Arrrrgh! It’s Talk like a Pirate Day!
September 19, 2008 by Steve
Filed under Culture and Faith, Movies, The Cultural Conversation, Weblog
Today marks International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD), a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy), of Corvallis, Oregon, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with “Hello,” but with “Ahoy, me hearty!” The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy. In part a send-up of the “Golden Age of Piracy,” tech culture has absorbed pirate symbology and made it a kind of comical meme, much like LOLcats or “Don’t tase me, bro!“.
Search Engine Land prepared a short list of tech and online companies participating in Pirate Day:
- Google, through its Google Pirate Search feature.
- Friendfeed has a commemorative logo honoring the holiday.
- Search Engine Roundtable prepared a special theme.
- Dogpile‘s mascot dressed up like a pirate.
Other Derivative Sites:
- Tom Smith has written and recorded the song “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” the quasi-official anthem of the holiday.[10]
- In the Nintendo DS version of The Sims 2, in-game characters celebrate “Talk Like A Pirate Day” on September 19, in which a special quest is released, involving a pirate quiz.
- The holiday is observed by the followers of the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who consider pirates to be divine beings.[11]
- In the online game Lord of the Rings Online, in-game characters can celebrate “Talk Like a Pirate Day” with a special quest, involving a shipwreck. Quest rewards include a pirate-type hat.
- World of Warcraft now celebrates “Pirate’s Day”, an anniversary thought up by two of the in game characters called “Ol’ Chumbucket” and “Cap’n Slappy” (a reference to the creators of Talk Like a Pirate Day). Talking to the in game character ‘Dread Captain DeMeza’ will provide your character with a pirate costume that lasts for 12 hours. Characters can also see commoners in the major cities dressed as pirates who will also provide your character with a pirate costume.
- In the online game Kingdom of Loathing, players can celebrate “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. Phrases such as “Arr” are occasionally added to the end of sentences in chat, as well as during random encounters with pirates.
