Stuck

©06 The Media Desk
http://themediadesk.com

      This is an open letter to the people who get a term stuck in their heads and use it incessantly until the rest of us seriously consider violating their civil rights. Or maybe they become fixated on an idea. Or even the old "Help, I'm talking and I can't stop!" chatterboxes who insist on jabbering on about the most mundane and otherwise empty details of their mundane and otherwise empty lives. And a few others.

A short list of good Bad Examples:

• Referring to Dollars as "Bucks" for the entire duration of a budget meeting.

• Calling Coffee "Joe" repeatedly, (the cuteness wore off last year when Burger King released their ad with 'Joe' on the side of coffee cups)

• Using the term "Heinie Hole" to refer to the Human Anus (or a Human who is an Anus) and insisting on talking about it for hours on end.

• Repeating any of the latest "Catch Phrases" from inane TV shows.

  Let's hold it right here for a minute.
        Back in the Golden Age of the Daytime Soap Operas there were several orchestrated 'gags' perpetuated by the writers of the soaps to do exactly what we are talking about. (Besides the phenomena of the 'disease of the week' in real world physician's offices where lonely but otherwise healthy women would swear they'd caught whatever was making the rounds on the soaps. Sugar pills and various tonics almost always cured the illness.)
        The writers inserted terms like "toot-sweet" (meaning 'quickly') and certain other obscure words into the dialogue on several different shows. The housewives who watched these things almost as a religion picked up on it and used them. And for a time, several extra meaningless phrases circulated in American society.
        Of late one of the more annoying is "Yada yada yada" from a Prime Time program correctly called "A show about nothing". Fortunately that one seems to be dying off.
        Back to the list.

• Trying to over-use technical jargon when it has become painfully obvious you have no idea what you're talking about. For instance, a manager type throwing around hardcore networking terms like "we need to reconfigure the VoIP frame packetization rules under MPLS at layer 2" without a clue as to what all that actually means (and it does mean something).

• Never mind what any show ever seen on UPN (or whatever it is this week) says: Loud and Stupid is not a personality. You are not 'Ralph Kramden' and you never will be. And Yes, Jackie "Mmmm-boy, that's good booze!" Gleason made a fortune doing it, you won't.
       Speaking of catch-phrases- "And awa-a-aay we go!" Rest in Peace Jackie

• The Overly Personal Chat. Really. No, We Really Don't Care how cute it was when your toddler discovered the fact that they could take their diaper off in the middle of the supermarket. And while you're at it- No, We're NOT INTERESTED in your toenail fungus either.

• Back to TV. No, we don’t watch the so called "Reality TV" shows. And there is a very good reason why. The fact that you do has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of us, period. Now, having said that we will say this. If you want to watch them, fine, good for you, enjoy.... If we wanted to watch any of them, there is a schedule in today's paper, our TV's work fairly well, we'd make the popcorn and get a cold drink and sit and watch it. If we choose not to, that's our business. DON'T make it your life's mission to tell us about every minute of every show. Please.

• One more, but it's an attitude or maybe even a character trait: Heterosexual Adult Men who think they're 'pretty' and continually strut and pose like a supermodel at Fashion Week. Face it buddy, you're nothing special, and showing off your vanity for our benefit makes you seem more pathetic than you really are.

      In conclusion. What may seem fresh and new can quickly become annoying and then obnoxious. Sometimes the elapsed time between the two can be a matter of minutes, especially when you're watching a cable channel and an ad blitz hits and you see the same commercial, complete with 'blast you out of the room' audio four times in a row. And then, somebody with no personality of their own gloms onto the catchphrase and it suddenly becomes the centerpiece of their vocabulary. And then you end up having to talk to a deputy sheriff and post bail and all that.

      The bottom line is this:   THINK!

      That's all, just think. At least once in awhile.

thank you

[NOTE: The shows and phrases and commercials and other media stupidity is probably owned by whoever made them. No UNDUE infringement or disparagement is intended.
  Thank You, Webmaster ]

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