Mentos Finger: Difference between revisions

 

The term arose in the rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc newsgroup in the mid-1990s at a time when commercials for Mentos mints were so frequently repeated between breaks -- often two or more back-to-back -- that it seemed it was the only sponsor ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' could get. Every one of the commercials (which had no speaking parts other than the voiceover, so they could be played worldwide) ended with the protagonist beaming towards the camera, holding a package of the candies, in a gesture that the weary fans took to resemble someone flipping them off.

 

* Parodied by [[Weird Al Yankovic (Music)|Weird Al Yankovic]] on a TV special where he's shown [[No One Could Survive That|pushing a guy off the roof to his death]], and when others respond with horror and outrage, he holds up a pack of Mentos causing the others to smile and give him the thumbs up. Mentos have since become pop-culture shorthand for a [[Deus Ex Machina]].

** Also parodied in ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' when John Wilkes Booth misses the shot and shoots Abraham Lincoln's top hat. Abe's pretty pissed until Booth pulls out his stick of Mentos. Peter [[Comically Missing the Point|comically misses the point]] and wanders off to kill Lincoln.

*** Satirized also in ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' Where Rob is discussing how he got punched in the face on the subway. Apparently, he sat on somebody'd groceries by accident, but that's not what pissed the guy off; he only hit Rob after he tried to lighten the moment by pulling out some Mentos.

* Spoofed '''on''' [[MST3K]], in a sketch called "Mystos!". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHuQVSS_C-M\]

* The music video for [[Foo Fighters (Music)|Foo Fighters]]' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLdJQFTnZfA Big Me]" is entirely a parody of this (even the product is renamed "Footos").