 | SZinHonshu (45) 02/20/2006 |  I've been RIAing for about 6 months now and easily my favorite moment on this site occurred about two weeks ago, in which frogio was involved.
I was posting on a list zuchinibut had created for the purpose of deciding upon a name for his newborn. My fellow alumnus (and smart guy, him not me), Wavebacker, had submitted several for consideration that I deemed to be god awful, and as is commonly my habit in life, I made my opinion known. Wavebacker obviously had not taken what I said to heart because his submissions got progressively worse despite my negative feedback. As he was clearly (in my opinion) without a clue, I sent in my favorite, David. I neither have nor intend to have any children but if I did, I'm sure I'd give my son that name. Well, after about 30 minutes it pops up on the list and shortly thereafter, Wavebacker damns it with faint praise in a post by saying something to the effect of kinda-iffy-ho-hum-ok-if-you-can't-come-up-with-anything-better.
The gauntlet having been thrown down now at my feet by my respected RIA colleague, I quickly removed the kid gloves for the purpose of administering a well-deserved beating. I leapt up to the keys of my computer and began to tap away furiously at my response which spoke of the necessity of giving a child a name that will be taken seriously, the biblical roots of "David", the dignity and business possibilities available to a child bearing the name, and probably a half dozen other points I deemed oh-so-important at the time. After thundering away for a few paragraphs I confidently pressed the Submit button and went back to what I had been doing, secure in the belief that Wavebacker would be unable to deny the obvious "brilliance" and undeniable accuracy of everything I had just posted.
So about an hour later I log back on to RIA and check the list to see if my baseball loving RIA friend had shown the nerve to dare to respond to my masterpiece. He hadn't. But frogio, however, had recently posted in the "David" category, and his entire submission was an excerpt of the dialogue from Cheech & Chong's "Up in Smoke" from a scene where a drug buyer, by the name of Dave, has his name repeated over and over as he attepts to get into an apartment occupied by his not terribly bright accomplice.
At first I looked at the screen non-plussed, and then simply burst out laughing. What he had posted was so moronic it was both hilarious and brilliant. In one very clean swoop he had supplied a response to my carefully crafted attack that was simultaneoulsy disrespectful, demeaning of my stated position(s) and had basically ripped out the foundations of my argument calling the entire validity of what I had composed into question. Essentially, I'm sitting in front of my laptop with the broken shards of my assertions scattered across my lap and I couldn't stop chuckling. It was one of a handful of times I can remember in my life where I literally had no response. What sort of a retort do you fashion to something like that?
Without trying to be overly dramatic or to overemphasize the trivial, it was a flash of "genius". In my opinion, a good deal of humor is having a different take or perspective on things that others don't automatically see or imagine. And I don't think if you had assembled a collection of high paid professionals (attorneys specializing in cross-examination, PR directors, political consultants, comedy writers, etc.) for the sole purpose of casting doubt on what I had written, that anyone would have come up with anything as good as frogio did.
He simply dropped me like a bad habit with one clean blow ... and it was of such impact that I didn't even consider making an attempt to crawl up off the canvas to make a response. I have no idea who this guy, his age or what he does in real life, but my hat is off to him. And thanks for the laugh! That was the most fun I can remember associated with this site.
(7 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | EschewObfuscation (71) 02/17/2006 | Currently THE funniest rater on RIA, in an esoteric, sometimes disagreeable kind of way. Too often, I'm laughing out loud at his brief, zings.
(8 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |