Talk:Vince Offer

Real or Not?

I feel like an idiot, but I honestly can't tell... is Shamwow real or a joke? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.105.230.36 (talk) 16:22, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately it is real. Sad but true 75.77.27.50 (talk) 20:05, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Go to Shamwow!

The portion under the SlapChop where it mentions the Graty seems more like a product advertisement than a relevant part of the article at hand. What does having the Graty bundled with the SlapChop have to do with Vince? That section needs cleaning up and a more relevant tie in (if any). 67.193.56.197 (talk) 17:57, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

He won best as seen on TV ad. http://www.cnbc.com/id/28873174 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chadmd23 (talk • contribs) 17:11, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Stop Redirect

Someone must stop the redirect for Shamwow to here. It hased to be used for Shamwow! (The product has an exclamation mark) —Preceding unsigned comment added by ChuckCoke (talk • contribs) 23:50, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I wondered the same thing, why does/must "Shamwow" redirect to this page.....? Certainly there could be a "Shamwow" or even "Shamwow!" page pointing out the truths/falacies of the product, etc? The redirect makes one believe "Vince Offer" IS the ShamWow :P When infact he's merely the spokesperson. --67.34.188.252 (talk) 16:36, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Yeah - at the very least, a stub needs to be created that refers to this article, but not redirected! It's like Billy Mays never tried to sell one. Omnichad (talk) 15:14, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

• I thought Billy Mays sold Zorbeez, not ShamWow!. --75.33.85.249 (talk) 06:23, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Scout in TF2

Is this really something that should be included within the first paragraph of the article? Is it significant? Is it even true? There's no citation and it's probably just rumor. --75.128.2.80 (talk) 18:39, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

It seems somebody put that he "looks like" the scout and then somebody else changed it to the scout was infact modeled after him. I'm just going to remove it now. If you have a compelling reason to put it back, then do so and leave a note here. --75.128.2.80 (talk) 18:45, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

He looks like scout. Scout is definetly NOT modeled after him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gufu (talk • contribs) 21:44, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

On the new Scout update, the scout's taunts have numerous Shamwow references, with one saying "If you order now, I'll throw in a second beating, absolutely free!" Proof of the quote right here. [1] 75.166.101.134 (talk) 14:09, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Birth Date

Does anyone have a birthdate for this guy? We need that essential fact. --24.11.41.243 (talk) 04:29, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• Birth date, Birth Place, etc etc. I guess this attritubes to no personal interviews ever being done with the guy, but still! Also, is he from New York or Jersey? Gawd, that accent! --69.119.164.208 (talk) 10:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

• • According to public records (an Intelius related search), an "Offer V. Shlomi" in California -- with an alias of Vince Offer -- was born on April 25th, 1964. I don't know how to cite public records for his birth name or birth date, but there you go... A49erfan (talk) 05:58, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
    • So his name's Offer Shlomi and he's 45? 24.228.54.78 (talk) 02:12, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

His name

Does anyone know if "Offer" is actually his real name? Was he born with that name? Or is it just an incredible coincidence that he became a salesman?Harksaw (talk) 18:46, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I think his real name is Vince Shlomi. Someone in the movie has that family name too. Scientology Page —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.37.110.172 (talk) 05:11, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Why the headset?

Why does Vince wear the headset? Is Shamwow just a distraction from his gig in the fast food drive thru? And what does he mean when he announces that he is demonstrating Shamwow in "real time" ?. It sounds really important to me. 68.55.61.153 (talk) 02:23, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the "real-time" comment is to allay concerns of any camera-trickery. Interestingly enough, you can see that most of the puddle beneath the carpet has disappeared when it comes time for the shamwow to perform. As for the headset...perhaps an attempt to lend credibility to the claims. –xeno (talk) 15:44, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

The headset is from his days as a flea market barker, where they'd have a speaker system set up at large booths so that groups of 100 or so can see the product demonstrated. If you watch both of the ads you can see that when they get the testemonials they're doing it at some place with a similar format. In fact in the ShamWOW! one, you can see Vince in the background during one of the clips doing his spiel. -- Grant.Alpaugh 06:31, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Protected for 1 day

I've protected the article for 24 hours so that the current content dispute can be addressed here, on the talk page. –xeno (talk) 15:01, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

WP:NOR and "nuts"

Earlier versions of the page were filled with original research as several IP editors wished to list their favorite jokes from Vince Offer commercials. I'd like to maintain the WP:NOR and WP:V rules, not to mention the problems of keeping the article encyclopedic. THF (talk) 15:03, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible to reliably source any of his "jokes"? It stands to reason that it is his style of advertising (double entendre, etc.) that makes him notable outside other infomercial pitchmen. –xeno (talk) 15:05, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

