Todays rip: 10/02/2024

Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source

Season 5 Featured on: Bloodstained Bounties ~ The SiIvaGunner All​-​Star Summer Festival 2021 Collection [Event Side]

Ripped by minindo

Way early into the blog's life, on the 20th of July 2023, I covered the rip Everything Circus - a Season 2 rip featuring one of my all-time favorite channel memes, hhgregg. I didn't cover all too much on the guy back then beyond the basics: The source was sparingly used in Season 1, then gradually received an uptick in popularity until finally earning himself a full-on channel event in Season 5. Last, we covered a rip from before this uptick - now, I think its only fair we tackle one that shows the fruits of that initiative.

The hhgregg meme was one of many that I only discovered through SiIvaGunner, yet it was far from the first to actually popularize it: HydroDalek's "doin" YTPMV was uploaded a year prior to SiIvaGunner's premiere, and sits at a 1.5 million views as of writing, and is of course paired with the excellent remix "ReDoin" by JerryTerry, made two years later, sitting at 2.4 million. hhgregg's infamous attempt at creating a memorable mascot for their brand seemed to at first be met with nothing more than annoyance, only for a subset of internet users to slowly mutate feelings into feelings of...affection, I suppose. Either way, as someone entirely out of the loop on all things relating to American retailers, that affection definitely rubbed off on me - after just being exposed to a small handful of rips, and then later being led to the rabbithole of YTPMVs dating back to 2014, I was hooked on the guy.

And its not something I believe I can put quite so easily into words, either, beyond pointing you to a rip like Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source for a direct demonstration. Wally Wingert is an excellent actor and performer in perhaps everything BUT his role as singing for hhgregg's Christmas sales of the summer season - yet YTPMVers throughout the last decade have been able to put those vocals, and vocals from the hhgregg mascot's entire television career, to incredible use. It's almost comparable to PSY in what I wrote about him in Korean Idiot - manipulation of hhgregg's distinctively nasally, yet self-assured voice has effectively become an instrument all of its own.

Pair that with the hyperactive yet constantly rhythmic and engaging flow of much of Touhou's music, Nostalgic Blood of the East ~ Old World not excluded, and you get something truly special. Yet the crazy thing is, Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source was but one of several other incredible rips utilizing the source during Season 5. It was, after all, his long-overdue event - the long-awaited Christmas in July - and the amount of rips that went completely above and beyond just as Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source did was absolutely remarkable. Speaking as someone who used to get hyped up back during the early days of seeing...what, the fourth or fifth ever hhgregg rip be uploaded? It did genuinely bring me so much excitement to finally see the most underrated SiIvaGunner source get the spotlight all to himself. hhgregg is, in all honesty, an oft-overlooked titan of recent YTPMV culture, a shining example of just how far some crazy cool people are able to take a series of voice clips that only initially spread online out of distaste.

Though I lack much knowledge on Touhou, and I wasn't really able to live through any prior attachment to the hhgregg character as a European myself - the sheer power of good ass YTPMV and minindo's undeniable talent in what he does carries Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source through. It's an absolute banger using one of my all-time favorite SiIvaGunner sources, and I'm so happy it got to be part of the guy's big event. In a Season already defined by its various side events, hhgregg's long-awaited time in the spotlight is still one of the things I cherish most about Season 5, and the rips that came in tow with that day were absolutely worth the wait.

HH

This is HH:

HH is the mascot for the former appliance and electronic store HHGregg. I cannot explain to you but I have been absolutely obsessed with him. I really don't know why, but just something about the ads with him trigger a part of my brain to just inject straight serotonin into it. Now with the Christmas season coming soon I thought it would be appropriate to talk about my favorite part of this guy, the Christmas ads. This is the first ad to talk about, sure it's nothing *really* special but don't worry, we're getting there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4XRprsDe5s

And now here it is, the absolute crown jewel of all HHGregg, the fabled Christmas in July ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJzt8L_i7_U So this ad a lot of you may be familiar with due to it's former status as a ytp icon and it's garnered a lot of attention due to that, and I'll post a link to that down towards the end but right now I just nneedd to talk about HH. I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to the whol obscureness of him, maybe it's some form of early 2010s nostalgia and seeing that era and a mascot for it, maybe it's because it's such an oddball store to be talking about but quite frankly I just love him. One important part of HH history I should touch on are the Silvagunner rips, and as an Evangelion fan it feels doubly important. Silvagunner, about 2 years ago made these 2 rips of A Cruel Angel's Thesis and Komm, Susser Todd. (Yes, I know I spelled it wrong) But the most important thing about these rips is the fact that they're both vocoded to the Christmas in July ad and feature custom videos. To me, I think it just shows how powerful HH is, being able to withstand the test of time, and of course out of any songs being interjected into Evangelion.

A Cruel Angel;s Thesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpru2QoK03k

Komm, Susser Todd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nT3_DP2Uuw

So where does that bring us? Well I have more media to share and some closing thoughts. Now before ending this post I just want to make people aware HH is not forgotten by everyone, because dedicated fans do still exist (such as myself) and I thought it appropriate to share some of those works here. First off is this blursed HH body pillow, yes it is a real thing and unfortunately no, you cannot purchase it:

Credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dakimakuras/comments/14196ml/i_made_images_for_a_dakimakura_of_hhgreggs_mascot/

Another thing is, looking aside the Evangelion rips there are plenty of catchy tunes vocoded to the Christmas in July ad and I feel the need to share them. Radical City from Sonic R: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teOAct6UE3I

Death By Glamour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0nNLsbrSFY

Now's your chance to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW5ixQrzLrw

One more thing I need to touch on is HH's VA: Wally WIngert, now I was just going to say he voiced Jon Arbuckle in the Garfield show but actually looking at his imdb is insane, the amount of work in awesome video games and TV he has done is so cool to me especially being in a lot games that I love, and honestly? It makes me happy that somehow, a little but of HH is with us in so many of those properties. Wally's imdb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0935042/

And to close, I want to leave all of you HHGregg fans something, or aspiring fans. This: Compilation of all the HHGregg ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWRNFy9Jasg&t=2s

And remember everyone, Price and Advice, Garunteed.

Thank you.

i got? a christmas ad?? but it’s july????