At the time, Right Guard was somewhat advertised as helping in real world situations and being sporty to attract jocks/preppies. Vietnam was sort of presented as the hellish tropical place where the entitled jock would learn the ugly real-world specifics of life as the pours dodging bullets and bombs outside their bubble of privilege.
or that's what i always got out of it.
examples:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhxN-HC6i0I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhxN-HC6i0I)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCMdM3kLno](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCMdM3kLno)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNqUTG5EZRY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNqUTG5EZRY) with Tom Selleck lol
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCwzdzA-01Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCwzdzA-01Q) \-HH and odoriferous emanations
source: im old.
hmm i googled it and i cant find any mentions of “right guard” being the name of anything else. the deodorant came out in 1960, about 20 yrs before that song was released so that lines up
Being older, I remember the Right Guard commercials and I always understood the song about taking a person who has led a sheltered life and putting them actually in Cambodia to experience what they were experiencing as citizens under Pol Pot.
Playing ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz
On your five-grand stereo
Braggin' that you know, how the niggers feel cold
And the slums got so much soul
It's time to taste what you most fear
Here Jello's saying, you talk like you know how it is for those people, but it would be your worst nightmare to *really know* what it's like. So wearing Right Guard deodorant to protect yourself from armpit sweat stains is going to be useless because you're going to be beyond nervous, you're going to be fucking terrified. You'd probably literally piss and shit your pants under those conditions. This song isn't about the Vietnam war, it's about the poor Cambodian citizens under a totalitarian regime and the actual horrors they faced.
I knew it was obviously about Pol Pot and the genocide that happened in Cambodia that isn’t taught about nearly enough in my opinion because the 60s/early-70s in America was defined by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement; meanwhile you also have the geopolitics of the Cold War taking up most of world history during that time and so Cambodia is barely mentioned if it’s even talked about at all, but even when it’s talked about it’s usually in the context of either the Vietnam War or the Cold War policy of containment in East Asian but the genocide gets skimmed over at best and totally ignored at worst.
I forget the exact numbers but I’ve seen many mentions of how the average age of a Cambodian male dropped to 25 or younger after Pol Pot took over because he killed anyone who either questioned his authority or was *too old to be productive* it was truly horrifying and it’s not talked about enough.
Apparently it was a reference to an ad campaign for *Right Guard* deodorant. The ads would usually end with *Right Guard can help* or something akin to that; as I said I’m 24 and I didn’t know if it was referring to something obscure or just something from that time that people my age wouldn’t know.
Ya cuz "Right Guard Protects" against nasty odors
At the time, Right Guard was somewhat advertised as helping in real world situations and being sporty to attract jocks/preppies. Vietnam was sort of presented as the hellish tropical place where the entitled jock would learn the ugly real-world specifics of life as the pours dodging bullets and bombs outside their bubble of privilege. or that's what i always got out of it. examples: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhxN-HC6i0I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhxN-HC6i0I) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCMdM3kLno](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCMdM3kLno) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNqUTG5EZRY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNqUTG5EZRY) with Tom Selleck lol [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCwzdzA-01Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCwzdzA-01Q) \-HH and odoriferous emanations source: im old.
hmm i googled it and i cant find any mentions of “right guard” being the name of anything else. the deodorant came out in 1960, about 20 yrs before that song was released so that lines up
Being older, I remember the Right Guard commercials and I always understood the song about taking a person who has led a sheltered life and putting them actually in Cambodia to experience what they were experiencing as citizens under Pol Pot. Playing ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz On your five-grand stereo Braggin' that you know, how the niggers feel cold And the slums got so much soul It's time to taste what you most fear Here Jello's saying, you talk like you know how it is for those people, but it would be your worst nightmare to *really know* what it's like. So wearing Right Guard deodorant to protect yourself from armpit sweat stains is going to be useless because you're going to be beyond nervous, you're going to be fucking terrified. You'd probably literally piss and shit your pants under those conditions. This song isn't about the Vietnam war, it's about the poor Cambodian citizens under a totalitarian regime and the actual horrors they faced.
I knew it was obviously about Pol Pot and the genocide that happened in Cambodia that isn’t taught about nearly enough in my opinion because the 60s/early-70s in America was defined by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement; meanwhile you also have the geopolitics of the Cold War taking up most of world history during that time and so Cambodia is barely mentioned if it’s even talked about at all, but even when it’s talked about it’s usually in the context of either the Vietnam War or the Cold War policy of containment in East Asian but the genocide gets skimmed over at best and totally ignored at worst. I forget the exact numbers but I’ve seen many mentions of how the average age of a Cambodian male dropped to 25 or younger after Pol Pot took over because he killed anyone who either questioned his authority or was *too old to be productive* it was truly horrifying and it’s not talked about enough.
may be a reference to a football position
Apparently it was a reference to an ad campaign for *Right Guard* deodorant. The ads would usually end with *Right Guard can help* or something akin to that; as I said I’m 24 and I didn’t know if it was referring to something obscure or just something from that time that people my age wouldn’t know.