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#159253 04/30/2006 4:21 AM
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#159254 04/30/2006 7:55 AM
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Quote:

"With sayings from characters in shows such as Little Britain and the Catherine Tate Show providing us with more and more contemporary slang, we thought we needed to reflect this."




When I read this quote, I thought it must be sarcastic. Or have we gotten so pathetically pop-culture-oriented that we look to television shows to teach us slang, instead of actual real-life conversation?

It adds an interesting dimension to the "art imitates life" or "life imitates art" debate. In this case, I guess it's art imitating art masquerading as life.

#159255 04/30/2006 12:34 PM
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art imitating art masquerading as life

Wonderful observation! And welcome aboard.

#159256 04/30/2006 1:02 PM
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Dy-Na-Mite! TV has been a source of slang almost since it first appeared.

it used to be poets and acting companies traveled from place to place, and people learned culture and expressions from them, (Shakespeare presumed when he had Hamlet say "and who is he to Hecuba, or Hecuba to he?" that the audience would know who Hecuba was.

Now, everyone know what "Master of their own domain" means.

TV creates its own culture, and propogates it. and slang, and language along the way. as to whether or not this is a good thing..well that's a value judgement.

the option exist to turn the TV off, (and to miss out on what is so funny about 'being the master of my own domain'.(see discussion in misc)

#159257 04/30/2006 9:05 PM
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A wee bit behind the times if *they think "whatever" is an up-to-date street expression.

#159258 05/02/2006 12:07 AM
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Welcome aBoard, Peri. As to that quote, I took it that the gentleman was speaking as a representative of the company; that the company, not society, was the "us" he was referring to.

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In lieu of a rant I'd like to simply say that whoever coined the term "culturally correct" should be slapped in the face with a sock full of wet mud -- wet, warm, stinky swamp mud -- and made to write a ten page essay on Maoist China.

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How about "humorically correct"?

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Was it something I said?

#159262 05/25/2006 11:12 PM
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it used to be poets and acting companies traveled from place to place, and people learned culture and expressions from them, (Shakespeare presumed when he had Hamlet say "and who is he to Hecuba, or Hecuba to he?" that the audience would know who Hecuba was.
And those who didn't enjoyed or endured the poetry, laughed at the slapstick and dirty jokes and ignored the references. Just like they do at Bard on the Beach these days.

#159263 05/25/2006 11:44 PM
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I'm pretty much in line with Helen on this one. Phrases like "cultural enrichment" actually mean something. The more you know, the more you see. The more you know, the more you hear. The more you know, the more you notice and enjoy.

It used to be that everyone knew lots of phrases from the Authorized Version (King James) of the Bible and so writers could lace them, without quotation marks or explicit references, into their writing. Not so much anymore. Like wise the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Likewise Shakespere.

Now it is the elder generation which "misses the point" of so much becuase we don't recognize the references to song lyrics and to dialogue in the movies which we don't see.

Perhaps a truly post-modern person would have the knowledge to appreciate both. Perhaps that is too much to ask or imagine.


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