Video - Thanksgiving commercial from Government Motors
The Popeye, John Belushi in Animal House, and Evel Knievel comparisons are completely out of line and, honestly, offensive. GM is a manufacturing relic and still owes taxpayers approximately $50 billion, though you would never know that from the lies they've been telling. Also, former car-czar Steve Rattner revealed some rather unfavorable truths about the utter incompetence of GM's management which I covered here:
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Evel Knievel crashing spectacularly at Caesar's palace in 1968...
Evel knievel represents true capitalism. His moral hazard was death, which he faced every time he got on his bike.
Comment from Cheyenne - So GM is just like Evel Knievel, is it? That's funny, because the Caesar's Palace jump has been etched in my brain for decades, and the world's largest cushion (the backs of U.S. taxpayers) was nowhere in sight. No, if Evel fell short--and fall short he did, violently and spectacularly--it was his rag doll body against pavement. He got months in a hospital bed for the risk he took, not endless bailouts. There was no moral hazard then, only death.
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Text below from the youtube page.
While in Las Vegas, Nevada, to watch Dick Tiger fight a middleweight title fight, Knievel first saw the fountains at Caesar's Palace and decided to jump them. To get an audience with the casino's CEO Jay Sarno, Knievel created a fictitious corporation called Evel Knievel Enterprises and three fictitious lawyers to make phone calls to Sarno. Knievel also placed phone calls to Sarno claiming to be from ABC-TV and Sports Illustrated inquiring about the jump. Sarno finally agreed to meet Knievel and the deal was set for Knievel to jump the fountains on December 31, 1967. After the deal was set, Knievel tried to get ABC to air the event live on Wide World of Sports. ABC declined, but said that if Knievel had the jump filmed and it was as spectacular as he said it would be, they would consider using it later.
Knievel used his own money to have actor/director John Derek produce a film of the Caesar's jump. To keep costs low, Derek used his then-wife, Linda Evans, as one of the camera operators. It was Evans who filmed Knievel's famous landing. On the morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed a single $100 dollar bet on the blackjack table, which he lost, stopped by the bar and got a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside where he was joined by several members of the Caesar's staff, as well as two scantily clad showgirls. After doing his normal pre-jump show and a few warm up approaches, Knievel began his real approach. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel received a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days.