In case all you gringoes up in Gringolandia missed it, last week the controversial (I use that adjective, because a diatribe this early in the post of negative adjectives just isn’t nice) Hugo Chavez got slapped down by King Juan Carlos of Spain.  During a meeting in front of God and TV cameras, Chavez was being his usual ridiculous, Mussolini-esque self, interrupting the Spanish minister and playing the fool.

The King leaned over and snarled, "Porque no te callas?"  – "Why don’t you just shut up."

The Spanish-speaking world erupted.

Many love the King for saying in blunt language what they wish someone would have said a long time ago to that blubbery-lipped bozo.  Many hate the King for what they see as typical peninsulare/gachupine arrogance, a resentment that stretches all the way back to the colonial days.

All I know is that in Ibague, the bubbly young girls on staff told me about this video, and searched YouTube until they found it, and now I can’t get that damn song out of my head.  So here it is – and kudos to the Flash animators who stuck Hugo and the King’s heads on these dancers/kung-fu fighters/chickens.  The fact that they got this up within days of the incident – and that the song that they set this music to was already a hit (and one of the fave greetings that the hip kids in San Salvador use to greet each other is "Porque no to callas")… well, the mash-up talent is definitely catching on in a global way.

Enjoy: