With the tornadoes that wrecked southern Indiana and a surprise dusting of snow that iced up the city's interstates and surface streets, the local TeeWee station is stretched thin. They've got microphone holders scattered hither and yon this morning, blinking into the camera's glare and ad-libbing for all they're worth.
All this unscripted dialogue is reminding me that the two most common words in the English language are not "a" and "the" but "just" and "really".
Really? Just amazing.
ReplyDeleteWhat about 'like?' That has to be, like, in the top like three or four.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome,dude! Seriously!
ReplyDeleteRWC,
ReplyDeleteI think they work very hard to get "um" and "like" out of their speech, and "just" and "really" are the brain's substitute verbal space-fillers.
I really enjoy the deer in headlights stare you get while they are waiting for the audio cue to start blabbering, yet the video has already switched. Probably enjoy that a little too much, but watching some vapid newsreader standing there like Madam Tussauds exhibit piece just makes me giddy.
ReplyDeleteI DESPISE stand-ups in the news. They'll send a reporter out to stand in front of the City Hall to report live at 10:00pm on an important thing that happened inside the City Hall at 1:30pm. They'll do the same thing in front of the police station. They'll send out cub reporters into the weather, to tell folks (who have their own weather) what the conditions are like at some given intersection. Stay in your studios, folks. If you have to go out to do an interview, do that, then package it and report it. But don't make my palm slap my forehead with the force that an unnecessary live stand-up accelerates my palm to.
ReplyDelete