Before reading on, study the smiles on Bob Vila and Norm Abram.
Vila’s smile is phony. He doesn’t enjoy being this close to Norm. Vila wonders how much he gets paid for this photo shoot with Norm. He’s thinking it’s not enough. Norm’s smile is legit. He’s loving life in this picture. That’s not to say Norm enjoys Vila’s company, but Norm is indeed enjoying himself.
Why does Vila struggle to summon an authentic smile? Because he’s a thankless prick, unaware of the career he owes to Norm. Does Norm hate Vila for this? No. Norm is a class act. He knows his business requires assholes like Vila. In fact, every business has a Vila hogging all the credit.
Norm has spent all his life carrying helpless losers like Vila on his back. He could bitch about it. He could let it weigh on him. But Norm won’t. He’ll just go spend a half hour making yet another bad ass piece of furniture that Vila couldn’t imagine in his wildest dreams.
to me, it just looks like the cameraman made an uncomfortable racist comment right before the picture. vila didn’t know how to react. and norm, being a hard-core racist, laughed with delight.
Haha. Nicely done.