[edit] The STUFFerön IKEAchair
The Styleron Ecochair by Danoob Largo is a parody of furniture made by Swedish-founded IKEA, known for advertising its products as modern and environmental and attributing them to specific designers. The name "Danoob" was likely chosen for a European designer because the Danube River runs through Europe.
From: the chair
Posted on: 15:05, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
Arguments for:
- I think the IKEA bit is a clear reference — Strong Bad even calls the chair "Swedish".
- The similarity between "Danoob" and "Danube" is too close to be accidental.
- This removes the more questionable aspects of the fact (specfically, the generalization that all people in Europe buy a certain type of furniture).
- Re 3rd arg against: Not all of IKEA's designers are from Sweden, but it's probably safe to say that most are from Europe. That's why the last sentence of the fact relates the Danube River to European designers rather than Swedes specifically.
- Re 4th arg against: I think that in this case there's a strong argument that TBC fall into the category of Americans who associate the name IKEA with Nordic furniture design.
Arguments against:
- Occam's razor: "Danoob Largo" means "the big n00b".
- The Danube River is far away from Sweden.
- The broad reference is to Swedish aesthetics. Nordic furniture design has been around longer than IKEA; they're just the name most Americans would associate with it.
- I agree with the Swedish and the Ecochair part.
Additional comments:
- I could accept this if it wasn't for the outrageous Danube reference.
- A lot of well-known designers are Scandinavian; few of them designed for IKEA. And just because Strong Bad says it's Swedish doesn't mean it's Swedish--it could be German, Norwegian, or even Dutch. He's not always 100% accurate in his statements.
- Why is no one entering a Fun Fact about "Styleron" being a reference to the Aeron chair? Or, perhaps more convincingly, see some of the chairs pictured under Brad Ascalon...
Proposed revision:
The Styleron Ecochair by Danoob Largo is a parody of furniture made by Swedish-founded IKEA, known for advertising its products as modern and environmental and giving each product line a Scandinavian name. Arguments for:
- Even clearer reference to IKEA,
removes the bit about "specific designers", separates the Danube River bit into a separate fact (see additional STUFF item), and just basically makes the whole thing even better!
- Reword: "listing the names of their designers in their promotional materials" - IKEA really doesn't do any more to promote their designers than any other furniture store does.
- Strong Bad specifically says "I don't care how Swedish your chair is"
Arguments against:
- Actually, now that I think about it more closely: The link between the Styleron Ecochair and IKEA is pretty weak, for the following reasons:
- The chair in this email much more closely resembles a beanbag than an actual chair.
- It doesn't particularly resemble a bean bag either.
- It really seems much more like a piece of modern art than a piece of functional furniture.
- The majority of IKEA's products are actually very plain and utilitarian in nature, and only very rarely could ever be called "artistic", especially "modern art".
- The name "Styleron Ecochair" does not really fit very closely with IKEA's general branding practices - there's nothing Swedish about the name. If it had just been called the "Styleron", or perhaps "Stylerön", it would retain some IKEA-ness.
- It seems much more plausible to me that Strong Bad's statement about "Swedish furniture" is a much stronger reference to IKEA than the chair itself is.
Additional comments:
- I think it's important to include the bit about the IKEA products frequently being associated with (note: not named after) specific designers...that's why they mentioned Danoob Largo right alongside the chair he designed.
- I completely fail to see how IKEA makes a bigger deal about their product designers than virtually any other furniture store on the planet. Their website and promotional materials will simply mention the designer's name, but heck, clothing stores make a bigger deal out of their designers. IKEA's claim to fame has much more to do with the unusual names they give to their products.
- Well, it's not the end of the world if it goes, and it's cumbersome as it's written now; I'm just going to take it out altogether.
- I don't think we can just say that it is a parody of IKEA, as we don't know that for fact, but rather that it is probably such.
- There are a lot of things we don't know for fact, but we've surmised plausible references in MANY situations based on there being strong enough evidence to support them. That said, see the arguments against.
Proposed revision:
When Strong Bad turns down the Styleron Ecochair, saying "I don't care how Swedish your chair is", he implies that the chair is similar to products made by Swedish furniture maker IKEA. However, IKEA's products bear Scandinavian names and are usually very utilitarian and practical in design, unlike the Styleron. Arguments for:
- This version does not try to link the Styleron Ecochair itself to IKEA, but rather explains Strong Bad's statement about the chair being "Swedish".
Arguments against:
- This doesn't work at all. If there's no resemblance, it's not really a reference.
- Well, "Swedish Chair" is an unusual enough phrase/concept in the HSR universe that it's very likely to be a reference to SOMETHING. But I challenge you to find a chair at IKEA that looks like the Styleron Ecochair. I also challenge you to find another famous furniture maker that's based in Sweden, and that everyone knows about. That's why I made the distinction between Strong Bad's statement (essentially confusing the Ecochair for an IKEA product) and the chair itself. Let's try a reword - does that make more sense?
- Well, I don't actually know any furniture designer by name, but Kipedia does.
- There's not going to be anything that looks exactly like the Styleron at IKEA; it's a parody and so is purposefully extreme. But in addition to very simple furniture, they have some "modern" furniture too. After just a couple minutes of looking, I found this kids' chair and this adult chair. I'm sure if one looked longer one could find even better examples.
- Even then, those examples are still very utilitarian, though closer to modern art (I'll give you that). But I'm not convinced that something like the Styleron would ever be sold at IKEA, at least not as a chair. Maybe a garden ornament...
Additional comments:
- I don't understand the fixation on somehow linking this with IKEA. It seems more like a reference to hoity-toity designers, not cost-effective retailers.
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