A couple weeks ago (yes I realize I'm late to the game here, but... well... I have work to do people!) my very favorite Twitter conversation occurred. The one and only Matt Cutts actually started the whole thing off by tweeting a great Princess Bride quote... what happened next was just sheer enjoyment. Really, who knew the search community was so into the Princess Bride? Rather than bore you to death by trying to explain it, instead I've put together a compilation of the conversation. I'm sure I've missed a number of great tweets as I may have missed them from people I'm not following (although I did do a Twitter search to gather as many as I could). But for the most part, this is how the evening went...
As you all know, if Matt Cutts says to do something, most SEOs tend to jump right on it. Apparently I'm no exception. :) So, without further ado, I present to you the Princess Bride cast of characters as seen through the eyes of the SEO world.
Buttercup: Vanessa Fox
Vanessa Fox: "And to think, all that time it was your JavaScript that wasn't optimized."
Vizzini: Jason Calacanis
Jason Calacanis: "SEO can help?! Inconceivable!"
Inigo Montoya: Matt Cutts
Matt Cutts: "My name is Matt Cutts. You spammed my index. Prepare to be banned!"
Miracle Max: Michael Gray
Michael Gray: "Good luck following the rules!"
And last, but definitely NOT least...
Westley: Danny Sullivan
Danny Sullivan: "You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept."
[hehe this one cracks me up]
There are lots of other great characters, which ones do you think I've missed? Would you change any of these characters?
PS thanks to Rand, Lindsay, Sam and Sarah for their help!
How about adding...
"I'll explain and I'll use small words so that you'll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon."
...Westley/Danny Sullivan moderating a panel discussion.
Danny Sullivan is The Grandfather, reading the story and making sure the disgusting parts (Reference to Grandson complaining about kissing in the story book) stay in the story. Which of course means we're all Fred Savage.
And shouldn't Matt Cutts be Miracle Max? After all, in SearchSpam he is the Seer. All seeing and all merciful...
And wheres the Six-fingered Man and Prince Humperdink? We need an antagonist here people! Can't have a decent movie without an antagonist!
So who are your choices for Six-fingered Man and Prince Humperdink?
Totally awesome post, jennita. Thanks for writing it--makes me want to go back and watch The Princess Bride again. :)
Here's commitment...I went to the video storage cabinet to dig out my old copy to watch on Saturday night (yes, I know, sad really - don't get out much)...gone, disappeared..."Inconceivable!"...so off I go to the local video store - out of stock...
"Inconceivable!"
...by now I'm starting to become just a little fixated...off to the Mall...
And yes! A "Deluxe, Two Disc Set"....$9.98 on DVD (a tragedy in itself)...and no BluRay...
"Inconceivable!"
...but we had a great night...enhanced by compulsory pizza and red wine...you know things are a little weird when your friends also know all the quotes.
lol look at that right after my comment :)
"I just realized why you are giving me so much trouble. I usually fight groups of twenty men at a time for charity and such. The moves are different."So many great lines, so little time.
I still answer my wife with, "As you wish." ;p
if Inigo was not matt cutts, the six fingered man and his crew could definitely be the search quality team as they are the ones who throw sites in to the pit of despair! And who would be the manager of the pit, the albino, someone handling recinclusion requests("don't even think about trying to escape")?
Oh man, this was a great read!
I haven't seen TPB in over 10 years.
I need to go buy that right now. I remember TPB so clearly.
Great Comparison too, first laugh of the week for me.
Classic! Probably my absolute favorite movie. Luckily I have the DVD so I can watch it again. Thanks Jennita - I'll be cracking up all night :)
<Swordfight>
Inigo: You are Wonderful.
Man in Black: Thank you; I've worked hard to become so.
Inigo: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Man in Black: Then why are you smiling...?
Inigo: Because I know something you don't.
Man in Black: And what is that?
Inigo: I am not left handed!
"Why can't I move? Why am I up against this wall?"
"You've been mostly dead all day."
These post are hilarious, even - especially - the one complaining that they are off topic and the response. :)
I don't remember all of the movie but the names are familiar and much of it was shot here in New Zealand. When they finally reach the "Queen" she turns out to be what the local audience recognised as a familiar environmental pest and common roadkill, the brush-tailed possum. And then it talks!
We were watching in the theatre where Jackson premiered The Twin Towers - one of Wellington City's largest - and the entire audience, who had been spellbound up to this point, TOTALLY cracked up!
Thanks for the memory and the chance to share
Phil
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
At one of my past gigs, we used Princess Bride locations for our meeting rooms. The meeting room nearest the sales team was the Cliffs of Insanity.
LMAO - I love Princess Bride! How in the world did I miss this whole thing? Oh yeah, I'm east coast.
This is awesome Jennita. My favorite post of the year by far!
Awwww why thank you! And THIS is my favorite comment all year. :)
Google as Count Rugen talking to every SEO trying to rank #1 for the keyword SEO.
P.S. Awesome post!
And finally...
"Because iocaine comes from Australia, as everyone knows. And Australia is entirely peopled with criminals. And criminals are used to having people not trust them as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you." - Vizzini
...which therefore does not bode well for us SEO types here downunder...talk about a handicap!
"Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
What about Fezzik?! Am I the only one saddened by a lack of Andre-the-Giant-love here? I propose Fezzik be represented broadly by Black Hats everywhere: "My way's not very sportsmanlike."
No, Fezzik is a white hat. He used to fight gangs for local charities.
Man in Black: You mean, you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword, and we'll try and kill each other like civilized people?
