Can I ask you a question? If I say to you, "...more beans Mr. Taggart?" wouldn't your natural inclination, your almost Pavlovian, involuntary response to this query would be, "I'd say you'd had about enough!"? Or any variation on that statement. It doesn't have to be perfect, for some reason we imagine dialogue that may never have taken place, but in our mind, the statement is incomplete without it.What am I talking about? In a nutshell, we had free lunch at work, tacos, and somebody whom I THOUGHT was cool, was changing out the serving dish and replacing it with a new one that had more beans in them. Naturally, instincts kicked in, and I asked him the beggingly obvious question, "More Beans, Mr. Taggart?" and with giddy anticipation I awaited the correct response, like a challenge/response used in the military, like "Flash/Thunder", I was returned with a weak, "yes, more beans...." and an otherwise annoyed, blank look.
Now come on! I was so deflated after that. If ever I have more living proof of my "square peg" status at work. True, when a boss of mine actually wanted to end a meeting on a high note, and I said without missing a beat in my best falsetto, "AAAAAAAAAH", although everyone stared at me like I was choking on something, my boss said simply "History of the World, Part 1".
I shudder to think if he hadn't gotten it.
So, you would have gotten it, right? Kind of like if I ask you if you've got a pool back there, and you would say "............................................."
Right?
By the way, speaking in terms of quotations from Pop culture; a sign of advanced or stunted social development? Any worse than memorizing Baseball statistics from 20 years ago?
3 comments:
Too funny! I have to admit, I would have missed it. While I do enjoy classic movie quotes, I was never versed in Blazing Saddles quotes. although I have called up the "we don't need no stinkin' badges" video to show my sons. Our most often repeated movie quotes in this house tend to be from Christmas Vacation.
I would not have gotten those references but I still would have laughed because I would have instinctively known they were funny.
I've had comedy failures like that too. I work at home but most of my team works together in the office. One day at our morning meeting, when my boss was checking who was on the phone calling in, I said, "Good morning angels."
Get it? Voice on the phone? Charlie? Charlies Angels?
Yeah they didn't get it either.
And I've been warned about proseltyzing at work.
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