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You are here: Home / I said ping pong balls

I said ping pong balls

by | 68 Comments

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Rude Pundit:

Yesterday, the Rude Pundit was walking down near Ground Zero, New York City, as one must sometimes do in the course of day-to-day activities, when heard someone over a megaphone say, “Never forget. Never forget,” repeatedly, flatly, almost mournfully. This was on the corner of Broadway and Fulton, across the street from St. Paul’s Chapel, one block from the former World Trade Center twin towers. He turned to see what this was, thinking perhaps another protest.

Instead, he saw four figures. Two men, one with a voice that sounded like a megaphone and a sign that read, “Support Our Heroes,” the other with an American flag. And two people wearing what seemed to be brightly smiling ping-pong ball outfits. And, oh, dear, kind readers, the Rude Pundit is not lying to you when he says that one of the ping-pong balls had a “9” emblazoned on it and the other had an “11.” They also wore caps.

Ah, the people on the street were delighted at the sight. And when they took out their cameras or phones to snap a picture, the entire group stopped and waved at the grinning photographers. Then, the photo op done, the foursome would move on, with the first man continuing his sad wail of “Never forget.”

Can a 9/11 theme park be far away?

Update. We’ve got a spoiler in the comments so I’ll spoil it here too: it was a State Lottery promo.

Update update. Sorry I’m slow but I just realized: THAT MAKES IT EVEN WEIRDER.

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  2. 2.

    bago

    If the ground zero mosque is a “slap in the face”, Why aren’t more Christians turning the other cheek?

  4. 4.

    gnomedad

    What in Holy Hell?? This made no one angry? “Hallowed ground” and all that? My first thought was “lottery balls”. Special Patriot Day prize?

  5. 5.

    Comrade Mary

    Jesus Christ. I Read The Whole Thing: this was a promotion for the state lottery, not just some random wingnuts. JESUS. CHRIST.

  8. 8.

    KG

    there are moments when I seriously consider moving to some small island nation, either in the South Pacific or the Caribbean Sea… someplace that has access to satellite television, high speed internet (for poker and movie downloads), good beer, beautiful women, and Cuban cigars… this, right here, is one of those moments.

  10. 10.

    Chuck Biscuits

    God bless you people’s ability to make me laugh at things I would otherwise tear my hair out about.

  11. 11.

    Joseph Nobles

    And the ping pong balls have police and firefighter hats on. I’m thinking part of the lottery proceeds go to support first responders, and so by purchasing lottery tickets you are helping the people that run in when the rest of us are running out…

    But that is one seriously fucked-up way of pointing it out.

  15. 15.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    And this may be the way to defeat it: Do subtly more absurd things each year until people start associating 9/11 with the the spectacle, in the same way that the Texas fair means fried .

    This year’s somethings are fried frito pie and fried margarita.

  19. 19.

    Omnes Omnibus

    With the mention of ping pong balls and the Rude Pundit, I was expecting something other than this.

  22. 22.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Really, I’m shocked that the wingtards are not jumping up and down and screaming about how this lottery promotion is “desecrating” the sacred Wallow.

  23. 23.

    bkny

    good grief, that’s hysterically tasteless.

    i’m gonna have to check out that lottery connection; i don’t see any decals on those. regardless, it seems an awfully crass promotion for a state agency — particularly this day. save the cop/firefighter costumes for the irish day parade.

  24. 24.

    MattR

    FYI – This is not an official lottery promotion. It is something put together by these two guys in an effort to support the first responders and remind people of the health issues they have been facing.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I *think* that’s crass, tasteless commerciaIism, but I won’t know for sure until Princess Polar opines via tweet or twat.

    (Srsly? “Never forget, never forget” and 9/11 balls to promote the STATE LOT-O-REE? Who runs the NY StateLot anyhow, and who signed off on this? Jeesh.)

  27. 27.

    Marc

    Since the background looks exactly like one of the locations from Inception, I can only assume that these characters were implanted in the Rude Pundit’s subconscious as part of an elaborate con game.

    Because nothing else makes the slightest fucking sense.

  28. 28.

    Marc

    Also, I think we all know that the 9/11 theme park will open in the place where the scars of that day are still felt most deeply: Wasilla.

  29. 29.

    Rude Pundit

    A reader pointed out to me that the firefighter’s hat has the number 343 on it. That’s how many died on 9/11. I hope that, one day, a giant ball with arms marches around, smiling and waving at the tourists, in my memory.

  30. 30.

