Friday, 29 March 2024

Conjugation Game, v. 2009

Is anyone familiar with this kind of joke? Sometimes called “prejudiced triples,” it takes an an activity or trait and shows how one’s perception of it changes depending on distance from the speaker.

Showing is better than telling:

I am firm. You are stubborn. He is pig-headed.

(That’s the classic example, which we’ve seen attributed to Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, and someone called K. J. Stavronides.)

On MuseBlog, of course, the gender-specific “he” can be replaced with the gender-noncommital “en”:

I am thrifty. You are cheap. En is a tightwad.

I am eloquent. You are loquacious. En is a blabbermouthed bore.

And so on. Anyone want to add some?


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