Watched some Youtubes. There was a new Twice series Tdoong Baseball Team about them forming a baseball team that was a bit off the wall. The first episode had them meeting each other for tryouts and assuming various personas. It was ditzy fun, with Momo pretending she’s Korean, and Jeongyeon taking on a shy persona, and Dahyun being the privileged team owner’s daughter and so on. I’m not sure where they’re going with all this, but I’m here for it.
Got around to seeing the Twice Tdoong Baseball ep 2 video. The girls were sitting at a long table looking like a committee tasked with coming up with a series of fan chants based on their songs. Everyone was making suggestions, except for Mina, who was quieter than usual. They already have a ready-made sports anthem in Cheer Up, so that was the obvious starter. It was amazing how easily they were able to re-purpose their original song with new lyrics to fit the idea of a baseball fan chant. Rhythm-centred hand-claps and gestures were easily integrated into the performance. It was a simple but fun episode and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves (except maybe Mina?).
I no sooner saw that episode and another one, ep 3, appeared not long after. All the members had a wacky go at hitting and pitching. Instead of hitting the ball with her bat, Tzuyu decided to try to kick the ball with her feet. It made a kind of sense since her persona, as established in the first episode, was that of a soccer player, not a baseball player. During one attempt she completely missed the ball and made a classic pratfall. The other members cracked up. Tzuyu was a hard act to follow, but Chaeyoung was quite impressive swinging daintily at the balls without even bothering to come close. Clearly didn’t give a fuck. A couple of times she just swung around in a circle as the ball flew by her. For her last attempt she switched sides to lefty and got a hit. This is more than Mina got. She was 0 for 6, but she looked FANTASTIC doing it, which was the main thing. ‘Shy’ Jeongyeon acted all scared of the ball for her time at bat then proceeded to hit the crap out of it. After each round all the members got up and did the Do It Again Pikki Pikki dance with gusto. I could watch them do that all day. The pitching practice was even weirder. ‘Shy’ Jeongyeon did the girliest half-throw imaginable. The ball landed at her feet. Very ‘shy’ of the mark, you might say. Onces are presently having lots of fun coming up with memes for this ep.
Another Tdoong Baseball ep #4 was not long in coming, this time with the Twice members actually having a go at playing baseball on a field. It was clumsy chaos and fun as usual. On the field Jihyo scared Momo with her fierce criticism when she mis-fielded a ball. After a first groundball, Sana proved herself a reliable opening pitcher. I loved how the graphic named Tzuyu as ‘cleanup hitter’. Some of them are still holding the bat the wrong way (ie: cross-armed), which is annoying but funny. The editing and framing was straight out of the MLB media rulebook, with the members striking heroic poses, arguing with umpiring decisions and slo-mo shots of the action. It was epic fun.
Watched the final episode of Twice’s baseball series, Tdoong Baseball Team Final. Boy, they are so bad at sports, but that’s half the fun. It’s crazy how some of the members cross-armed the bats while at plate. Why didn’t any of the staff show them how to hold a bat? And Jeongyeon seemed confused about which way to hold her bat – was she a lefty or a righty? Maybe she’s a switch-hitter! There was a nicely constructed ending where they made it look like a Once was playing and got hit by the ball. The girls gathered around this Once lying on the ground, trying to wake them up. I’m not sure if this baseball theme worked for their ninth anniversary celebration, but it was corny fun. How will they celebrate their tenth?