We all know the iconic scene from the 1989 classic teen-romance film, Say Anything, where Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holds his boom box stalwartly above his head as those romantic lyrics of devotion play in the background, “Your Eyes, something something something, Your Eyes.” So, on Tuesday, a bunch of Lloyd Doblers got together, became the Lloyd Dobler Mobler (seriously?), and formed a recreation of this scene all day, in at least five different locations. In fact you may have passed by them if you were in Washington Square around 10:30-11:00 a.m. yesterday morning.

Or perhaps you saw them when they were covered as a fluff piece for “Fox and Friends.” Just kidding, no one watches “Fox and Friends.” When they performed in Times Square, the Mobler consisted of almost twenty guys with trench coats and boomboxes, and one random chubby dude with a bongo. It turns out he was part of the band that got to play, whose singer looked like Mark Wahlberg, and incidentally was not the band Say Anything, which might have actually drawn a crowd larger than the number of Lloyd Doblers present. However, it’s refreshing to see, in such a consumerist society, that people are willing to take a moment out of the day to pay homage to a moment in romance wherein a man refuses to give up on a girl, even after she refuses to answer nine phone calls in a row. In fact, when I asked Max Hambleton why he gave up his Tuesday to imitate such a romantic gesture, he quickly responded, “I was paid to be here.” Video after the jump.

The Fox representative who was there confirmed that the majority of the John Cusack impersonators were actually paid to be there, and that the main goal of the event was to announce the release of the movie on Blu-Ray. A blu-ray which at least all the impersonators got a free copy of, according to the Fox representative. Or rather, when I asked a Canadian Dobler named Douglas, a blu-ray which he would have enjoyed getting a copy of, “to sell on Craigslist.” But he instead got a cute little ballpoint pen. Though, perhaps that might also sell well on Craigslist if it is included with a sexual favor.

A Dobler named David said that he studied for the role of holding a boombox above his head by staring at pictures of John Cusack for hours on end, trying to master Cusack’s “gaze,” and even went so far as to develop a method to sway to the song by moving “three inches to the right, then three inches to the left.” As a side note, it seems that in the fervor of his intense character-study, David forgot to take into account John Cusack’s lack of a gigantic santa-claus beard. Others were not so traditional. Take Pierre for example, who utilized his roots in improv comedy to find the courage to bend down on one knee and lift his radio up above his head in a fit of passion which left me in tears. Pierre also informed me that at the other scheduled performances of unconditional love that day, there were other special guests in lieu of the band, such as elves, clowns and even elephants. Another Dobler named Josh replied to this allegation by saying, “That’s not true… but there were elves.”

Photo from Cinematical.com.