Nonarbitrary Catchphrase Alert
You all remember this timeless passage:
[…] a bit of reintroduction may be in order. Kids who wonder just who this guy is — and grownups with a merely casual rather than morbidly obsessive interest in pop-culture ephemera — will need some remedial instruction.
Back in the ’90s, they should be told, Mr. Myers was without peer in a challenging and intensely competitive pursuit: the manufacture of comical catchphrases that, while not especially funny in themselves, would call forth peals of knowing laughter when repeated out of context.
Party on, Garth! Touch my monkey! Groovy, baby, groovy! I’ve got shpilkes in my geneckteckessoink! He had a million of them, or at least a half dozen.
Those were the days, indeed. But such empty catchphrasing. So arbitrary. Scott could’ve added another half dozen Myersisms, not the least of which is the still-circulating “Threww me a frickin’ bewnn.” Would that we had an updated — but more important, nonarbitary — version of this classic cry to attend that which is being ignored!
Enter ace TAS commenter Freddie. Good shot, Green: very good…
Letterman, while competing in a different demo, came up with a new inanity once every couple of weeks back when he was funny (this is around the time that Myers was funny). “Would you like to buy a monkey?” “Hello girls!” “Hello baby. Hello baby” “Something from the meat locker Linda?” off the top of my head.
— Michael B. · Jul 13, 11:16 PM · #