"the most pompous, humourless message board"

[John Self]

One of my hands is applauding difbrook while the other is applauding john self.

Bollocks, one's on your cock and the other's flicking your left nipple, you're fooling no-one.

I can't speak for difbrook, but I'm sitting right here by myself, and I'll thank you not to start spreading such rumours AY.

[SurferGhost]

I'd be more than willing though, if either of you offered.

[All Surrogate]

Well, I don't know about the pomposity or humourlessness, but I certainly appreciate the low-level homoeroticism on here.  So, thumbs up, CaB!  Or should that be fists up ...

[Oscar]

This thread has wound up like the end of a film, lots of heartwarming thoughts after five pages of conflict - and now the big porn finish. I wouldn't even notice the popcorn-munching.

I enjoy this place for the ideas and intelligence and brilliant arguing skills. If I want to hear the most thourough argument for what I don't believe, then I will look here. If I ever figure out some new psuedo-scientific theory of life then this is where I will put it to the test - if it survives then it has legs.
But  I don't think  I'm ever going to feel the love like difbrook does,
I'm sure people on here are warm delightful human beings who spread joy through out the world, but I am also sure that none of them would give a flying toss if I dissapeared, I suspect it is the same for the majority of posters on here. Which is not to belittle some of the real friendships that must have grown here, just to say I am not part of that - and don't really understand it.
I think, to get to the point, there are some bitter people on here, I think there are also some hopelessly naive people, some desperately cheerful people, some frigidly confused people, some irritatingly self-obssessed people, tensely sweet people and so on. I think all life is here, but the stupid ones don't last very long.

[zozman]

Bagsy me frigidly confused.

[Abbatoir worker]

I consider myself cheerfully desperate, actually.

[Mr. Analytical]

Oh God... you've all become Americans.

Stop it! Stop it!

[The Boston Crab]

Ha ha ha! (Freeze frame, roll credits)

[Garfield And Friends]

Ha ha ha! (Freeze frame, roll credits)

http://www.crossfilms.com/films/eightiesending.html


80s ending!

[slim]

the stupid ones don't last very long.

Come on, I've been here at least 18 months.


Edit: Hey, that 80s ending clip is grate!

[Oscar]

Yes, but where is the big porn finish?  I was expecting filthy biscuits and nipples.

[Joy Nktonga]

Here you go:
*


*That's what typing "filthy" and "biscuits" into Google images gets you. Nice. Typing "nipples" into GI with safe search off is a wonderful experience.

[Charles Charlie Charles]

That's horrible.

[Charles Charlie Charles]

Is it Natalie Portman, BTW?

[TOCMFIC]

She looks Asian to me.

Having just skimmed this thread, I don't think I've been more proud to be a member here. Pompous and humourless... I'm so proud...

[Almost Yearly]

I'm tickled by this "gallery playing" whatnot I've seen espoused by CC's batman & robin, and now john self. What are you talking about exactly? All the world's a stage, so yeah ...? I'm still not altogether clear as to who inhabits my own personal gallery. Various twisted reflections of myself, I think, perhaps done up in bizarre and slightly disturbing masks and costumes, like the gallery in Rocky Horror, or the baying crowd at Jean Luc's medieval Q trial. Or maybe it's Statler & Waldorf. Tell us more about this perceived gallery playing phenomenon, please. Do some of us play more to the stalls? I'm genuinely keen to see this idea expounded upon.

[Frinky]

You ain't half full of shit, you.

[Almost Yearly]

No, I'm half empty.



No, I'm genuinely keen to see this idea expounded upon.

(I s'pose it was the Reformation it was based on, was it, the Q trial?)

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

My interpetation of 'playing to the gallery' is: deliberately misunderstanding something in order to get people on your side, when you know full-well what point is being made. Eg, 'Oh, so I suppose you think the Iraqi people would be better under Saddam do you??!!?? Eh??!'

[John Self]

This gallery playing whatnot, then.

I too first saw it espoused here by Lalla and Alan Strang; I then appropriated it, last page; and now I will expound on it.

As far as I can gather, it's a fairly snobby term, something like 'performing for the people in the cheap seats', i.e., pandering to the lowest common denominator in people, often to the detriment of an ongoing discussion far more worthy ('playing to the gods'?). I think it can contain elements of 'rabble-rousing' also- trying to whip up fervour or discord over nothing. EDIT: Which ties in with the example Lalla's just given.

I appropriated it because I thought that to do so would be chhhhhhheeeeky, you know, if I put it in along with the 'bitter' and 'twisted' thing that I'm sure them and all CC regulars and heavyweights are tired of.

I don't much  care for the phrase: I think it often has no real meaning or relevance, and where it does it can be inappropriately divisive and dismissive, and I was regularly accused of doing it in secondary school. (Plus it used to have a different, more fun meaning, for me and my sisters, when we watched Take Hart as kids: it was a game we'd play during 'The Gallery', where you'd have to guess the age of each entrant from their picture before it came up on the screen. You got extra points if they were the same age as you- we called that 'The Birthday Bonus'. It was a happier, more innocent time.)

