The “knifey-spoony” mystery
Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
Because I have a few posts that get relatively large chunks of traffic (and so larger chunks of stupid, meaningless or inappropriate comments), I’ve set my administration of comments to “approve”. That way I can quickly mark dozens of comments and trash them all with one click instead of having to discard each one individually.
Some of you may have noticed this. It’s actually something I never thought I’d resort to because it seems kind of snooty. Personally, it bugs me when I leave a comment on someone’s blog only to get a message telling me that it is sitting somewhere awaiting “moderation.”
The honest-to-God first thought that runs through my brain when that happens is, “Well, screw you!”
Anyway, it’s strictly a time management issue here, not a censorship or control issue. As long as you’re nice about it, I’ll approve just about any coherent comment you have the time to whip up.
I hope you understand.
But today, for a few minutes, I was caught off guard with a comment left by someone wishing to remain “Anonymous,” which, normally isn’t a problem. But I didn’t understand the comment. I mean, I had absolutely no idea what the hell it meant.
Further red flags went up when I tried to Google it and found many of the sites that were referenced to be blocked by my school’s firewall.
The comment, which was was on this post, is as follows:
So, I see you’ve played “knifey-spoony” before.
Um. Huh?
If it had been on a high traffic post, which I originally thought, I wouldn’t have thought twice about trashing it. My mouse actually hovered over the delete button for a second before I thought I’d might as well at least see where it was posted. To my chagrin, the comment was under a very short post about a conversation I had with a student related to, you guessed it, a knife and a spoon.
So, like I said, I looked it up. In some circles I guess the phrase references a college drinking game using a deck of cards–not kitchen utensils. But the best reference (and I believe the real meaning as it was used in the comment) was an exchange between Bart Simpson and an Australian in a parody of the knife scene in Crocodile Dundee.
Some of you out there probably already knew this. For those of you who are still in the dark:
Australian: “You call that a knife? This is a knife!”
Bart: “That’s not a knife, that’s a spoon.”
Australian: “Alright, alright, you win. I see you’ve played knifey-spoony before.”
- The Simpsons
I which case, I say, “Doh!”
And then I say to Mr. or Ms. Anonymous commenter, Bravo! Please stop back and continue sharing your wit–even if I won’t understand. It is much needed around here.
Related posts:
Chris, I read a lot of blogs that require that my comment be moderated before it will be posted. I used to be bothered by it, too, until I realized that a lot of those sites are targets for ignorant hate-mongers who have nothing better to do than spew vileness on the internet. I never, ever have anything ugly to say (or, if I do, I keep it to myself) so I’m not worried about my comments coming off of moderation as approved.
I tend to get nervous about “anonymous” comments and find that those who are unwilling to leave their name are unworthy of any of my serious contemplation. If you’re not willing to put your name behind what you have to say, than you can’t mean it all that much, I think.
I missed that Simpsons episode, and I still don’t think I get the joke…
Hey Mrs. Chili,
That’s the thing. I don’t get that many anonymous comments on the day to day part of my blog. That’s why it kind of caught my attention and made me a little nervous. Nervous is probably too strong a word, but you know what I mean.
I hear you about those toxic hate commenters though. I’ve had my fair share of those as well.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting yourself Mrs. Chili. I appreciate it.
Chris
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Wow, I was pretty sure you weren’t going to get that one, Chris. What I was not aware of was this: an international manhunt would be issued for the author of that comment.
The truth is, I hit submit before remembering to put in my name. I was just sending off an email for work, and checked in with your site. Imagine my surprise!
So, I’ll leave you hanging for a while as to my ‘true’ identity. Fret not about any toxic remarks. I’m all sugar and herbs.
- ANM
That’s one of my favorite Simpsons.
Here’s another good one. Grandpa “Abe” Simpson:
“We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere. Like the time I took the fairy to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. Give me five bees for a quarter you’d say. Now where were we, oh ya. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because if the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.”
mmmmm. donuts. mmmmm. beer.
hey i love this website and i think it is cool that you know how to do this and want to do this for people. I love you mr.wondra and have a happy day:)
I asked if anybody was up for a game of Knifey-Spoony on my facebook update, and alas nobody knew what I was talking about!