B.A. (who also suggested the subject line): First, why is this supposed to be funny? And second, does this need a Geezer tag?
Related
21 Comments
Everything he says is a song lyric. Ha ha. She only just figured it out. Ha ha. It’s not funny.
As for geezer, I don’t think so. Cultural osmosis for one thing. Also Rocketman was the title of the Elton John biopic last year. And, of course, there was the political use recently.
It sort of works for me. The idea being, he probably swiped particularly romantic lines here and there to impress her, then blew it by resorting to obvious and not even pertinent songs.
Not a new idea. A variant of Cyrano, where a suitor (almost always male) either gets help crafting a romantic identity or lifts one ready-made from a book or movie. The comedic reveal usually involves the suitor reading off the wrong notes or the heroine indulging in some fiction herself.
I flashed back to a Carol Burnett sketch: Her character is on a date with an incredibly interesting and sensitive man (Alan Alda, self-parodying). She gets home, turns on the TV and discovers everything Alda said, including his life story, was cribbed from an old movie. In the end Alda confesses he’s painfully uninteresting, even to himself. Carol decides to accept it — specifying what movie character she wants that evening.
She’s either about to attack him, or she’s fishing for coins between the sofa cushions.
I really dislike the art in Close to Home.
This works OK for me. It’s mildly amusing to think of this guy keeping this up for three dates, and Karen only realizing it now.
I’m normally on board with bashing the artwork on CtH, but the people in this look surprisingly non-hideous, and there’s a lots less extraneous scratchy lines covering the panel than usual. (Hey, I’m grading on a curve.)
Anyone who watches reruns of “The Big Bang Theory” repeatedly cycles past the “Howard becomes an astronaut” story ark in which the song is referenced, played as a ringtone and sadly sang in a diner late at night.
I read once about a cult, maybe 19th-century, in which everything anybody said had to be a quotation from the Bible.
Everything. For instance, to ask about dinner: Genesis 25:30: Feed me, I pray thee, for I am faint.
And then, there’s a Lucky Luke comic book (“Jesse James”) where Jesse’s brother Frank exclusively speaks in Shakespeare quotes.
He’s working his way up to:
“You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals
So let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”
Third date is the sex date, so does this ruin his chances.
Probably referenced enough and recently enough to not be a full geezer. Though I’d suggest that being referenced in a sitcom is a sign of near geezer status, as those writers are likely close to or actual geezers. Also, good cover of Rocketman:
Sorta works for me, too. But I’m convinced that in 20 or 30 years I’ll be sitting in a home somewhere, with no idea who or where I am, but by God, I’ll still have all these damned 80s lyrics in my head!
@Mark in Boston: “I read once about a cult, maybe 19th-century, in which everything anybody said had to be a quotation from the Bible.”
Gene Wolfe has a character in THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH, fourth of his BOOK OF THE NEW SUN series, who follows a religion/ cult that operates on that premise (their far-future holy book, not our Bible). Wolfe’s character manages to make a lot of coherent story-telling sense operating under those conditions. (No doubt helped by the fact that Wolfe wrote him that way and created the quotes in the first place, of course.)
And the American version of WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? has/had a regular game in which one of the participants throughout could only respond to his partner using one of two phrases (I recall one was usually “What do you mean by that?”). He could vary the inflections, though.
It was a LOL for me, except that if it took her three dates to figure that out, she’s probably just as dumb as he is.
>>I’ll still have all these damned 80s lyrics in my head!
FWIW, “Rocket Man” is from 1972.
Hard to believe nobody’s mentioned Darmok yet.
ja: yeah, yeah. 70s and 80s. And some from the 60s and 90s. But mostly 70s and 80s.
@ SingaporeBill – “Third date is the sex date, so does this ruin…”
If there’s anything creepier than considering the sexuality of one’s own parents, it is contemplating the possibility that the characters in “Close to Home” might actually reproduce. Icky in the extreme.
@Kilby: Sex=/=reproduction in all cases. Mules, the offspring of a union between a horse and a donkey cannot breed, no matter how hard they try. I always assumed the characters in “Close to Home”, obviously some horrible human/orangutan hybrid, were equally infertile. The question is really is there some organized programme turning them out or is it just the result of lonely anthropologists in the jungles of Borneo?
@ SingaporeBill – The difference is that when mules attempt it, it is merely an unsuccessful event. With these characters, even contemplating the attempt is revolting.
SingaporeBill: thanks for that; who’da ever thought I’d laugh out loud over anything Close To Home related?
Hey, another Gene Wolfe fan! (I’m not a very good one, though.)
