13
   

The missed future of allusions.

 
 
Reply Thu 31 Mar, 2011 08:16 pm
The title alludes to something Freudian. But this thread isn't about Freud.

This thread is about alluding to something and people not getting the joke.

Today I told a dear neighbor toddlers that they "may not pass" down the sidewalk and I demanded they bring me a shrubbery as a toll.

Not only did he not get it, the attendant mothers didn't get it.

Even when I explained "It's Monty Python" I got blank looks.

<sigh>

But Bog love the dearest one: he offered me an imaginary "scrubbery" so I let them pass after all. (And they thought it was fun to yell "NI" at each other.)

<big sigh>

What do you allude to that nobody gets?

Do you suppose that some day in the future these children will appreciate me for more than letting them pound the garden dirt with croquet mallets?
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Type: Question • Score: 13 • Views: 1,502 • Replies: 17

 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 05:03 am
@boomerang,
This happens to me with such predictable regularity, that i don't even pay attention any longer. I tend to free associate, and i discovered many years ago that most people have not read as much as i have. They seem to do better with lines from motion pictures, but i doubt if that is even 50%. More than anything else, though, i free associate with song lyrics. People just look at me as though i were crazy, because they hardly ever get them.
0 Replies
 
dadpad
 
  3  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 05:07 am
why would you assume a toddler would "get" Monty python?

I cover my tracks with a "well I guess ya hadda be there"
0 Replies
 
George
 
  2  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 07:05 am
I had the same problem with my parents' generation alluding to old radio
shows. I had no idea who The Shadow was or why he would know.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 07:14 am
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
djjd62
 
  2  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 07:19 am
@Setanta,
or as my father would say, who knows what bovril leaks in the hearts of men
0 Replies
 
boomerang
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 07:34 am
I assumed their moms would know, not the toddlers themselves.

When I was a kid there was a big revival of the old radio shows. We used to listen over dinner. I loved The Shadow best of all.

I do that with songs too, Set. There seems to be one for every occasion. Life would make fun musical theater!
George
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 01:43 pm
@boomerang,
Life is a cabaret, old friend.
0 Replies
 
Ceili
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 02:16 pm
I've found that women, for the most part, didn't really get Python. Same as the Stooges, to each their own, but I love a good Python joke.
Next time try a Ministry of Silly walks, kids love that one.
0 Replies
 
wayne
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 07:11 pm
@boomerang,
Quote:
I demanded they bring me a shrubbery as a toll.



Us, it's bring us a shrubbery.
No wonder they missed it, ickyickyoooh Smile
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 08:29 pm
I've been known to allude to Richard Burton just to watch the confusion trying to relate the subject to an old actor.
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 10:01 pm
@roger,
I'll admit to not watching Monty Python. I was busy then. It is logical I would like them. I also didn't watch the Carry on Nurse stuff before that. Or probably much after.

I'm more interested now in that someone thinks that of all the billions on earth that whether any of us get some allusion and is thus marked up, that it would be of any value to more than ourselves.
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 10:06 pm
@ossobuco,
Oh, wait, I bought some Lamboutin shoes.




(no)
0 Replies
 
OmSigDAVID
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2011 10:35 pm
@boomerang,
boomerang wrote:
The title alludes to something Freudian. But this thread isn't about Freud.

This thread is about alluding to something and people not getting the joke.

Today I told a dear neighbor toddlers that they "may not pass"
I thawt of the Battle of Verdun in World War I.
0 Replies
 
Roberta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Apr, 2011 05:00 pm
boomer, I sometimes make poetry allusions that are understood only by me. Can't help myself. The words are in my head. Sometimes I explain; sometimes I don't.

Most used: The world is too much with us (W. Worsdworth)
0 Replies
 
The Joke Explainer
 
  2  
Reply Tue 5 Apr, 2011 12:45 pm
@boomerang,
The humor in this situation was derived from a presumably shared cultural reference to a Monty Python bit from Knights of the Holy grail in which the Knights of Ni demand a shrubbery ("one that looks nice... and that is not too expensive").
0 Replies
 
joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Tue 5 Apr, 2011 01:11 pm
I raised a similar point with regard to movies and cultural literacy here.
0 Replies
 
Linkat
 
  1  
Reply Wed 6 Apr, 2011 03:10 pm
All I can say is...

Well, there's egg and bacon,
egg sausage and bacon
Egg and spam
Egg, bacon and spam
Egg, bacon, sausage and spam
Spam, bacon, sausage and spam
Spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam
Spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam tomato and spam
Spam, spam, spam, egg and spam
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam.

Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!
Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam.
Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
Spam spam spam spam!

0 Replies
 
 

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