Friday 20 June 2008

Tech Telly

Bobbie Johnson does a technology blog for The Guardian. A few days ago he posted a pointless piece called 'What do you call yours?' though the study of British 'kitchen table lingo' is quite interesting I am concerned at the reality of the comments which follow the post.

I remember a girl at school calling the remote a 'channel changer' which I found particularly absurd in that it takes so much longer to say. The need for the remote is inherently lazy so why the hell bother giving it a longer name, a whole duo-syllabic word longer!

According to one comment on the page: "Anyone who calls it "the remote" is bourgeois, not to mention boring. End of"

I'm sorry, I didn't realise that using the given word in the English language for an object is suddenly so passe. I mean goodness, I'm surprised that whole piece wasn't written in slang for only the filthy proletariat to hear.

Not to mention someone who proclaims to call it the 'MEGATRON!'. Well, I like the use of describing a device associated with the television using a term that you gained from watching it but I simply don't believe it. I'm sure you wanted to tape together all your remotes the very second you saw it but I can only assume this never happened and as much as you thought about using the word MEGATRON, and you may have even used it straight after Peep Show ended that night to see what else was on. But you definitely never used that term again.

A similar cry goes out to the person who decided it was a 'Ramone' blatantly came up with that one and decided to post a comment in reponse without ever having used it.

Zapper, clicker, presser, buttons are just about understandable and I suppose the proletariat need some sort of entertainment so playing with language to suit their working class needs will have to do, but Frank?! Which by the way I didn't get when I read it and had to read the comments for clarification. I get it now, but I'm yet to believe it. Unless you actively use rhyming slang in your daily life I just don't think this applies.

Clearly, it's a remote, or, when you're lost for words, the thing, or it could even go unnamed...'where's the....?' if you're sat in the lounge and a programme's just ended, everyone knows what you're talking about anyway.

Incidently, I am glad someone made the comment that: "denying us all access to our very modern TV system which itself no longer has any buttons of its own." an incredibly annoying situation because most of our remotes have been lost for good.

Still all that being said, it is a really entertaining discussion, especially when people get ansy about the very fact that there is even a discussion of this nature. I like it, it's a debate!

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