{"id":269,"date":"2006-07-27T09:42:59","date_gmt":"2006-07-27T16:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newcoolthang.com\/index.php\/2006\/07\/so-it-turns-out-benji-can-dance\/269\/"},"modified":"2020-01-09T06:24:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T13:24:23","slug":"benji-can-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newcoolthang.com\/index.php\/2006\/07\/benji-can-dance\/269\/","title":{"rendered":"So it turns out Benji can dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have five brothers and one little sister. On top of that, my mom had a massive stroke when most of us were little kids (9 or younger) so my dad had to step in and do a lot of the things that moms normally are responsible for. Franky, with all of the dudes in my family and all the man-ness around the homestead my upbringing was only a few steps away from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Fast foward 27 years and I’m the dad in a house with a strong yet decidedly feminine wife\/mom and three daughters and one son. In other words, the dudes are outnumbered 2-1 around here.<\/p>\n

I LOVE it. Seriously. Girls rule. They smell better, they’re nicer, they clean up after themselves better, they are less tolerant of grime and filth, and they babysit siblings better. Ok, maybe not all girls are that way, but Kristen is that way so my children are being well trained and I love it.<\/p>\n

All of this is a setup to explain that one of the other things that happens when a dude is blessed with a house full of girls is he is exposed to media that he might not otherwise have ever seen. Case in point is season two of a reality show on this summer called So You Think You Can Dance<\/a>. Have any of you seen it? My girls can’t get enough of this show and now I’m hooked too.<\/p>\n

It is a pretty standard talent show format — basically American Idol<\/em> for dancers. The male and female contestants get randomly paired together and they select dance styles from a hat then learn a routine over the week and perform the following Wednesday. As with any talent show, sometimes they rock it and sometimes they chunk it. You get the idea.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the other reason I bring this up here at the Thang is that one of the contestants is a 22 year old kid named Benji <\/a>who they said early on is a returned Mormon missionary (I think he said he served in the Oaxaca Mexico mission). Now it is not uncommon for a Mormon to show up in reality TV — Survivor<\/em> had its share, the Real World<\/em> had an embarrassing one, American Idol<\/em> has had a few — and I usually root for my fellow Mormons to one degree or another in these things. For instance, I pulled for that goofy\/amusing kid from Idaho on American Idol<\/em> a few seasons back. (What was his name again? Jon-Paul or something? You know — the one that looked like Alfred E. Newman<\/a>…) But that kid never really had much of a chance. As the pressure mounted he sort of faded. Not so with Benji in this dance competition. Every week this Benji kid has been going out there and just blowing the doors off of his competition. He is seriously killing it out there. It has been a thing of beauty really. Right now I’d say he has to be the hands down favorite to win the competition. His dancing is clean and energetic and yet not too feminine. He has a great self-deprecating sense of humor and lights up the screen both in the performances and when he is cracking jokes during the practice vignettes. He has been nailing his routines in every genre they throw at him. At this point I’d be very surprised if he does not win. <\/p>\n

But you never know — people were handing old Chris the crown on American Idol this year and he didn’t even make the top three. So here is the first bloggernacle post on dancin’ Benji. Have any of the rest of you seen this show or do you not have enough girls in the house? If you haven’t I recommend it — it is great fun and Benji gives y’all Morms someone to be proud of. (And on top of that, you’ll get to hear the British host chick introduce the judges as “The Jidges”)<\/p>\n

[Associated radio.blog song: Sly and the Family Stone – Dance to the Music<\/em>]