    J Edgar

    Almost a relief that it wasn’t politicizing 9/11.

    Wait, except now spending money on first responders health care makes Republicans cry.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattR #24: Those Lottery Peeps? Are going to give me nightmares. I’d rather curl up with Chucky.

  35. 35.

    geg6

    Heh, indeedy.

    Lee Papa is a national treasure. Perhaps Dick Cheney’s leather slave is now a dancer at the Sacred Ground Zero Strip Club, too.

    If you are a regular reader of The Rude Pundit, you get that.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Marc #28: I’m almost afraid to ask, but has anyone heard anything about the Peck-Balin fundraiser that was scheduled for today?

  40. 40.

    gnomedad

    @MattR:

    It is something put together by these two guys in an effort to support the first responders and remind people of the health issues they have been facing.

    Well, that’s a relief, I was afraid for a moment they were crassly promoting their business or something. My consciousness is totally raised now.

  41. 41.

    geg6

    OMG, The Rude Pundit is here at BJ. This is waaaaay more exciting than when assholes like Jake Tapper stop by pretending they aren’t the prostitutes we know they are. Love you, Rude Dude. Love you.

  44. 44.

    KG

    Honestly, in the event that the Republic does actually fall apart, I am holding out hope (against reason) that California will get it’s shit together, annex Baja and take WA OR AZ and Nv along to be my newly imagined paradise. Hopefully it never comes to that. Oh, hey my plane is here time to finally get home.

    Side note to increase my degenerate bonanfides: stuck in the Vegas airport, rather than go to a bar to watch a game or getthe comp out to be productive, I decided to play video poke her

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @ellaesther: Mazel tov! That’s HUGE.

    And wow, Rude Pundit is her! Also HUGE.

    This whole thread is 10 pounds of awesome in a 5-pound bag.

  47. 47.

    KG

    In re my last line in my last comment: that didn’t exactly come out the way I meant it to… Just think a game of chance machine

  50. 50.

    Comrade Mary

    @MattR: That’s — almost kind of a relief. Well-meaning amateurs do all kinds of nightmare-inducing things.

    But still, where the hell were these guys when taste and decorum were handed out, or even full out, in your face chutzpah? (Must. Not. Think. About. Giant. Lottery. Balls. In. Face. TOO. LATE. ARGH!!)

  51. 51.

    Warren Terra

    @Svensker:
    The Gulfs would indeed be a great place to live, and have all those things, but they are noted for the quality of their organic mutton rather than for constant sunshine, and the only bathing beauties I’ve seen there are seals and the occasional orca.

  52. 52.

    HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist

    Remember, in the face of a devastating attack it’s your patriotic duty to shop. And play the lotto.

  55. 55.

    JGabriel

    KG:

    Honestly, in the event that the Republic does actually fall apart, I am holding out hope (against reason) that California will get it’s shit together, annex Baja and take WA OR AZ and Nv along ….

    Wait a moment, KG. Take a pause and think for a minute: Do your really want Arizona?

    Since CA is taking Baja, why not let Mexico have AZ? Think of it as: Karma.

    .

  60. 60.

    soonergrunt

    What kind of happy horseshit is this? A group of American citizens want to build a community center three blocks away out of line of site of WTC, and they catch a bunch of shit, but giant fucking ping-pong balls exploit NYPD and NYFD deaths on 9/11 ON FUCKING 9/11 ON THE FUCKING WTC SITE and this isn’t an issue?

    This is concrete proof that wingnut christmas is the gift that keeps on giving. The wingnuts can give each other lottery tickets for presents on wingnut christmas. Also, they can collect and trade the Operation Desert Storm Playing Cards (Saddam Hussein was the Ace of Spades). Supposedly, the Bush admin was going to put out trading cards with American military personnel who had won medals like the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, and the Medal of Honor. Of course all the MOH awardees until yesterday were all posthumus. Story had it that the service chiefs went ballistic when the idea was floated to them, and so it was quietly killed.
    And to think that somebody actually tried to claim after 9/11/2001 that irony was dead.

    Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick. I think I’ll start chasing my Oxycontin with Wild Turkey on the rocks.

    Oh, and I’m delighted beyond measure that ‘wingnut christmas’ is now a tag. I feel as though I’ve arrived.

  64. 64.

    TheYankeeApologist

    Being back in NYC for the first time since 2005 was hard enough today. If I saw these four morons traipsing around, I probably would have “sullied the sacred ground” with a baseball-bat assault.

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