"I do not envy you the headache you will have when you awake. But in the meantime, rest well and dream of large women."
I honestly can't think of anyone in the SEO community that simply stands out as the large imposing figure.
This post is awesome. truly..... amazing
jennita, i just wanted to say that i love how you started you're post with a space instead of Is. ;p
@DustinMa there's nothing wrong with occassionally posting humorous and not so educational posts now & then. besides if you read the title of the post before you read the post and then complained, maybe you should go back and read the title again. says it all. i'm just sayin'. :)
looks like i'll be getting out the princess bride dvd tonight.
haha I actually didn't even do that on purpose, however I did make sure I didn't start the sentence with "Is" haha. Learned my lesson there!
@kimber there's nothing wrong with someone giving feedback on a post whether it's negative or positive.
Just sayin.
no. no there's not. and i did not thumb the guy down for it either. he asked if anyone felt the same so i gave him my opinion that i did not feel the same. that's all. like i said..."i'm just sayin'." but i guess i can get thumbed down for a positive comment.
@kimber, while I agree that straying off from time to time and lightening the mood can be good, I'm not sure I agree that the title says it all. Yes, the title does say what the post will be about, but it doesn't say that there will be no real SEO value in the post at all. What I mean is, perhaps it was the same title, but then somewhere either in the middle or at the end, @jennita made some correlation to how this can be a useful way to start building online reputation within a community, should we not have read it?
I was sort of in the same mind frame as @DustinMa, but took the thought process that you noted about ligthening up from time to time. If I'm being honest, I would much rather a blog for "off SEO topics" on SEOmoz, rather then having to figure out if a post is SEO related or not. But that's just how I would run it if I was in charge.
The post did bring back some memories though, so that was good!
I read it, but that is why part of my argument the way it is.
I have about 20+ retweet battles on twitter alone that are way funnier than this. Also the use of hashtags I have had way funnier convo's/retweets...
I guess I was expecting more lulz? More roflcopters? Maybe I was hoping to travel more on lollerskates...
Hey DustinMa:
It's just a sense of humour thing. There are certain things that make some people laugh while others just stare with a "huh?" in their eyes, and the converse is true.
Then again there are people that never laugh, and as long as you're not in that category it's all good.
My favorite has to be the last one. Fun Post Jennita...thanks for the giggles. :)
Makes me want to Twitter :)
Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
Jennita - this post is awesome. truly.
i want to talk to a google search engineer
Not sure how Lindsay avoided being Miracle Max's wife Valerie.
I participated in the character selection process, that's how. My husband agrees with you though. It must be the line, "I'm not a witch! I'm your wife!"
Oh yea, that one made me laugh out loud!
I also wish to know where were the ROUSes in all of this.
Yea we actually had a couple guys selected who are superhuman tall... Where were you when we were making this list, apparently you could have helped :P
as a Princess Bride fan, I loved this. Bravo!
We missed this exchange and you flaunt it? Why don't you just give us a papercut and pour lemon juice all over it? To the pain!!
Grandpa, can we play this again tomorrow?
Great post. (Surprised nobody's used As You Wish).
Aaaaaaassssss Yooooooooouuuuuuu Wwwwwiiiiiissshhhhhhhh
and after all this time it made me giggle too!
So sorry I wasn't around for the original twitter "moments", but many thanks for reposting it Jennita - gonna take me a long time to work my way back through the blog two years!
As to lack of relevance?
"Inconceivable!"
Sha
Don't stop now - having seen this, I'm now waiting for the YouTube video of The Princess Bride with voice overs cut from SMX conferences.
***Oops - meant Vimeo of course ;)***
This is the post of the week, I simply love it lol.
Inigo Montoya: "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Matt Cutts: "My name is Matt Cutts. You spammed my index. Prepare to be banned!"
hahaha
He's not dead, he's mostly dead.
Twu wuv.
My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!
I love that movie - I finally found a reason to Tweet!
Westley: Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire. He took me to his cabin and he told me his secret. 'I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts' he said. 'My name is Ryan; I inherited the ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from is not the real Dread Pirate Roberts either. His name was Cummerbund
No offense but this is seems really immature and outdated. Maybe if this was like when Twitter first started this would be amusing but this seems to lack anything of use. I have constant twitter conversations and retweet battles on twitter and this just does not amuse me in any way shape or form. I love the movie and all, but this just seems lacking.
Anyone else feel the same way?
It's summer. It's Friday. It's a funny post. Heck, it's even my birthday. I think we should be able to have some light, humorous, non-SEO stuff every once in a while. If it's not your cup of tea, that's totally fine, but it would seem wiser to just skip it rather than denying those who enjoy it their chuckle.
@Rand, first off Happy Birthday, hope its been a good one.
Now back to my comment - I wouldn't go as far as saying DustinMa denied anyone anything. He simply posted, as everyone else did his thought on the post. He probably took a little too harsh of a way of wording it, but I tend to agree with some of what he said, as noted in my comment to @kimber.
Thank you, I think me being 21 and having nothing but all of my friends on twitter and maybe 1 or 2 professional people being followed has something to do with it.
I think maybe high profile people who use twitter don't get the laughs like I get on twitter on a daily basis.
HAH! All it took was 1 negative comment on a VERY serious post to get Rand to reply to me on his b-day
did I just win?
ps. have a great b-day man *hi five to another summer baby*
@Rand, happy birthday as well! You should give yourself the rest of the day off and enjoy a little longer weekend:-)
Cheers
Nope :)