I Love This Guy

If only you could see this locally produced commercial advertising a discount furniture store in New Orleans. The ad is well over 20 years old and probably hasn’t aired since then. I’ve searched and searched on the Internet and YouTube, trying to find it somewhere, to no avail. It is some seriously awesome stuff.

Here is the dialog from The Best Worst Locally Produced Commercial of All Time.

A distraught older woman enters the discount furniture store. A guy who looks and acts JUST LIKE a fidgety, loud 1975 Jimmy Walker from Good Times approaches her.

Jimmy Walker: "Now what can I be helping you with today?"

Distraught Woman: "Oh, I don’t got a car, I don’t got a job, I don’t got good credit and I don’t got no furniture (but with that great New Orleans accent it sounds like “foinacha”)."

Jimmy Walker swings his arms around in these crazy circles in front of his body, then suddenly stops and points right in the lady’s face when he says: "I say, I say, I say…you need to see the SPECIAL MAN!"

Distraught Woman: "The Special Man?"

Jimmy Walker: "The Special Man! He grants the store credit."

POOF! A homemade looking explosion happens next to them, complete with a firecracker pop and lots of billowing smoke. And from the smoke steps out THE SPECIAL MAN who looks just exactly like Shaft.

Jimmy Walker: "Hey Special Man! This lady don’t have a car, she don’t have a job and she don’t have any foinacha. Can you give her store credit?"

A long pause as the camera moves slowly pans to the face of The Special Man while some awesomely cheesy Shaft-type music begins playing in the background. And then silence, just before The Special Man speaks in his deep Barry White voice as his eyes cut over to the camera…

"LET HER HAVE IT!"

Then the Distraught Woman claps her hands and she and Jimmy Walker start doing this crazy-ass dance of joy while the voice over gives the store location and details and invites everyone to come in and meet The Special Man so he can give them store credit, too.

It is a beautiful piece of television and I love The Special Man.