever 2 or more Fools meet up somewhere.
It is worthwhile to note that Ryan was working at Hillenbrand that afternoon, and the entirety of this process escaped his notice.
[edit] The Editing
The tape was now in SOG's hands to create a video as close to the original as possible. While editing in the studios of Fast Track News, SOG had to repeatedly explain what he was doing to his classmates who dropped in and saw the scantily clad Fools on screen. Nearly all of them found it hilarious, albeit slightly disturbing.
It took SOG about 2 1/2 days (around 10-11 hours) to complete the finished product. After SOG the first person to see the completed video was Stu, whose raucous laughter was so loud SOG turned off the microphone leading from the voiceover room so no one else would be disturbed by it.
The other 3 Fools also gave a thumbs up and a hug - the stage was set for the debut.
[edit] The Debut
About halfway through the April 27th Semester Finale of the Purdue Improv Club, Stu stepped forward to begin a game of Quach. After blindfolding Ryan, the video began. Seconds later, Beering 2280 was flooded with some of the loudest laughter of the semester. Ryan could hardly hear any of the questions being asked of his location, and he could be seen repeatedly tapping his foot and "looking" at his watch while attempting to decipher the dialogue coming from the five Fools asking questions. During the 2 1/2 minute video, only about 5 or 6 questions could be heard over the crowd's laughter.
After Stu asked if Ryan knew where he was, and T-Rex said "I have no fucking clue," the video was shown in full with the volume cranked high. Ryan does not openly talk about his feelings toward the video, however there were multiple tears in his eyes as he watched the video with the Beering 2280 crowd for the first time.
[edit] YouTube and Facebook
Very early the next morning, Cowboy ripped "Foolish Satisfaction" to his computer and posted the video on YouTube. Within 24 hours, the video was viewed 149 times. The semi-poor quality of the rip, however, caused the video to be out-of-sync with the audio by about half a second. Stu had requested the original video file to be posted to YouTube as well, and SOG finally got around to doing so in late June. That video has received nearly 2,500 hits in just five months online.
The copy of "Foolish Satisfaction" currently on YouTube can be found here:
Foolish Satisfaction - Original File
SOG also created a Facebook fan group for the video which, to this date, has more members in it than does the Ship of Fools fan group!
"I Have Experienced Foolish Satisfaction"
"Ship of Fools and Ship Fans"
[edit] Fun Facts
- An often overlooked characteristic of the video is the fact that all of the tools used are being used incorrectly.
- Everything filmed on the parking garage (from about 1:40 onward) was essentially improvised.
- The Ford Mustang seen at 0:30 and 1:38 was a random car whose owner had walked into Hillenbrand Hall for a period of several minutes.
- The Fools could not find a spare piece of wood on the morning of filming. The group then decided to have Cowboy act like he was screwing something into a brick wall.
