Fun with Social Media

This requires a bit of background to make sense, somewhat convoluted, but I think it’s worth it.

Last night, I posted a tweet about a White House legal matter, after an article in the New Yorker quoted Rudy Giuliani suggesting that Trump might try to declare some of the Mueller unconstitutional to block it. I noted that it probably wouldn't hold up in court, but even if it did it would be a public disaster for him and the GOP.

Someone referenced my note and hoped a lawyer would chime in. Another person responded bluntly to put to first person down that “Robert IS a lawyer.” They had a bit of back and forth, and the first person did a mea culpa, explaining that since my Twitter profile didn’t say I was a lawyer, that had been unclear.

At that point I chimed in to explain that the reason my profile didn’t say I was a lawyer was because…I wasn’t a lawyer. Adding how I wanted to clarify that so there was no confusion.

Which is the background and brings us to the tweet in question from the first person. Initially I was a bit thrown off by it. The comment seemed like such a total non sequitur, and for a moment I tried to figure out if it was referring to another conversation entirely. But then I realized. No, the reply was indeed meant for me, and it turns out...well, you'll see. What the note said was --

“Thank you for being clear because my sister can be incredibly condescending (to me). Thank you, sir.”

I burst out laughing the moment I figured out what was going on. I have no idea if the two correspondents are brother and sister, or two sisters. And at first I didn’t know if they were adults and still have a chiding relationship that had been going on for years or what, especially since it was 1:30 AM, long past when most sane people (I include myself in that) were asleep, particularly if they lived anywhere east of the West Coast. The only other option was Hawaii or Alaska, though the odds lower with that. Anyway, I wrote back to tell this first person that the good news is they now have something to hold over the sister at Thanksgiving dinner, and got a clue as to their relationship when I received another reply. It said --

“She’s across the hall, if you can believe that drama. Ridiculous. Anyway, thank you. And I’M the baby!”

I’m still laughing. So, clearly they still live at home, and it seems most-likely are teenagers or perhaps in college. I suspect that this person’s sister must have a fun time tormenting her younger sibling on a regular basis since childhood. Hilarious.

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Happy Cinco de Megan Day

5/5/20180 Comments

Back in September, 2016, I raved here about a new show on NBC called The Good Place. I didn't expect it to last, since it was so wildly clever and unique. But it did catch on, and has made it through two limited-episode seasons,

Last year, they had a huge and hilarious twist. And to deal with it they did an episode in which the world had to be "rebooted" countless times, somewhat like Groundhog Day, but on steroids. The world of the show had to be different each time, and that meant (now famously) they needed different names for the restaurants there, all of which were food puns. It turned out that all the puns -- which were all a hoot -- came from the writer of that episode, Megan Amram. Like "The Pesto's Yet to Come," "Lasanga Come Out Tomorrow," "Cake Canaveral," "Beignet and the Jets" and MUCH more. The series' creator Michael Schur talked about that in an interview --

"I actually think, no joke, her brain is like the computer in Lost where if you didn’t enter the code and press enter every like 100 minutes or whatever else, the world would end. That’s Megan’s brain with puns. If Megan doesn’t make a pun every 37 minutes, her brain will overheat and her head will explode and she’ll die. That’s the only possible explanation for how many puns Megan makes out loud and on Twitter every day."

But it was more bizarre than just that. Because it wasn't that she came up with the 20-30 food puns needed for all the restaurants in the episode. Oh, no, that would have been much too easy. Especially if your brain is like the computer in Lost with puns. Schur explained what happened --

"This is not an exaggeration: Megan, in that section of the script, included a giant paragraph full of puns for different kind of names of different kinds of ethnic restaurants. I think it went on for six or seven pages. It just went on and on and on. Partially she was doing it to lean into her stereotype as a person who loves puns. But also, it was just straight-up impressive."

​As proof, here's a mere partial list that Megan Amram posted on her Twitter feed. I can't help but mention two at the very top, "Penne for Your Thoughts" and "Pasta Expiration Date". This is a bizarre and incredibly clever writer, folks. I mean, who comes up with "We Ciabatta Zoo"?? And this is just the freaking abbreviated list!!!! --