Quote:
Originally Posted by wendybeth
I've yet to meet a human being who doesn't quote on a regular basis, whether it be Shakespeare, Monty Python or (wince) Rush Limbaugh.
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In my experience relativley few people do. I know I certainly don't do so very often. No, it isn't necessary for it to be something I find boring or dumb, I like The Simpsons and find the people who respond to everything with a Simpsons quote to be just as eye-rollingly annoying as the Monty Python quoters. I found the Shakespeare guy annoying as well. It need not be entertainment quotes, people who excessively call back on the copy of Bartlett's they memorized when they were in high school are annoying as well.
Do it once and I really don't care. Do it five times in a conversation and it starts to get tiresome.
But really, my point isn't that it can't be funny or witty or droll or clever. Just that it isn't any of those things nearly so often as the people who do it all the time think it is. It's kind of like puns, in that it is just lazy humor. Sometimes it succeeds but not so nearly as often as it is employed. I've seen Worst...<noun phrase>...ever! used to good humorous effect. But most of the time the person doing it just looks at you like a puppy that just crapped on the carpet thinking they are funny just for having said it.
When it is funny, a large part of that comes from originality of source and application. Needless to say, there really aren't any original applications of Monty Python quotes any more. It is time for them to be retired.
And of course, this is a stupid thing to be arguing about. I found the comic funny, and apparently nobody else did. You all find stupid movie quoting funny and I don't. Humor is not something that you can talk another person into seeing. And we won't be the first to do it.
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