Coded language

[Cain]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/i-watch-glenn-becks-comedy-tour-regret-it/

This is a very funny (as always) Cracked article about Glenn Beck's alleged comedy tour.  I think you all know my opinion on Beck, so little more needs to be said on that score.

However, I do find one thing in particular fascinating, and that is how Beck only needs to mention certain words - without explanation - and it gets the crowd going wild.  For example:

The audience certainly laughed at the non-jokes that Beck was throwing around. Sometimes he would just use words like "Congress" or "Nancy Pelosi" or "Coal fire" as "jokes" that had neither set up nor punchline. He'd say "Climate Bill" and the crowd would go wild. When he mentioned going to the New York Museum of Modern Art there was absolute pandemonium.

I've noticed this before, that there seems to be almost a private language among certain highly politicized groups.  The words in themselves, only refer to the signified object, but because the word has been associated endlessly with other idea and concepts (wasteful and frivolous public spending, for example) that it can induce laughter on its own.

But the thing is, to an outsider, this is quite literally meaningless, as the article shows quite well,  I spend enough time among the dregs of popular media to parse the language fairly well, though even I struggle a fair bit.  To someone who has little interest in politics, or doesn't come from the demographic of Beck's fans (who I would guess overlap strongly with FOX News watchers and Rush Limbaugh listeners) they may as well be speaking another language, because it literally makes no sense to someone who hasn't built up that web of association.

I suppose I'm interested in how you could subvert such a chain of associations.  Does anyone have any examples of subversive semiotics, or similar?  Because that would be kinda cool.

[LMNO]

Motorcycle.







Anyway, I would suggest that a way to subvert it is, when someone uses one of the code words, respond in affirmation, and then throw a completely different (made up) code word back.

"Congress..."

"I know, right?  Totally cornfield!"

[Cain]

That might work.  Build up enough nonsense/noise into the system that the signal ratio becomes nonexistant.

On the other hand, it might just get absorbed (like mittens were here) and continue to feed the signification system they are using.

[LMNO]

Hmmm.

Instead of noise, use words at cross-purposes to their intent?


"Congress..." (said in a negative way)

"Oh, you said it.  Fucking Representational Democracy, am I right?"



With the intent of cognitive dissonance.

[Iason Ouabache]

I remember Lewis Black doing the exact same thing in one of his stand-up specials. All he had to say was "Dick Cheney" and everyone started laughing.

Hmmm.

Instead of noise, use words at cross-purposes to their intent?

"Congress..." (said in a negative way)

"Oh, you said it.  Fucking Representational Democracy, am I right?"

With the intent of cognitive dissonance.

TITCM.

[Z³]

Its been well demonstrated that absurd and meaningless things can have comedic value, take Steve Martins stand up for example, so its simply taking it another step to assign a hidden meaning or connotation to these things. You can still ge laughs, but you help to reinforce a mantra as well.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

I've been playing with using google to cause slight semantic shifts. Someone with a large and die-hard audience could probably do the same without relying upon pagerank.

The idea is like this: for every input (say, 'Congress') you shift the response by one logical level (say, 'Medicare' since Congress contains many old men) in a more or less consistent direction. Over time, you shift the associations in that direction. Using this method, you *might* be able to subvert something like this, by shifting things in a way that Glenn Beck can't even understand himself.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Motorcycle.

I c whut u did thar 

[Iason Ouabache]

I remember Lewis Black doing the exact same thing in one of his stand-up specials. All he had to say was "Dick Cheney" and everyone started laughing.

Video evidence:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJAbOD0USOg

[LMNO]

Motorcycle.

I c whut u did thar 

I was hoping y'all would.