Saturday, October 6, 2012

Crappy writing is forever

These deathless lines of iambic pentameter were performed publicly, for paying spectators, in the 18th Century:
Ha! what have I done!
Go call a coach; and let a coach be call’d;
And let the man that calls it be the caller;
And, in his calling, let him nothing call
But Coach! Coach! Coach! O! for a coach, ye gods!
Of course, a modern student wouldn't write it quite like that. More like this, perhaps:
Like, OMG dude!
Call me a taxi, get a taxi now;
Hey, taxi caller call the taxi now!
Like, get on your phone and don't text, just call
A taxi! Taxi! get it here right now!
Read the original post, from Dr. Boli.

9 comments:

  1. That's impressively bad (both of them). I like that the modern dude sounds more impatient; that seems appropriate.

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  2. Captain Kirk from "Spock's Brain," I'm pretty sure. Extremely appropriate graphic, I must say.

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    1. It's certainly Shatner as Kirk. Since I just watched "Spock's Brain" last night, I have to agree that's the source.

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  3. I think today's version would have more typos. At the least, it'd end with "A taxi! Taxi! get it hear rite know."

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    1. You're probably right. But, though I'm capable of egregiously bad iambic pentameter, I'm not capable of egregiously bad spelling.

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  4. Love the picture, and love that Stella knew the episode!

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  5. Crappy episodes of otherwise good TV shows apparently are also forever.

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    1. There are many who would say the crappy episodes outnumbered the good ones. Still fun to watch, though. There aren't really many Star Trek original-series episodes that are unwatchable ("Omega Glory" is pretty close, though only for the last 10 minutes or so).

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    2. Actually, I thought the beginning of that one was pretty good, although the last 10 minutes is like a punch in the stomach.

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