Because I am TAing for the Beatles class.
Did you know that Ringo was the most popular Beatle? He got the most fanmail of them all, which is a 100% true fact that I learned in school. Ringo is also my most favourite Beatle because he is so awkward and floppy. The only word to properly describe Ringo is floppy. He is also the least pretentious Beatle. And then there is this:
SO MANY QUESTIONS! Why are they sitting on stools, all in a row? Why are they bouncing up and down as though they are on a bumpy elephant ride? Why is it raining giant dandruff flakes? Why do John and George look like such uptight bastards? And most importantly: Who was like “Ringo, you’re going to sit at the back with this umbrella”? Because whoever it was was a genius, because Ringo hanging out with his umbrella at the end of the row like a jolly reject Beatle is the funniest thing I have ever seen. I keep re-watching this video in an attempt to unlock its mysteries.
George is also kind of hot, though.
Regan pointed out that it doesn’t look like stools, but perhaps two saw horses with a plank stretched end to end that they are straddling. This would explain the bouncing, or at least facilitate it. As for the other stuff, I just don’t know. But the umbrella does protect poor Ringo from the sky dandruff.
After making fun of undergrads and their papers about the Beatles for so long, please, please don’t make your doctorate (or postdoctorate) about the elusive nature of Ringo.
Regan is so right – it totally is sawhorses! Which makes even less sense, really – Help came out in, like, 1965, after the Beatles were already rich and famous from A Hard Day’s Night and everything that preceded it, so couldn’t they afford some furniture?
Today I was eating lunch with the prof and the two other TAs for the Beatles class and someone saw us and decided to figure out which of us would be which Beatle and picked me for Ringo without any influence on my part. So…I’m not going to do a dissertation about Ringo, but I might have to do a performance art piece about what it’s like being the Lady Ringo.