This week JOE and The KC Show from Today FM teamed up to look back on the excellently cheese-tastic year that was 1993.
We obviously did this for the sole reason of making everybody feel really old and nostalgic on a miserable, grey Friday afternoon so you're all very welcome.
JOE would love to say that back in 1993 we were but a young babe, toddling around in our nappy... but we'd be lying because we were actually nine years old and had in fact stopped wearing nappies the year before. So there! Ha!
JOE's a (dry) big boy now.
And so, nappy-free, we hopped into our JOE DeLorean (sat at our desk), magically whizzed ourselves twenty years into the past (typed '1993' into Google) and got right down to work (got right down to work).
Of course, there were loads of fun things happening in 1993, like the Republic of Macedonia being admitted to the United Nations and the European Economic Community eliminating trade barriers in order to create a European single market, but we're not really going to focus on those things. Disappointing, we know.
First things first, remember this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSRG0TqxLWc
Of course you do you old ba*tard.
Although the Internet had been around in one form another since the late 1950s, 1993 marked the year that the World Wide Web came online and the Net was made accessible to the general public for the very first time. As Homer so wisely said,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YozC8yFrZKI
The World Wide Web has since made the world a better (and smaller) place and, because books don't exist anymore, none of the research for this particular article could have been conducted without it, so it's a wonderful invention we're sure you'll agree.
Check out the fantastic news report marking that year's launch of the online bandwidth, including one man's, ahem, interesting testimonial about how he can "indulge [his] deep and abiding passion for all things Thai."
So, it looks like the Internet hasn't changed that much over the past 20 years at all really...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxfhInhkvtM
The Internet is a wonderful tool allowing us to keep in touch with people from all over the world, listening to any music we want with the simple click of a button and, most importantly, it allows us to stream all of our favourite films completely legally and not in any untoward, frowned-upon manner at all. No sireebob, not us.
Which brings us nicely onto some of JOE's favourite films released in 1993. There were many excellent contenders, including Schindler's List, The Fugitive and the peerless Free Willy, but the office's final Top 3 are hard to argue with. So don't.
JOE's very own Man of Steel, Conor 'I swear I'm not crying' Heneghan plumped for the John Candy classic, Cool Runnings. JOE gives you the greatest slow clap of all time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31M_MdSVxV8
There was also the brilliant Mrs Doubtfire in which Robin Williams starred as the character who is officially everyone's favourite cross-dressing Nanny. We wish our own cross-dressing Nanny had been more like Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire, as opposed to Juan Carlos, the 6 foot 8 guy from Puerto Rico who couldn't even apply his own mascara properly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0l2T7iF0Ro
But, to top it all off, it's the absolutely unbeatable Jurassic Park which remains, to this day, one of the greatest films of all time. Tip of the hat to you Mr Spielberg...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxqHVoZ0fzc
And just have a listen to John Williams' iconic score here. We're probably going to have to borrow those tissues for a moment Conor...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8zlUUrFK-M
But if you really want to hear how the theme should have sounded then check out the melodica-infused clip below.
"They DO move in herds." They certainly do Dr. Grant, they certainly do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w-58hQ9dLk
There were also some films released in 1993 which didn't quite make the final cut, but their soundtracks most definitely deserve a mention. First up is the tuneful triumvirate of Bryan Adams, Sting and Rod 'i need more hairspray' Stewart with their amazing rendition of 'All For Love' from The Three Musketeers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AB7RJpOjY
And, whenever Karaoke night rolls around, who could forget JOE's song of choice as we regularly murder 'I Will always Love You' from The Bodyguard. Here's Whitney Houston doing a (slightly) better job than us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU
There was also widespread grief in '93 as the music world lost Marky Mark Wahlberg and his Funky Bunch to the world of acting, but it wasn't all doom and gloom though as Ireland showed the world the real way to make music.
Linda Martin was the reigning Eurovision champion in 1993 after blowing the European audience away with her performance of 'Why Me?' the previous year.'
The Irish organisers, however, were probably thinking ‘why us?’ as the tournament then had to be staged in the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Co. Cork, with Fionnuala Sweeney hosting.
As Britain and Ireland went right down to the final vote, our very own daughter of Eire Niamh Kavanagh ended up kicking Brit bum with a brilliant performance of 'In Your Eyes.' GO ON YA GOOD THING!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAKqQJshR_c
The year also marked the arrival on to the music scene of the original and greatest Irish boy band, Boyzone. Sit back and marvel as a dungareed dance group are introduced to an incredibly patronising Gay Byrne in what is undoubtedly one of the great moments in Irish television history:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpVyGaHM6rE
Sweety Jeebus in Heaven.
Some say (well, this particular JOE does anyway) that 1993 was also the year that saw the greatest ever All-Ireland Senior Football final as Derry superbly defeated Cork 1–14 to 2–8 to take Sam to the Oak Leaf county for the first (and probably only) time. We can but dream...
For soccer fans, however, '93 was the year that Manchester United won their first title in 26 years as Fergie and his followers took home the inaugural Premier League trophy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opcqB0v8Tqk
And last, but not least, 1993 saw us unfortunately lose some of the world's greatest acting talents; the absolutely gorgeous Audrey hepburn (63)
And the not-quite-as-gorgeous André the Giant (46)...
We don't care how ugly the big brute was, we'll always love him for his class performance as Fezzik in JOE favourite, The Princess Bride.
"Anybody want a peanut?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP5-qJSzDUg
Fear not though all you fans of the after-life and reincarnation. JOE firmly believes that the lost souls of Audrey and André were anything but lost, and were instead morphed together in some sort of weird soul-smooshing sequence, resulting in the 1993 birth of none other than he of Wand Erection fame...
... Mr Niall Horan
The souls of Audrey Hepburn and André the Giant...
Happy 1993 everyone from all of us here at JOE.ie.
