Fist-bump like a pro (Or how newspapers can be fun)

J. Peder Zane is a columnist for the News & Observer — proving that newspapers can be topical, can use multimedia to tell stories and can be downright fun. I talked to the star of this afternoon:

How did you come up with the video?
After (Barack Obama’s) Tuesday’s night speech, an editor suggested we write a story about the fist-bump. This sounded a bit lame; the fist bump has been around so long even I know about it. I’ve been posting some video commentaries the past few weeks and figured this was a great chance to use some deadpan humor that can be harder to convey in print. Hence our mockumentary.

What’s the feedback been like? (Everyone I’ve sent it to has loved it.)
Most people have liked it, though I haven’t got any calls from Hollywood — yet. A few folks said it was stupid, but that was kind of the point so I took that as a compliment too.

Who were your co-stars?
The man in the spectacles in our rock critic David Menconi, the other strapping lad is our TV critic, Danny Hooley. I figured if I used them, I’d limit the criticism.

The humpty-bump was genius — were there other “bump” ideas?
We tried to think of every word that rhymed with bump (and knock, in case we went with knuckle knock). We didn’t have enough time to include the cluster dump (a bunch of people fist-bumping) or the dump bump (good for break-ups).

Now you can fist-bump like a pro!