 Welcome! This page chronicles the phenomenon of the dumbfounding 'flow' that David of MTV's Real World: New Orleans presented to the world in the summer of 2000. The cast were putting together a video introduction to themselves for use on their public access show. Each cast member was shown coming into a sound studio and answering an identical set of questions. David inexplicably brought a keyboard, sang some scat, and answered no questions. When confronted by the cast member who was acting as 'producer' for the public access show (Kelly), David flat out refused to answer the questions, claiming that the answers were all contained within his previously recorded 'flow.' Come with us, dear reader, as we embark on the (not-so) epic journey of applying scientific method to the previously uncharted territory known only as 'flow.'
Before we begin our (extremely brief) analysis of the flow in question, be advised that you would be doing yourself a disservice by not downloading an audio representation of 'the flow (In MP3 format).' At the very least, listen to it in realaudio. (Thanks go to Randall Owczarzak for finding it.) If you didn't see the episode that this clip was taken from, please note that David intended this song to be completely serious. Need the lyrics? Here ya go, Free of charge (Wherever possible, phonetic representations of non-english words have been provided):
Weedahboo Gweedahbohzhee
Sweedahbooh Dwedahboodweeeeeeee
Come on, be my baby tonight.
Come on, be my baby tonight.
Well I've seen the way you treated other thugs you've been with,
Come on, be my baby tonight.
Come on, be my baby tonight.
Come on, be my baby tonight.
I've seen the way you treated other thugs you've been with,
Come on, be my baby tonight. Once you have successfully listened to said 'flow,' and perhaps compared the audio and textual representations side by side, please continue. All set? Okay, here we go. First, let's get evryone up to speed on David. Here is what MTV has to say about him, from his Real World profile page: "David is the Master of his Universe. In David's world, you work out every day, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you carry a 4.0 grade point average, you dazzle the females on the dance floor and you aspire to be the first black President of the United States. If anyone could do it, David could. In order to repair his broken heart after the girl of his dreams left him swaying in the wind, he went on a colossal self-improvement binge. David has extraordinarily high expectations for himself and those around him. In addition to his physical prowess, he's a superbly talented musician and a deeply entertaining person. Just below the tough exterior, David hides a sweet, vulnerable guy trying to run as far away as possible from the Chicago ghetto he grew up in and the legacy of his preacher father's departure from the family."
Isn't that sweet? Adding the following addendum to the end of MTV's description will give you a better idea of the complete picture.
"Please be advised that when we referred to David as 'entertaining' earlier, what we really meant was "He is dumber than a rock, and it's amusing to observe people such as this." Chances are that you will not only disagree with David's actions and opinions on a regular basis, but that he will also do something that will completely dumbfound you a minimum of once per episode. He actually can play the piano very well, and he does have a good voice. The only problem is that he's a big wanker. Will it surprise anyone that David sings the National Anthem (AKA any wanker's favorite song to sing) in an episode this season? No." There, that's better. Moving on to 'the flow,' let me start by saying that I fear the knee-jerk reaction of laughing and simply assuming David to be a complete moron (A reaction that is wholly warranted, mind you) may be inappropriate. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we may have grossly underestimated David's 'flow,' but I'm getting ahead of myself. A while back, I recieved this e-mail:
In regards to David's flow:
Have you ever seen 'Guys and Dolls?' More specifically, have you ever heard the song "Luck Be a Lady" from that musical? The lyrics from the chorus are as follows:
"Luck be a lady tonight / Luck be a lady tonight / I've seen the way you've treated other guys you've been with / Luck be a lady tonight."
Oddly enough, David uses the exact same vocal melody and timing as said song. I suppose Broadway musicals know how to "flow" as well as he does. Brian While the ability of a Broadway musical to 'flow' is an interisting sub-topic that may warrant further exploration, the key revelation that David's 'flow' is inspired by a source material may illustrate exactly what he meant when he was speaking in English-tinged Retardese to Kelly in the original 'flow' episode. When Kelly said to David that he needed to sit down and answer the questions as all the other cast members had, he said something to the effect of, "All the questions are answered in my flow." In turn, she said something to the effect of "You're a fucking retard, but I'm saying it politely." Not surprisingly, David then said something that, when distilled in to english, made very little sense to those who were not privy to the Broadway connection. Quoth David: "That's you, other people will hear it and think 'I heard the answer to every question.'" Here is where the analysis is to be made. As the episode in question did not show all the questions that were asked of the cast members (Questions definately asked include their favorite book and whom they most admire), we can not be sure if we have completely unlocked David's flow. Here, for your perusal however is our hypothosis. Perhaps:David's favorite musical is 'Guys and Dolls.' Additionally, Davids favorite book is the script to Guys and Dolls. Furthermore, The person David most admires could quite possibly be any member of the cast of 'Guys and Dolls,' but can more likely be presumed to be the cast member who sings 'Luck Be a Lady.' There you have it. Granted, it is entirely possible that we have not completely cracked the powerful cipher that is David's 'flow,' but perhaps we have unlocked the first in a series of secrets hidden within the cracks. Perhaps not. Regardless, as the mysterious David himself so eloquently put it: "Blah blah blah. Woo woo."
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