Phil Smith III – judging by the Assisted Living Residence my mom has moved to – you will watching the movies – two shows of the same movie in the same day – afternoon and evening, and everyone else will be singing the songs.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Everything he says is a song lyric. Ha ha. She only just figured it out. Ha ha. It’s not funny.
As for geezer, I don’t think so. Cultural osmosis for one thing. Also Rocketman was the title of the Elton John biopic last year. And, of course, there was the political use recently.
It sort of works for me. The idea being, he probably swiped particularly romantic lines here and there to impress her, then blew it by resorting to obvious and not even pertinent songs.
Not a new idea. A variant of Cyrano, where a suitor (almost always male) either gets help crafting a romantic identity or lifts one ready-made from a book or movie. The comedic reveal usually involves the suitor reading off the wrong notes or the heroine indulging in some fiction herself.
I flashed back to a Carol Burnett sketch: Her character is on a date with an incredibly interesting and sensitive man (Alan Alda, self-parodying). She gets home, turns on the TV and discovers everything Alda said, including his life story, was cribbed from an old movie. In the end Alda confesses he’s painfully uninteresting, even to himself. Carol decides to accept it — specifying what movie character she wants that evening.
She’s either about to attack him, or she’s fishing for coins between the sofa cushions.
I really dislike the art in Close to Home.
This works OK for me. It’s mildly amusing to think of this guy keeping this up for three dates, and Karen only realizing it now.
I’m normally on board with bashing the artwork on CtH, but the people in this look surprisingly non-hideous, and there’s a lots less extraneous scratchy lines covering the panel than usual. (Hey, I’m grading on a curve.)
Anyone who watches reruns of “The Big Bang Theory” repeatedly cycles past the “Howard becomes an astronaut” story ark in which the song is referenced, played as a ringtone and sadly sang in a diner late at night.
I read once about a cult, maybe 19th-century, in which everything anybody said had to be a quotation from the Bible.
Everything. For instance, to ask about dinner: Genesis 25:30: Feed me, I pray thee, for I am faint.
And then, there’s a Lucky Luke comic book (“Jesse James”) where Jesse’s brother Frank exclusively speaks in Shakespeare quotes.
He’s working his way up to:
“You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals
So let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”
Third date is the sex date, so does this ruin his chances.
Probably referenced enough and recently enough to not be a full geezer. Though I’d suggest that being referenced in a sitcom is a sign of near geezer status, as those writers are likely close to or actual geezers. Also, good cover of Rocketman:
Sorta works for me, too. But I’m convinced that in 20 or 30 years I’ll be sitting in a home somewhere, with no idea who or where I am, but by God, I’ll still have all these damned 80s lyrics in my head!
@Mark in Boston: “I read once about a cult, maybe 19th-century, in which everything anybody said had to be a quotation from the Bible.”
Gene Wolfe has a character in THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH, fourth of his BOOK OF THE NEW SUN series, who follows a religion/ cult that operates on that premise (their far-future holy book, not our Bible). Wolfe’s character manages to make a lot of coherent story-telling sense operating under those conditions. (No doubt helped by the fact that Wolfe wrote him that way and created the quotes in the first place, of course.)
And the American version of WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? has/had a regular game in which one of the participants throughout could only respond to his partner using one of two phrases (I recall one was usually “What do you mean by that?”). He could vary the inflections, though.
It was a LOL for me, except that if it took her three dates to figure that out, she’s probably just as dumb as he is.
>>I’ll still have all these damned 80s lyrics in my head!
FWIW, “Rocket Man” is from 1972.
Hard to believe nobody’s mentioned Darmok yet.
ja: yeah, yeah. 70s and 80s. And some from the 60s and 90s. But mostly 70s and 80s.
@ SingaporeBill – “Third date is the sex date, so does this ruin…”
If there’s anything creepier than considering the sexuality of one’s own parents, it is contemplating the possibility that the characters in “Close to Home” might actually reproduce. Icky in the extreme.
@Kilby: Sex=/=reproduction in all cases. Mules, the offspring of a union between a horse and a donkey cannot breed, no matter how hard they try. I always assumed the characters in “Close to Home”, obviously some horrible human/orangutan hybrid, were equally infertile. The question is really is there some organized programme turning them out or is it just the result of lonely anthropologists in the jungles of Borneo?
@ SingaporeBill – The difference is that when mules attempt it, it is merely an unsuccessful event. With these characters, even contemplating the attempt is revolting.
SingaporeBill: thanks for that; who’da ever thought I’d laugh out loud over anything Close To Home related?
Hey, another Gene Wolfe fan! (I’m not a very good one, though.)
Phil Smith III – judging by the Assisted Living Residence my mom has moved to – you will watching the movies – two shows of the same movie in the same day – afternoon and evening, and everyone else will be singing the songs.