Facebook flashmob shuts down station

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/09/uk.station.flashmob/index.html

"It was both good cause we all stuck like a group didn't stop dancing inside and outside but bad cause of the people who could get anywhere but hey I love it WE MADE HISTORY RIGHT THERE!!" one Facebook user said on the event's Web site.

"Yeah I agree, there wasn't any bad feelings there. Everybody just had a good time, apart from my friend being groped by some guy, but you'll always get one," another wrote.

way 2 go t-mobile street team

They should do a flashmob where everyone shows up with a gun loaded with blanks.

Just waiting for the negative comments from all the jaded cynics opposed to people having fun.

(xx-post)

QED

Sounds like fun to me!

i actually clicked on this thinking "please not a UK story..."

Steve do you not want "excitement" brought to your "otherwise unexciting locale"? Would you not like "a story" you "can tell for the rest of" your life? Why not just "laugh", "smile", or "stop to notice the world around" you?

God this would enrage me so much if they did it at Charing Cross. Flashmobs are for people who don't deserve real fun.

fucking students.

I don't think anyone opposed to those things was forced to participate.

(xx-post)

maybe they missed their trains because they couldn't get through the crowds quickly enough

they should've done it outdoors

We could live in a better world without mobile phones.

and nude xp

I am not opposed to laughing or smiling or noticing the world around me, I'm opposed to smug fucks who think I can't do it without their help.

Steve do you not want "excitement" brought to your "otherwise unexciting locale"? Would you not like "a story" you "can tell for the rest of" your life? Why not just "laugh", "smile", or "stop to notice the world around" you?

― cat anatomy expert (ledge), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:22 (4 minutes ago)

Just "SHUT THE FUCK UP" already

srsly I would probably break my self-imposed "no violence" rule of the pas 21 years and attempt to beat all kinds of holy fuck out of these people if they were doing this in Boston, as it would be a guarantee of missing my train

I don't think anyone opposed to those things was forced to participate.

They overcrowded and shut down a major central London transport hub at pretty much peak time. At least protesters have a cause to pimp. This is just dickish orgafun.

50 years from now: "I wish grandad would stop telling that godawful story about filming some crappy event on his mobile phone, whatever the hell they are"

"i took many a groping, but t'was all in good fun"

this country.

They overcrowded and shut down a major central London transport hub at pretty much peak time.

Yes, for a whopping 15 minutes. I'm sure the amount of hurt caused by this is massive. Also, is 7PM really a peak time over there?

lol i can only imagine the glee w/ which t-mobiles communications dept is forwarding this article arnd the office

crazzy eve is now a t-mobile marketing hero

I don't think anyone opposed to those things was forced to participate.

How is it not 100% obvious that anyone in the general vicinity of the damn thing is "participating" just by having a normal life and private personal business to conduct and trying to get ANYWHERE that's affected by either the event or its overflow?

Maybe I'm a bit naive, but I've always thought that things that disrupt the dreary everyday routine for small while, yet are harmless and fun, are actually a good thing.

Disrupt your own damn routine.

We have blackouts and collapsing buildings for that.

And exploding manhole covers.

its not all that harmless tuomas--a doctor was supposed to get on that train to save seven kids who were dying of tuberculosis--he missed his train and the kids all died--whos disrupting the dreary and everyday now?

I think people should be summoned to these things bat-signal style by a giant celestial image of Thong Tuomas.

people need to get their ideas of "fun" from places other than stupid tv ads

Maybe I'm a bit naive, but I've always thought that things that disrupt the dreary everyday routine for small while, yet are harmless and fun, are actually a good thing.

― Tuomas, Monday, February 9, 2009 6:36 PM (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

are you employed, sir?

Yes, for a whopping 15 minutes.

I know that looking things up is anathema to you but copy/pasting "Liverpool Street Station Silent Dance" into Facebook takes you to the event page for this, where one of the top comments on the discussion topic "Good idea or bad idea?" reads:

Well, we kept Liverpool Street Underground closed till gone 8.30pm, so we left a bloody good legacy!

It took longer to make this post than it did to find this information. Furthermore, anyone with even the slightest grasp of logistics could have told you there was no fucking way that this only impacted the station for 15 minutes.

I don't need to be forced by some putrid mobile phone company to break from the drudgery of routine.

This is akin to mime artistes.

the "fun" here isn't coming from an event it's coming from fucking with other people, basically. i mean if all you wanted to do was gather somewhere and dance silently you can do it in an empty stadium parking lot or something

I'm actually a fan of those artsy-smartsy giant puppet crowd events that meet over on some tiny street on the west side and don't affect traffic but are a harmless public spectacle for the interested, and it does chap my hide when cops get involved needlessly. But closing down Broadway in Soho to march down it on a weekend is just...really? You needed to do that in the name of over-entitlement, I mean, "fun"?

tbh im glad my dad's three-hour-plus dreary commute wasn't 'disrupted'. fortunately he goes from kings cross.

"Pat yourself on the back, you're spiking the wheels of The System, maaaaan!"

this kind of thing is more people being passive-aggressive than anything else imo

Trains get disrupted enough by themselves without a bunch of dancing twats adding to it.

xpost Also closing Liv St from 7pm-8:30pm is a good way of ruining fun for a lot of people who were trying to get to a night out somewhere!

im with tuomas u dudes need to chill and learn to appreciate subway delays for the glimpse unto the fantastic they are

I use that line to get to gigs sometimes. If only I could end up missing a band I wanted to see because a bunch of cocks wanted to liven up my journey.

people need to get their ideas of "fun" from places other than stupid tv ads

for real. i bet they were all listening to twee shit as constantly used in ads lately too.

was t-mobil the same company that did the ad showing how cool and fun it would be to race shopping carts down a supermarket aisle and then run away from all the squares who were buying food and household goods?

