9/19/2009

in

The most brilliantly random holiday of the year is here!

Andy Mac Laughlin

Beloved of college students all over the English speaking speaking world, and a concept so ridiculous that it might just be the single greatest idea anyone has ever come up with- yes, today happens to be the 14th annual "Talk Like A Pirate Day".  
  
John Baur and Mark Summers sound like the kind of guys everyone would want to hang out with. The day is their baby, and they joke that it's the only international holiday to come into being as the result of a sports injury. During a racquetball game between the pair, one of them reacted to the pain with a cry of "Aaar", and from that tiny acorn, the idea was born in a baffling feat of associative logic.  
  
It's a holiday everyone can embrace, isn't likely to offend anybody, and a celebration of the absurd- a declaration of joie de vivre and laughing in the face of doomsday prophets. Embracing the day can bring people back to basics, allow them to forget the precarious state of the world today and remember their carefree days of immaturity (This morning I have already laughed more than in the entire previous month).  
  
Many credit syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry with the growth of the idea from an inside joke to a day that can honestly be called international. Barry loved the idea after Baur and Summers contacted him, and his extensive promotion (along with the media exposure that followed) allowed creative and viral growth.  
  
Musician Tom Smith has written and recorded the official anthem of the holiday, unsurprisingly calling it "Talk like a Pirate Day". [LA Times blogger Carolyn Kellogg](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/09/argh-its-talk-like-a-pirate-day-again-mateys.html) suggests several Pirate pick-up lines for use today, and jokingly reminds that not all pirate talk is suitable for children! Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day, embrace it. Why? Because it's silly, immature, ridiculous, and outrageously funny. And we need that.