There exists one published article about Offer, published in Slate. This article already cites that article for a variety of jokes. Having done vandalism-watch on this BLP for a month now, after improving it from its original wretched state, I can assure you this article will get very bad very quickly if every anon gets to put in his favorite joke from the ad based on their original research of what they thought funniest about it. THF (talk) 15:13, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Here's another recent cite that can be added when the article is unprotected. THF (talk) 15:17, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

The "nuts" joke seems to be particularly notable, with over 50,000 hits for "you're gonna love my nuts". –xeno (talk) 15:28, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Only 548 when combined with Vince Offer, and 4700 with SlapChop. So what? It's not in a WP:RS: zero Google news hits. Best one can do is this implicit reference in this Houston Chronicle article. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/6215205.html THF (talk) 15:34, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Nice catch. can we work that in to source the joke? I agree we don't want every one of his one liners in there, but I think the "nuts" and the "germans" comment deserve mention. I think I've involved myself, so I'd better just unprotect at this point. let's try to work together rather than just rv-war. –xeno (talk) 15:40, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

here's a cite that talks about his "abrasive" nature. –xeno (talk) 15:31, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

College daily paper opinion column isn't much better than a blog, but we already have a cite for the abrasive nature from the Slate piece (which, coincidentally, uses much of the same language). THF (talk) 15:34, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

What is wrong with his face? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.45.18.142 (talk) 07:31, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with it. He just has a weird set of facial expressions. 24.228.54.78 (talk) 01:57, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Shamwow, the product is a scam

http://www.infomercialratings.com/product/shamwow_reviews

Of course we can't add THAT little fact to the article. Because then he would be a scam artist. FX (talk) 05:03, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

And I'm dissatisfied with my SlapChop. But WP:NOT#CHAT. THF (talk) 05:26, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

I guess it comes down to, what source is considered valid for product reviews, and is WP going to include that information in articles. OK that is actually two different issues. Since ShamWow! doesn't have an article (and GHY if you try to start one) I pointed out the fact here, that ShamWow! is a scam, a rip off, a crap product.

While this is a fact, what source could possibly be used for that little bit of knowledge? FX (talk) 11:07, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Google News has links to several tv news shows' testing out the ShamWow. THF (talk) 11:37, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Gee. You're telling me that a piece of cloth sold by a rather offputting gentleman using the most obvious camera tricks in infomercial history is a Sham? Wow! 24.228.54.78 (talk) 01:50, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Memedom

I believe there should be at least some mention of Vince's popularity as somewhat of an internet meme. He's constantly quoted throughout the internet (Mostly from his infomercials), and both his infomercials have spawned countless parodies and remixes on youtube. It at least seems worth a line or two in the article, since that seems to be the main thing for which he's known these days. With all due honesty, I'd probably do it myself, but I don't have a wikipedia account, and I'm not in any way familiar with wikipedia standards or formatting, so I'll leave it to you pros. 67.181.89.125 (talk) 00:32, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

I have an account, and I still have trouble making things come out right. FX (talk) 01:39, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Ctrl+Alt+Delete comic

The fact that Offer has been spoofed by one of the most popular webcomics surely attributes to the subject's notability, no? Why do people keep removing it? –xeno (talk) 01:00, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

It's not notable enough for it to be put on the Wikipedia entry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.103.137.88 (talk) 01:03, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

but Notability applies to articles, not their content. –xeno (talk) 01:04, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I would tend to agree with the IP. Ctrl+Alt+Delete isn't all that. Even as webcomics go. One could make a very good argument that it flunks WP:WEB: that article cites just a single secondary source, and the line "Buckley put out his first batch of T-shirts and made nearly $7,000 in profits" pretty much demonstrates a lack of notability. I wouldn't edit-war over it, but other editors seem to agree with me. THF (talk) 01:07, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Indeed, I seem to be in a minority. Just thought it would help to prop up the subject's notability. As so astutely pointed out above, we need to somehow capture his "Memedom" in the article. –xeno (talk) 01:10, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree with THF. The webcomic itself is not particularly notable, and the reference especially so. It certainly does not deserve or warrant mention on this page, as doing so would be tantamount to adding a trivia section or the like, which seems frowned upon. Fuzzygenius (talk) 07:21, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

As the original poster of the comic, I think that it is a viable answer to the need to show his 'memedom' mentioned above. Perhaps it shouldn't be the focus of the section, but I think it is a good example, at least. More could be added. Kayru-kitsune (talk) 07:07, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

ShamWow ABCNews Review

This section was cut, it needs to be worked into the prose (if appearing at all, no prejudice to it remaining cut. –xeno (talk) 04:35, 4 March 2009 (UTC))

ABCNews has done a realistic review of the Sham wow. "Let Daphne try it" is a consumer review of the product done in December 2008.