Tonight, I somehow managed to surf my way to Orson Welles’ famous Frozen Peas rant, where he complains about the copy he’s supposed to read for an advertisement.

Listening to the mp3, there was something about the rant that really reminded me of Bill King.

It wasn’t really Welles’ voice; that sounds more like Jon Miller than Bill King. It was something else, and I’m trying to put my finger on it.

In particular, when Welles said:

“You’re such pests!”

I almost felt Welles and King merging into one.

Perhaps it’s in the pronunciation, the dialect. I immediately noticed the way Welles fully enunciated the “ch” and “s-t-s” in “such pests”. The intonation of that phrase also struck me as similar to King’s.

Or perhaps it was simply the unusual mix of emotions you get when a well-educated master of the English language refuses to suffer fools gladly. A well-phrased, well-delivered and well-deserved insult is quite satisfying to listen to, but there’s also a underlying sense of intimidation: not one where you fear for your physical safety, but one where you fear for your self-esteem. If a man of that stature decides you’re a fool and lets you know about it, you’d probably want to crawl into a hole and disappear.

And on that note, I better stop right here. If King doesn’t like the comparison, he may channel Welles and put me down:

That’s just idiotic, if you forgive me for saying so. That’s just stupid.

and that would be the end of me.