Of all the infomercials out there, this is the only one I absolutely cannot flip past. Vince with ShamWow is just so... hypnotic! He has his patter down pat. It's just like walking past one of Those booths at the state fair every year, right down to the microphone headset. I think my favorite part is when he punches the ShamWow into the white shag carpet, onto which he has poured a large amount of soda. It's just so… violent! When was the last time you saw someone punch something in an infomercial? No matter how much soda I had just spilled on my carpet, I'm fairly sure I would not punch it like that. Also, I would not want to get on Vince's bad side. Questions regarding the ShamWow commercial:

I understand they went with the phonetic spelling of "chamois." Probably because the original French spelling would seem too off-putting to their target demographic. But did they really think this through? If you wanted to pitch an item through an infomercial, would you put the word "sham" in the product's name?

I really think that Vince's audio is being picked up by his headset microphone, and that it's not just a prop. Listen to his fricatives - they "pop" a lot more than they would if his audio was being picked up by a regular microphone.So the question is… why? Is it somehow more convincing if he wears a state fair style headset? Does it make him seem more competent and technical and high tech? Every time I see him wearing that thing, I can practically smell the turkey drumsticks and Corn On A Stick.

What's with that comment about the Germans? Every time I hear him say "You know the Germans..." I do not expect "always make good stuff" to follow.

Do "Olympic divers" really use the ShamWow as a towel? Why? Is the assumption here that an Olympic diver gets even more wet than a regular diver? Or is it that an Olympic diver needs to get more dry than a regular diver?

The commercial overtly invokes the state fair by showing "man on the street" clips of people in front of the ShamWow booth, which appears to be located at an actual state fair. What is it about the state fair experience that the ShamWow makers want to evoke in their viewers? What association are they going for, there?

The statement, "You're going to spend twenty dollars on paper towels every month anyway." I have to question this statement. I buy paper towels that cost $1 per roll. I can tell you for a fact that I do not buy 20 rolls of paper towels per month. Even if you assume a consumer who buys the $4 a roll paper towels would have to buy 5 of those per month to fulfill this statement. Who buys that many paper towels?!

"This lasts [ten years]." This statement has obviously been dubbed in afterwards. And clearly the scene was filmed such that they could drop in any number. Always reminds me of that Simpsons episode.