November 20, 2007

By By Leila Cobo, Miami

When king Juan Carlos of Spain angrily told Venezuelan president Hugo Ch?vez to "just shut up" (porqu? no te callas), he could have hardly anticipated becoming a YouTube phenomenon. But the Nov. 12 incident during a summit of leaders of the Spanish speaking world in Santiago, Chile, has become that, and more.

It happened when the King, clearly exasperated at Ch?vez's continuous interruption of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, finally leaned over from his seat and chastised Ch?vez. The incident has been covered extensively in Latin American and international press. It's most recent appearance is as a series of YouTube videos, which have generated millions of views.

One video is set to "Que Viva Espa?a," a well known pasodoble, where the King's words alternate with pictures of Ch?vez as a monkey. Perhaps funnier is a reggaet?n version where actual dialogue between Chavez and the King is set to Don Omar's "Dale Don Dale."

Now, the King's famous line is also being sold as a ringtone, with several publications reporting that 500,000 ringtones had been sold in Spain in the past several days. A quick Internet search found the ringtone available for download on multiple sites and in multiple versions, Also available for sale are "Porqu? no te callas" T-shirts and mugs.

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