I recently went to another amusement/attraction/theme park trade convention with Callaghan, whose work places him in the midst of this collective recreational industry. All I have to say is this: The Pirate obsession has to end at some point. It has to. I’m not just saying this because Pirates are annoyingly ubiquitous. It’s that and the fact that they’ve dominated our popular culture for so ridiculously long now, and I don’t like them, anyway. When did the first Pirates of the Caribbean come out… 10, 11 years ago? I wouldn’t know, since I haven’t seen it, or any of them. Pirates (and Johnny Depp, for that matter) do nothing for me.
If I want to watch some sea-faring bad-assery happening on a big screen, give me Vikings. Seriously, why is it always Pirates? Pirates are assholes. Vikings can be assholes, too, but they’re not assholes by definition, like Pirates are. The Vikings didn’t go running around on the high seas stealing other kids’ lunch money, like the Pirates did. Vikings had more important things to do. And I’m not impressed that Pirates were more colorful than Vikings, because all that means is that the Pirates plundered ships containing textiles from exotic, colorful places, and they exchanged their dirty clothes for clean ones in the plundering process. Pirates should not be given credit for their fashion sense. They stole it. Vikings, on the other hand, wore clothes in drab colors because that was just what they had at home, and they didn’t waste time attacking other ships in non-territorial waters like all cowardly criminals do (Pirates). The Vikings saved their attacks for coastal areas on land.
So let’s take a look.
Pirates: sea-faring criminals
Vikings: sea-faring explorers and warriors
Pirates: Skull and Crossbones
Vikings: The Hammer of Thor
Pirates: Schooners
Vikings: Longships
Pirates: Jolly Roger flag on ship
Vikings: Dragon Head mast on ship
Pirates: sword and gun
Vikings: battle-axe and spear
Pirates: head scarves, billowy linen blouses
Vikings: iron helmets, chain-mail shirts
Pirates: rarely bathed
Vikings: bathed every Saturday
And finally:
Pirates: Disney
Vikings: American National Football League
YOU DECIDE.