Of course, it can also just mean 'showing off'. I've got no real problem with that.

I know who inhabits my personal perceived gallery, but unlike Yearly, am far too proud/ashamed to list them, and their costumes, here.

But, like I say, though sometimes relevant, it's not always a nice phrase: all too often creates a 'them and us' situation where there isn't one.



"Will the people in GD clap your hands? And the rest of you... just rattle your jewellery."

[Almost Yearly]

i.e., pandering to the lowest common denominator in people, often to the detriment of an ongoing discussion far more worthy ('playing to the gods'?). I think it can contain elements of 'rabble-rousing'

This is part of my confusion: the gallery is above you isn't it, the expensive seats, while the stalls is where the rabble is, is.

Edit:

Of course, it can also just mean 'showing off'. I've got no real problem with that.

people feeding their own egos by parading how bloody 'clever' and 'funny' they seem to think they are, wannabe keyboard heroes prancing about like over-educated children and indulging in pointless oneupmanship

[John Self]

Well yeah, 'playing to the stalls' would seem to make more sense to me too, but I think that, although the gallery may be high up, the tickets are not that expensive.

EDIT: Ha!

[Almost Yearly]

Oh right, was I thinking of the dress circle? That's where Tracey is.

[John Self]

I've absolutely no idea what section of the audience your prancing round is dedicated to; for me personally, it's always been The Sewing Circle.

I know who inhabits my personal perceived gallery, but unlike Yearly, am far too proud/ashamed to list them

Well that didn't last long did it.

[Boss Mew]

I'm still not altogether clear as to who inhabits my own personal gallery. Various twisted reflections of myself, I think, perhaps done up in bizarre and slightly disturbing masks and costumes, like the gallery in Rocky Horror, or the baying crowd at Jean Luc's medieval Q trial. Or maybe it's Statler & Waldorf.

I like to think it's more like 'Fall Out' from The Prisoner myself

[The Boston Crab]

John Self, don't become too knowing.

It's the CaB curse, every single thing you say is a back-reference.

Fuck these cunts and their inbred 'rules'.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Also, gallery-playing may involve the citing of truisms, or deliberately uncontroversial/safety-in-numbers opinions. Ones that can be spouted in full knowledge that nobody's going to ask you to expand on/justify what you've said. 'There's always been exciting new stuff, and there always will be - huh, no doubt people in the Renaissance were going around complaining that Michelangelo was derivative' - that sort of thing. 'Why don't you just watch a TV show normally, instead of sitting there with folded arms and notepads' - that's another. Comments which are designed to bring debate to a close, rather than take them into interesting areas.

In real life public debates, the gallery-playing comments would bring forth a round of applause. 'Have any of you guys actually laughed?' would get a particularly raucous, that-told-them cheering from the crowd. It's a bit like on Pop Idol type programmes where a Mr Nice Guy character hears his colleagues giving out criticisms (resulting in booing and hissing) and then says 'Well I thought you were great!' and gets a standing ovation.

Joining the winning team, in other words - it's cowardly.

[Oscar]

Unless that's what you really think.

[hulahoops]

This is part of my confusion: the gallery is above you isn't it, the expensive seats, while the stalls is where the rabble is, is.

I thought it was referring to the same concept as the "peanut gallery" -

The phrase peanut gallery dates back to the early 20th century in America, referring to the least expensive section in the rear of a theatre. The same seats in British theatres were (and still are) often called the gods because you were so high you seemed to be halfway to heaven. The patrons in the peanut gallery, often of the lower classes, were known for a strong sense of community, a penchant for heckling, and the use of peanuts as missiles to express their distaste of the entertainment. By extension, the term is used, often humorously, to refer to any noisy, disorderly, or belligerent persons attending a presentation, lecture, or other event with an audience.

[John Self]

Also, gallery-playing may involve the citing of truisms, or deliberately uncontroversial/safety-in-numbers opinions....Comments which are designed to bring debate to a close, rather than take them into interesting areas.

Well seeing as a truism is a self-evident truth, I can see why they might bring certain debates to a close, and I'd think anyone who tried to keep them going after that was either being belligerent, or ignorant, or arguing for the sake of it: either way, they're arguing against, or ignoring or placing to once side, the truth.

Though obviously, in terms of cultural debate, you tend not to get that many truisms, usually for reasons of subjectivity or unverifiability: as in your Michelangelo example.

In real life public debates, the gallery-playing comments would bring forth a round of applause. 'Have any of you guys actually laughed?' would get a particularly raucous, that-told-them cheering from the crowd.

Yeah, I know what you mean. My favourite example of 'playing to the gallery' was in The Simpsons, the 200th episode 'Trash Of The Titans', where Homer tries to be elected as Minister Of Garbage (or something like that), and for the public debate with the pre-existing guy, he just makes a load of daft jokes and irrelevant insults. Everything about him just yells, as you might say, 'eh?!?', and the crowd love it. He of course then goes on to get the job and make an absolute bollocks of it. It's very funny, the stuff Homer does and says, but you can imagine the frustration of being the other guy- the sheer futility of the position he's been placed in.