I agree that the people who arranged this thing should've thought that the place might get flooded, but they probably didn't expect so many people to show up. (And they're arranging the next event in a park - see, they've learned something!) But in general I'm all for people doing stuff that disrupts the regular everyday greyness a bit and doesn't hurt anyone. It'd be a sad world if no one ever came up with stuff like this.

"aw jeez boss sorry i was late to work but my dreary and everyday routine was interrupted by a bunch of college kids copying a cell phone ad--btw i quit because now i know the true value of life!!!"

"be special"

"break free"

"be extraordinary"

"T-MOBILE"

In short, I think the idea was good but it could've been organized better.

It'd be a sad world if no one ever came up with stuff like this.

i feel this way but about those lexus commercials

that doesn't look like him!

The pic below the headline kinda does... the frame from the vid looks more like David Bellamy

these things are the enemy of humanity and everyone involved deserves riot police and swine flu combined

t-mobile can suck it, frankly

surely that's jon voight?

do those microphones actually work?

It's Bill Oddie 10 years from now (xp)

too clean.

Kenny Rogers?

no, no, definitely voight- the eyes have it

saw the ad last night, awful worse than i even imagined.

I think I would have killed everyone in reach if I'd been there, I fecking hate that song.

Same here. Most of my objections to flash mobs are aesthetic -- too fey and cutesy.

i think it's Captain Birdseye back from the dead/belly of the Kraken

Can that dude sue for being called Gary Glitter?

Only if it was rhyming slang.

>:(

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=73352262682&ref=nf

"This was from Ole Miss.... We could do SOOOO much better, Mizzou! "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxCnZ4Dp3c

¯\(°_o)/¯

Just waiting for the negative comments from all the jaded cynics opposed to people having fun.

― Tuomas, Monday, February 9, 2009 5:16 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

These people are giant dorks.

That's not a flashmob, it's an advert filmed on the cheap.

if drama fags ruled the world

there was a flash mob on the first episode of the new seasons of weeds

We've got to figure out a way to stop these dangerous Facebook flashmobs

Facebook group?

Don't worry I started a Google Wave which fed a Twitter page so anyone who subscribed to the RSS feed of my blog is aware of this issue hopefully notified by email or instant messaging.

Oh no NPR doing a piece on flash mobs in a few minutes. "What determines what goes viral? Story next, on All Things Considered."

The host seems very concerned that the protests in Iran over the rigged election will subside as quickly over the Susan Boyle YouTube hits did. They're going to callers now... the first guy argued that flash mobs and geocashing (whatever the hell that is) have staying power.

Now they're talking about the NY Times story about flash mobs being a backlash story because they were late to the fad. This is all useless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder

I wonder how many flash mob types would be diagnosed with this.

96%

Ugh, right now Denise van Outen, Johnny Vegas and about 500 pre-teen girls in '80s-esque dancewear are filming some flashmob advert thing just around the corner from me.

good luck london england

They’re not calling this one a flashmob, it’s a ‘fashmob’. Chanel devotees are invited to head to the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras station on Thursday 30 July (what is it about flashmobs at train stations?) dressed as the grande dame of fashion, Coco Chanel.

The event is being organised by vintage fashion site QueensOfVintage.com, who are giving away exclusive ‘Chanel themed’ gifts to the first 15 Cocos to arrive.

This ‘fashmob’ is all in aid of the new biopic Coco Before Chanel starring Audrey Tatou, which is released next week. We reckon you don’t have to wear actual Chanel, but should be able to fake it with plenty of pearls and some well-cut black threads…

thought this was going to be about the facebook group who are planning to invade liechtenstein tbh.

For a second I was hoping for a John Fashanu-themed flashmob, and I briefly did not hate the idea of an organised flashmob with every fibre of my being

then I saw what it was and yeah I'm turning up with a barrel full of wasp's nests

i wonder if there's some connection between a generation generally believing they should be able to download music, movies, etc for free, and a generation being so willing to act as unpaid PR shills for large corporations.

"Advertising should be FREE"

My earlier hatred and paranoia for all things flashmob can be traced to the fact that the only flashmob stuff I've witnessed in person has been anti-social and goofy, like "let's all go into an apple store and break into wild applause" type stuff.

I'm all for people breaking into choreographed song and dance in public it it's tasteful.

Don't go to Trafalgar Square today. Not unless you really really really love Spaced.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=nf&gid=284618153643

great job everyone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BngV-zC0tY

Where's a crazy Japanese dude with a suitcase full of Sarin when you need him, eh?

Or indeed heavy-handed baton-wielding coppers?

C/D: ILXORS wishing violence upon people indulging in harmless (if excruciatingly embarrassing) fun

Classic, no question

I wasn't saying they should be made to smell the Sarin. Well, maybe a little bit.

just sayin', dude, seems a short distance between this and sending angry letters to the telegraph about young people and the length of their trousers

I am in a Facebook group encouraging young people to pull their fucking trousers up, tbh

Yeah - keep a sense of proportion - Sarin ott...but Mace perhaps?

“Mace!” I shouted. “You want this?” I waved the Mace bomb in front of his watery eyes.

He stopped. “You bastard!” he hissed. “You’d do that, wouldn’t you?”

I laughed, still waving the bomb at him. “Why worry? You’ll like it. Shit, there’s nothing in the world like a Mace high-forty-five minutes on your knees with the dry heaves, gasping for breath. It’ll calm you right down.”

"Leave them alone. they're just some young kids having fun with a shared sense of community."

^^^that's also what they said about Hitler Youth

juss sayin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

(posting the link partly in the hope of kicking off a shitstorm and partly bcz eh maybe HI DERE will dig it)