The Secret Sorrow of the ShamWow Salesman

You may well like the product itself but as for me, I just love the word ShamWow.

Pitched endlessly in TV spots as the most amazing clean-up towel ever, I simply take great delight in saying "ShamWow" at any opportunity. I'm sure it may annoy some people. Ah well, ShamWow, say I.

It's a little like "Shazam", or maybe a "Kapow" (another comic book word). It's the "um" sound with a "wow" on it and that makes me smile for reasons far beyond the ken of mortal men.

Of course, the product is heralded by Vince Offer as he wears his headset microphone and works the magic which is the ShamWow towel.

Turns out poor Vince got blistered by the Church of Scientology because of a cheap movie he made called "Underground Comedy Movie" which the CoS just did not like (and to be honest not many others like the movie either). So they charged him with some 23 "crimes against the Church of Scientology" and pretty much ruined his fledgling movie career. The sordid and shocking details about the incident are all here at a blog called Skepchick:

"He appealed his conviction, and CoS overturned it. They admitted that the entire case against him was nothing more than a smear campaign and that it was unfair he was never informed of the charges against him. But it was too late. The damage was done, and while the conviction was overturned, he never received an apology or reparations. In other words, they said, “Oh that conviction shouldn’t have happened. We totally lied about everything, used fake evidence against you and generally ran the proceedings in a manner that was the complete opposite of ethical. But we didn’t do anything wrong. We’re not sorry. And it’s not up to us to make amends to you."

I had no idea. But now I like the word ShamWow a little more.

And if you'd like to help out Vince, check out his movie and order his stuff.

ShamWow!