I wrote about our daughter's first goal. Well, so did Margo. Leave a message, she'd appreciate it.
Also ... have to pass along our good friend Tommy Tomlinson's latest contribution to JoeWords.
Comflict (n): A stupid, silly argument that almost never happens in real life but happens all the time in sitcoms.
You can leave your own comflict suggestions in the comments.
I'm pretty sure that 97% of all comflicts - and thus, plots - on sitcoms involve mishearing an overheard conversation...
ReplyDeleteThe guy gets front row tickets to a major sporting event on the same night that his wife has some tickets to some glitzy gala (opera, ballet, etc.). The guy has to trick his wife so that he can get out of the gala so that he can go to the big sporting event.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have read too many sabermetric blogs...when I looked at Margo's blog and saw WARM in all caps in the first paragraph, I thought it was referring to some variation on WARP that I wasn't familiar with.
ReplyDeleteI can understand if you don't want to expose too much of your kids and family to the public, but it was nice to see them on your wife's posting. Cute kids!
ReplyDeleteMy wife hates baseball, so I'm sure that any talk of WAR, OPS+ or the Hall of Fame would bore her in 2 seconds, but I show her all your postings about your family and your nightmare travels, which she enjoys. Keep up the great posts.
The iPad is almost a year old- are we ever going to see your thoughts on it? Even posting an unfinished entry would be enjoyed!
The comedian post is really hard. RIGHT NOW I think Louis CK is probably the funniest guy in the world, but Seinfeld and Rock at their peaks might have been funnier. Gervais, however, is the most consistently funny of the bunch over the last eight years.
ReplyDeleteThe comedian poll was simple for me. In terms of stand up ability, Louie is second to none. Without Seinfeld and The Office, Jerry and Ricky would not garner nearly the same respect from their stand up alone. Chris Rock is (was?) excellent, but he's sorta disappeared from the stand up scene lately. I guess it helps that I've seen Louie numerous times as I live in NYC. Am I just biased?
ReplyDeleteBetter post that iPad review before Microsoft offers a cheaper, crummy copy of an Apple product and muddies up the waters. It's what they do.
ReplyDeleteHey, what about Eddie Izzard? He is like totally the best EVAH, ur nuits if u think differant!!!!one!
ReplyDeleteOH. Sorry, I though you wanted an example of a blogflict.
Not so much a comflict as a style of spouse argument seen only in sitcoms: While having an argument in bed, each spouse has to sit up and turn the light on before talking.
ReplyDeleteSeinfeld was a master of the comflict, but I think the show knew it was doing it too. It almost deserves its own verb.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to "comflicts," I just notice that in TV and movies all conversations are ridiculously short. Relationships are ended in four lines of dialogue. It's more dramatic, but I guess I knew a couple of girls before I met my wife that thought that was the way to have a discussion--three or four dramatic statements, exit stage left (or hang up). But my suspicion is that comes from movie/TV influence more than TV/movie captures real conflicts.
ReplyDeleteStephens - good observation. Of course, you've only got 22 minutes to tell your story in a sitcom, which means a lot of shorthand. People raised on it, however, probably have it influence their own behavior to an unhealthy degree.
ReplyDeleteOh - and regarding the comedian poll, how about "stand-up comflict"?
Classic comflict: someone accidentally schedules two big events (or two dates) for the same night. He or she has to shuttle between them, appeasing various people and preventing them from finding out about the other event/date. Sometimes the character has to change clothes between the two settings for added effect-- this is often the means by which the duplicity is discovered and the character learns An Important Lesson (TM).
ReplyDeleteSynonym for "comflict" = The Larry David Show. As series of painful (and often painfully funny) comflicts, perpetuated over numerous seasons.
ReplyDelete