The Word Nerds Discussion :: View topic

Klopfenpop

This is my first thread, here goes nothing!

I thought it would be fun to have a thread to post and discuss clever wordplay humor from stand-up comics, television, movies, literature, or your imagination. I decided to put it in the "Rude Words" forum since they may come up in examples.

I'll start:

Klopfenpop

Demetri Martin is one of my favorite comedians. He has a very "stream of consciousness", conversational style of speaking. Here's is a very funny bit of his in which he disects a common idiom...actually I just looked it up and realized I'm wrong--this seems to be about an apothegm:

There's a saying that goes "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Okay. How about "Nobody should throw stones." That's crappy behavior. My policy is: "No stone throwing regardless of housing situation." Don't do it. There is one exception though. If you're trapped in a glass house, and you have a stone, then throw it. What are you, an idiot? So maybe it's "Only people in glass houses should throw stones, provided they are trapped in the house with a stone." It's a little longer, but yeah.

Dave

Barbara and I were lucky enough this week to attend the presentation show for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center. This year the prize went posthumously to George Carlin.

One of Carlin's signature routines from the early 1970s was his bit on the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television." This is a hilarious routine that is also a great comment on the relativity of language and meaning.

Check out the work of Carlin if you want to hear a master of American English wordplay.