Ginsu Knives!

[sans soul]

Way back in the day when I was watching SPC for the first time, I remember my father cracking up laughing while he caught part of an episode with me. He started spouting lines like, "Ginsu Knives - Slices so thin your in-laws will never come back!", "It slices onions so fast you don't have time to cry!" and other similar ridiculous lines.

Ginsu Knives were apparently a huge infomercial product in 1978 that gained popularity with their silly catch phrases (sound familiar?) and 50 year guarantee.

It just crossed my mind that I've been retaining knowledge of this for almost two decades, and I'm not sure I ever mentioned it. Until tonight!

I searched for it on youtube and managed to find the original infomercial. Check it out!
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abLB7aTmnE4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abLB7aTmnE4</a>

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! xD

You can also check out their website, "http://GinsuGuys.com" and learn more about the madness behind the merch and learn the secrets of the Ginsu with their book "The Wisdom of the Ginsu". Might be a good read for Ninja Crows. ;7

*

[KageReneko]

Wow... 1978?? The year I was born!!!

Well, we also had the Ginzu knives commercials but they were around  in the same years that I watched the series (1992-1993) so I always thought that was new stuff... It shows again how much behind are south american countries about merchadising...

I always loved when they were cutting a frigging shoe with the knives!!

[Violet]

I'm old enough to actually remember seeing Ginsu commercials in the 80s, so I always got the "Ginsu sword" reference in SPC.  It was the real origin of the "hard sell" pitchman style infomercial that BILLY MAYS was so famous for. 
And "ginsu" is just a made up name that sounds Japanese, but has no Japanese meaning at all.

[PizzaCatFan]

Yeah, those knives were sold well up into the 1990s, so the ads are quite vivid in my mind.  They spawned TONS of look-alike products in those days. *

SPC is full of little pop-culture quirks like this.  While they are a bit dated these days, they are partly what keeps me coming back for more.

Edit: * .......and they are apparently still sold to this day.

[Tigriss]

I actually have two of those little steak knives at home here, and I always wanted to take a pic of one and post it on the forums with a joke about "The Magical Ginsu Knife!", but the writing on it is so faint that I could never get a good shot of it. Perhaps I'll try again once I get my Yattarou toy.

And "ginsu" is just a made up name that sounds Japanese, but has no Japanese meaning at all.

Are you sure? I know "gin" means "silver", and when I tried looking up "ginsu", the closet word was "ginsunago", which means "silver dust". Maybe they were going for something like that, or maybe they just got lucky.

[Violet]

Yes, I'm sure.  The developer admitted he just made it up.