King’s Slapdown Of Chavez Creates Cash Cow

When Hugo Chavez started spouting off about the former (Conservative) President of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar being a Fascist, during the Ibero-American Summit on Nov. 10th, the current Socialist President, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zaptero scolded him, and demanded him to show more respect. As Chavez interrupted and argued, the King of Spain, Juan Carlos irritably piped in with, “Why don’t you shut up”.

A worthy smack down if ever there was one.

A short time later, when Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a close Chavez ally, accused the Spanish embassy of interfering in Nicaraguan politics, the king walked out, a gesture Spanish media said was unprecedented.

I sure wish someone listening to Chavez’s unhinged rantings last year at the UN had had the balls to react similarly. Instead we were treated to the “Bush is the devil”, “smells of sulphur”, ” and “insh’allah” crazy talk, and nobody said a peep, that I can recall.

*bmac reminded me in the comment section that Charlie Rangel did speak up, (two days later in a press release condemning Chavez’s behavior), much to his credit.

It would have been nice if someone present at the UN on Sept. 19, while Chavez was ranting, had had the cojones to stand up and just tell him to just “Shut the @#$%& up”.

The really good news is, the people of Spain have embraced the King’s sentiments, and “Why don’t you shut up” has become the catch-phrase of the year:

Were the king to claim image rights over his less-than-diplomatic outburst, he could find himself a nice little earner, as those five famous words have become a multi-million euro business, selling ringtones, mugs, T-shirts and websites.

An estimated 500,000 people have already downloaded the ringtone, generating around €1.5m (£1m), but many companies have circumvented any potential problems over rights by using an actor’s voice instead of the king’s.

Over 700 videos have appeared on YouTube, with parodies ranging from a Benny Hill sketch to a Nike advert featuring the Brazilian star Ronaldinho, which ends: “Juan do it. Just shut up.”

Meanwhile, the Peña brothers, who run a small T-shirt company, have found themselves overwhelmed with orders for their design inspired by the king. They normally expect to sell 800 T-shirts in a year, but in the week of the king’s outburst their orders reached over 1,000.

I tried to find the Benny Hill sketch, but was unsuccessful.

This one, however is mildly amusing:

I’m hoping that the good king, Juan Carlos, has started something, here. Maybe the next time Chavez goes off half cocked in an international setting, leaders in attendance will be more inclined to put him in his place.

And for that, we all owe the king of Spain a debt of gratitude.