So the other day, I had this … interesting song stuck in my head. It was the 1972 song “Pablo Picasso” by The Modern Lovers (warning: minor use of adult language), which was brought to my attention by a college friend a few years ago because he thought I’d appreciate some of the song’s lyrical gems, like this:
Well the girls would turn the color of the avocado
When he would drive down their street in his El Dorado
He could walk down the street and girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called a [tassle]
no, seriously… it is a family site!
OK, so I took some liberties with the paraphrasing there. This is a family site, folks!
In any case, when I had that song stuck in my head, I knew I wanted to write about Pablo Picasso, and realized that Pablo Picasso is a funny name. As Arto pointed out in his Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone post, there are some hilarious names that have gotten so famous, we barely even laugh at them anymore (examples: Barack Obama and Willard Mitt Romney), which is a travesty!
Because when you really think about it – maybe enunciate it to yourself (don’t forget to voice and aspirate your plosives, dear readers!) – Pablo Picasso is really fun to say. Paw-blow Pick-awe-sow.
I’m glad I came to that revelation, because it helped me find out his name was actually Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. That beats out the other two contenders for the longest name in Funny Names Blog history!
Years later, Picasso would also become famous for this candid photograph of him looking at his own artwork.
I’m guessing his artistic inclinations began in kindergarten when he realized that scribbling a masterpiece was easier than having to learn how to write his name.
What is there to say about the gentleman that you don’t already know. By age 16, he was considered one of the best draftsmen in Europe. This means he was a better artist than all three of us combined – the best art I (Dave) have done recently was Photoshopping our blog’s front page into a stock photograph – and I’m supposed to be the “artistic” one of the three of us.
Pablo then got bored and went through a blue period, before recovering and going all wacky. He started to draw things from different perspectives simultaneously, put eyeballs on the palms of hands, and paint mouths emerging from eye sockets. The fact that we can’t even explain why that’s considered great art is a testament to how gifted Pablo Picasso really was.
Two out of two conjoined cyclopses agree!
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The Blog of Funny Names 
I agree also. Maybe he wanted to try something new or just because of his name they became what is art.
Yeah. He was definitely talented, and had a lot of credibility for his almost photorealistic earlier works, but I think a lot of it was that he did something new. i’d much prefer Picasso’s “unique” works to the urinal that Marcel Duchamp turned into one of the most famous pieces of modern art, that’s for sure.
Now I’m going to have to look up those lyrics: I can’t for the life of me think of what off-color word would rhyme with “stare”. Thanks for offering a new perspective on an artist whose name has become little more than a cliche to most people of my generation.
I’ll give you a hint: it doesn’t rhyme with “stare,” but does rhyme with “hassle.” It’s not the most vulgar word in the world, but I figured I’d edit it out anyway.
Wow! I did not know his name was so long & I had to learn all about him in Humanities II last semester. 🙂 Great post.
Thank you! That’s actually pretty cool. Picasso was an interesting dude, and according to the Modern Lovers, he could pick up girls just by looking at them. I’m not sure if they meant that he attracted the girls or that he had telekinetic powers, but either one is pretty awesome, and it was in a song, so it must be true! 🙂
are you like BIG TIME RUSH viva MEXICO WOO HOO!!
huh? lol.
Haha, I was about to ask the same question 🙂
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que laaargooooooooooo nombre viva BIG TIME RUSH
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