I remember how Seinfeld used to take one concept and multiply the same basic thing: the low talker, the high talker, the close talker, the long talker. In my time at uni I have seen the dominator, the babbler, the rhetorical answerer, and now we have the acknowledger. This is a woman, about 50, who grunts and says 'yes' uncontrollably to show that she is still listening. But, this is during a lecture, where no one actually needs to do that, so I believe she isn't even aware that she's doing it. There was an amusing moment today where I think the lecturer figured this out, so in five minutes posed questions that required a 'no'. So, does the Earth revolve around Jupiter? Yes. Was George W Bush the greatest president to ever live? Yes. Do I continually wander how naval lint gets there in the first place and why there isn't a hole in the front of my t-shirt where my belly button is? Yes.
What was priceless was when the lecturer then cried out 'no!' and spontaneously the acknowledger would say 'ah yes' as if now she finally understands.....
So I think Seinfeld missed out on a golden opportunity here. I'm sure they didn't do this because I watched every damned episode while at Andrea's last year, but imagine seeing someone say: "YES I AM STILL LISTENING TO YOU, PLEASE KEEP GOING. YES, I AM STILL LISTENING TO YOU!" What did I say? "I DON'T KNOW BUT I'M STILL LISTENING." Although really I don't think that they would say the 'I don't know' part. Or the 'but', to be grammatically correct.
On the topic of lectures in Madrid, I have noticed an unusual phenomenon about some of the Spanish students. They put their bags and jackets on the table behind them, thus the lecture room is one row of students, one row of bags, then one row of students, etc. I have no idea why. Maybe they have a fear of the floor.
1 comment:
The closest Seinfeld came to doing an episode like that was when Jerry and Elaine had to rent a car. Jerry made the reservation, but they didn´t hold a car for them and the lady had to speak to the manager. She went behind a closed door, but you could see the lady and the manager talking and gesturing. Jerry and Elaine were bithching about how they were fake gesturing to make it look like they were having a real conversation when really they weren´t saying anything - that the visuals were just an act to appease J and E. Come to think of it, that´s nothing like what you´re blogging about. Still, it was a brilliant episode. (Hell, you know if you blog Seinfeld, you´re sure to get a reply outta me!)
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