Joe Panik goes for laughs in the latest giveaway promo

Tomorrow, the Giants will give away a Giants-themed Duffel Bag, presented by Alaska Airlines. To hype up this tremendous — really, just a wonderful, overwhelmingly great — giveaway, they put together this promo with a simple concept: what if Bruce Bochy spoke a language that only Joe Panik understood?

We should appreciate Bruce Bochy’s willingness to be the butt of the joke while we still can. The core i9 processor or former Dodger that will manage the team next year very likely won’t have the same openness. Bochy’s ego isn’t tied to how he looks, it’s all about getting the job done. Here, he’s doing most of the work to make this simple ad concept really work.

And then Joe Panik swoops in and plays it for fun.

Look at that intentionally corny smile. That’s the intentionally corny smile of a man who gets the bit. Did we really know that Joe Panik could do bits? Of course, I’m grading him on the scale of “professional athletes doing an acting”, which means I’m not saying he’s Peter Sellers or Kristen Wiig, but he at least sells the idea and gets the joke.

Does it make you want to go get that giveaway or, better yet, have Bochy run signs at you? Your odds of nabbing the former are outstanding as the Giants won’t have a sellout tomorrow (or many games this season). As a result, maybe your odds of the latter taking place are improved by the simple fact that there will be fewer people standing between you and Bruce Bochy.

However, this is not an endorsement for you to ask Bruce Bochy to reenact this ad. If you see him in public, please leave him be. But definitely watch this video, as it’s only 30 seconds long and might drive you to chuckle on this fine Saturday morning. And, if you stayed up to watch all 18 innings of last night’s / this morning’s game, then it might even compel your bleary soul to a hearty guffaw.