On the playground this week, one little girl went down the twisty slide on her side, hand under her head propping it up, her top leg gently stacked on the bottom leg, and a cheeky smile on her face. She was doing “The Burt Reynolds!”
All the moms by the slide laughed at this obviously comedic way to go down a twisty slide. Like any 5-year-old whose actions got a big reaction, the little girl decided to keep going down the slide in this pose over and over again. Meanwhile, I was dying to know if any of these Japanese moms were picturing the classic Cosmopolitan Burt Reynolds centerfold from 1972. Was it even an infamous photo in Japan? And if it was, would these moms recognize the reference all these years later?
I pulled the photo up on my phone planning to show it to one mom who speaks some English. I just had to know if the Japanese moms were also thinking about Burt Reynolds. Honestly, I do not know what I was expecting, but the photo is a lot more naked than I remembered. And a lot hairier.
This young Japanese mom’s English is not skilled enough, and my Japanese certainly is not good enough, for me to explain why I was showing her a 52-year-old picture of a naked man while our kids played on the playground. Not wanting to scare off one of the only moms that speaks English, I decided to put my phone and Burt away.
Until now… because a 5-year-old doing “The Burt Reynolds” down a twisty slide is just too funny not to share.