"What happens in Vegas..."

There few things that grate on my nerves more than the phrase "What happens in [whatever place you happen to be], stays in [same place]." Unfortunately, someone is peddling a product on eBay that applies this annoying cliche to the sacred altar of tiki culture: "What happens at the tiki bar, stays at the tiki bar."

I don't like it one bit. To me, that detestable platitude has always been synonymous with generic party culture. It's as if the vapid and the unoriginal honestly believe that whatever bland drama unfolds on their evening of watered-down vodka tonics and house music will be so earth-shattering, so controversial, so mind-blowingly revolutionary that news of these pedestrian events must never be allowed to reach the ears of the naive and uninitiated. But this is even worse. This particular incarnation extends the horrible purview of triteness to generic island culture, a central mandate of which is apparently the bleaching of all substance and kitsch from true midcentury faux Polynesian pop culture through haphazard, cheap and cartoonish misuse of borrowed (stolen?) terminology. It's Buffetism run amok, a reflection of the same bastardized perspective that birthed the Vegas Trader Vic's.

In summary, I will not be buying the product linked above and in general do not approve of its message. So, take that, vile eBay glassware seller!

[ Edited by: BrickHorn 2009-05-21 11:53 ]

So...are you saying you don't like that sign? :D

Since we are all entitled to our own opinions, here's mine...
I liken the phrase,"What happens in..." to trying to relate an in depth, drawn out, madcap story of an event that occurred to someone that wasn't there. You're still laughing about it but the person to whom you're telling the tale looks at you with a blank expression as if to say they don't get the joke. You invariably end up saying,"Well, I guess you had to be there."
So to me it just seems easier to use "The Phrase".

On 2009-05-21 12:11, bigbrotiki wrote:
So...are you saying you don't like that sign? :D

Somehow I knew you'd show up early on this thread, and generally agree with me. :)

Heath - "You had to be there" is fine. Maybe, once upon a time, "what happens in..." had a legitimate purpose. But that purpose has long since drowned in the noise of party-goers laying down this trite ground rule in anticipation of events worthy of sworn secrecy.

I think they are trying to come up with a clever new version of the many kinds of "TIKI BAR" signs that have flooded the market in recent years, which always seemed awkward to me in the first place. If you would have to hang a sign on your bar that points that out, it wouldn't be much of one in the first place, me thinks.

However, there is an old rumpus room tradition of having wisecrack sayings on little wooden signs hang in your home bar, employing the same kind of ribald folk humor that cocktail napkin cartoons did. But trying to imitate that type of corniness today gets dicey, it usually ends up becoming today's corny (which is just corny), not yesterday's corny (which is funny).

Let's burn them at the stake!....er tiki torch. :)

Looks like at least one bidder finds it amusing.

I don't mind the saying as much as I mind the awful tiki on the sign. Yech!!

On 2009-05-21 12:40, bigbrotiki wrote:

However, there is an old rumpus room tradition of having wisecrack sayings on little wooden signs hang in your home bar, employing the same kind of ribald folk humor that cocktail napkin cartoons did. But trying to imitate that type of corniness today gets dicey, it usually ends up becoming today's corny (which is just corny), not yesterday's corny (which is funny).

My dad always had this sign at his home bar: "This ain't no Sunday school." Eh... not great, but it fit him.

Mmmmm... what was this thread about?

I'm making one that says "If your wife drives you to drink....have her drive you here"...:)

KK

well having to sit under that sign I wouldn't want anybody to hear about either!
...so it kinda makes sence ! lol

What happens in Vegas... can't be cured with Penicillin anymore :D