June 07, 2005
Women with tea
Rob Balder's Partially Clips for 5/19/2005:
Rob's commentary says:
The "self descriptive text revealing an underlying formula" is not a joke I invented, certainly. I saw it done as a comedy routine in the 80s about commercials:
Guy 1: Say, popular-overused-man's-name, cheerful greeting!
Guy 2: Oh, other-popular-overused-man's-name, subdued reply.
Guy 1: Question of concern, with condescending overtones?
Guy 2: Severe depression, based on common, trivial condition.
Guy 1: Well, I have the remedy for your self-induced melancholy. It's a consumable product!
Guy 2: Awestruck expression! Followed by repetition of the product's name for emphasis!
...etc.
And of course, DaVinci's Notebook has their brilliant send-up of boy band songs, "Title of the Song." I guess the actors went for the formula that annoyed them the most, as did the singers, as did I.
He might also have cited this passage ( transcript, mp3) from (an old edition of) the NeoFuturist's show TMLMTBGB.
Posted by Mark Liberman at June 7, 2005 03:24 PM