¡Lucha Libre!

Not much time for posting this week, but I’ll serve up tidbits when I can. For example, not long ago I saw a TV commercial that was actually funny. Or at least, I laughed out loud.

A fellow dressed like a Mexican wrestler—bright colors, mask and cape--was walking along a city sidewalk. From various places, people were calling out, “El Moola! El Moola!” The wrestler was waving and acknowledging the crowd, as he might in the ring. Suddenly a man runs up to the wrestler and pushes him down, just in time to save him from being crushed by a large shipping crate falling on the sidewalk. “I saved El Moola!” he man cries.

Cut to screen, which merely says: Save Moolah. It was an ad for a local cable company and its promo deals, but never mind that. It was humor that assumes an English-speaking audience, who would know the slang moolah -- which seems to have been slang a long time, without ever becoming standard (permaslang?) -- would also be a little familiar with the shtick of Mexican wrestlers, even if they (like me) have no interest in actually following Mexican wrestling.