It’s true. No one gives oral quite like us. We take our time. We go deep. We make sure we’re exploring parts you never even knew existed — or could bring pleasure. But enough with all this talking and teasing. Why don’t we show you already?
“The Oral History of the Vodka Red Bull”
As Told By…: The bartenders who first poured the Frankenstein’s monster of cocktails
The Money Quote: This one, courtesy of Andy Kilgore, a Boston bartender and restaurateur who witnessed the drink’s genesis while hanging with the harder apres-ski crowd in Colorado in the 1990s. “I was working in a bar in Aspen in 1997. One of my roommates was a pro skier. There was a big Red Bull event in town, and they were sponsoring my roommate, so we had Red Bull up the ying-yang in our apartment. There was this bar called Eric’s — they had a cigar bar, restaurant and a bar bar — and that was the first time I saw someone pour a vodka Red Bull.
“In fairness, I’m sure they were pouring just about everything in Red Bull that night. [But you] have to keep in mind that in the 1990s, vodka was everywhere. Basically, it went into everything, so automatically it was Red Bull and vodka, and you’d either make a vodka Red Bull or you’d do shots of vodka and chase it with Red Bull.”
Historical Footnote: After moving from the ski scene to the nightclub scene in San Francisco, the next iteration of the drink involved a full can of Red Bull served in a Mason jar with 2 to 3 ounces of vodka.
“An Oral History of ‘Real American’”
As Told By…: The songwriter, producer and drummer of arguably the most famous entrance theme in pro wrestling history
The Money Quote: Per Rick Derringer, the song’s co-creator and eternal gatekeeper: “My writing partner Bernard Kenny and I sat down one night in 1984, and we had the idea to write the most patriotic song of all time. We were really proud Americans, and we wanted to express that in the song. So that was the whole objective behind it when we sat down — a few hours later, the song ‘Real American’ was born. After it was written, we actually played it, and it brought us to tears. We knew we had done such a good job, and it was destined to be a hit.”
Historical Footnote: Hillary Clinton used the song in 2008 during her run for the Democratic nomination for president. The same is supposedly true of Newt Gingrich when he ran for the Republican nomination in 2012.
“An Oral History of ‘Mortal Kombat’”
As Told By…: Gaming historians, Mortal Kombat fanatics and the actors who played the original characters
The Money Quote: Two quotes actually. Or better put, this back-and-forth between Daniel Pesina, the actor who portrayed Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Reptile, and Rich Divizio, the actor who portrayed Kano:
Pesina: So we were going to have beat-down moves, where the opponent was going to literally have very little life left and you could just wail on ‘em.
Divizio: But then [Mortal Kombat co-creator and head of Midway Games Ed Boon] was like, ‘You know what? Something should happen!’ And Ed coined this, he’s like, ‘Somehow you gotta finish this guy off!’ And right there in the room, it was like, Ding! ‘Oh! That’s a cool thing to say! FINISH HIM!’ That’s how shit gets created. When you have a lot of creative people in a room, without the corporate shit breathing down your neck, you could come up with shit on the fly, that’s the best way to do it. Fuck the suits.
Historical Footnote: The actors were offered either three grand or an arcade cabinet of the game for their performance. Despite later bringing a lawsuit against Midway, Nintendo, Sega and Acclaim Games in hopes of earning royalties from the tens of millions of dollars in Mortal Kombat sales, they never saw another penny for their work.
Liz dealing with the barbaric working conditions #fight pic.twitter.com/TMbJwnUXRE
— Daniel Pesina (@masterpesina) December 17, 2015
“An Oral History of ‘Taxicab Confessions’”
As Told By…: Producers, production assistants, drivers and riders from the HBO late-night reality series
The Money Quote: From Sheila Nevins, the grand dame of HBO Documentary Films, “I knew when we went to Las Vegas it wasn’t going to be any good. The prostitutes were kind of interesting, but the problem was that everybody was either a hooker, gambler or drunk. It didn’t have the variety of people that Taxicab in New York had. A taxi is a New York item. This was a New York show. It didn’t belong anywhere else.”
Historical Footnote: WWE Hall of Famer and alleged murdered Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka was recorded for the show (flagging down one of its cabs by happenstance), but he didn’t sign the release so his segment never aired.
“An Oral History of ‘Leisure Suit Larry’”
As Told By…: The creators of the game, the first adult video game to become a smash hit
The Money Quote: According to game designer Al Lowe, the eponymous main character — the leisure-suit-clad putz Larry Laffer — was partially based on guys he’d seen hustling women when he was a musician playing gigs at clubs in the 1970s as well as a co-worker: “We had one guy at the company who was on the sales team, and he’d love to tell all of us who had been stuck working in front of our computers about all the different women he had laid on his sales trips. I was like, ‘We don’t care, nobody cares.’”
Historical Footnote: A virus hidden in a few blackmarket copies of the game caused widespread problems in European banking terminals.
“An Oral History of ‘Goldeneye 007’ on the N64”
As Told By…: Essentially anyone of any consequence associated with the game
The Money Quote: Sorry, no less than three sources said that it was cheating to play with Oddjob:
Karl Hilton, lead environment artist: We all thought it was kind of cheating when we were play-testing with Oddjob [due to his short stature, the auto-aim of the weapons goes above his head], but it was too much fun to take out and there was no impetus from any of us to change it. It’s clearly become part of the culture and folklore of the game — I noticed playing GoldenEye as Oddjob was mentioned in Ready Player One, so ultimately, I think it’s fine.
Mark Edmonds, gameplay and engine programmer: It’s definitely cheating to play as Oddjob! But that can just add to the fun when you’re all sitting there next to each other and berating/poking/hitting the person who chooses him. Personally I like to pick Jaws [who originally appeared in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me] and then beat the person with Oddjob just to show them! We could have put something in to stop this blatant cheating, but why not just let players decide on their own rules?
Mitchell K., purveyor of GoldenEye 007 modding site GoldenEyeVault.com: Oddjob is cheating: He is banned. That said, I have only played with a caliber of people who would never consider choosing him, so it has never been an issue.
Historical Footnote: Only one character from the film — Jack Wade, a guy who briefly helps Bond when he’s in a pinch — isn’t in the game. The actor who played him Joe Don Baker didn’t allow the gamemakers to use his likeness.
this oral history of Goldeneye is riveting –at any point, this creation could have been derailed or ruined, instead, it fundamentally changed video games and created a shared collective memory https://t.co/e9oE1VZENH
— Nathan Martin (@nathanmart) August 23, 2018
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
