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Blog: Sharon Ledwith: I came. I saw. I wrote. (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, Tim Allen, Jugglers, Books, Writers, April Fool's Day, Jesters, Comedians, Ellen DeGeneres, Saturday Night Live, Robin Williams, Add a tag
Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: George Costanza, Laura Palmer, Matt Koff, The Jerk Store, Warren Holstein, jokes, Language, pop culture, comedy, words, Seinfeld, twitter, mark peters, comedians, *Featured, TV & Film, Add a tag
Seinfeld famously added a ton of terms to English, such as low talker, high talker, spongeworthy, and unshushables. It also made obscure terms into household words. Shrinkage and yada yada existed before Seinfeld, but it’s doubtful you learned them anywhere else.
Another successful Seinfeld term has gone under the radar: Jerk Store. The term was coined in “The Comeback,” when George is unselfconsciously stuffing his face with shrimp during a meeting. A co-worker sees George’s gluttony and says, “Hey, George, the ocean called. They’re running out of shrimp.” George is speechless, but later he crafts a comeback: “Oh yeah? Well, the Jerk Store called, and they’re running out of you.” The episode shows George going to absurd lengths to find a way to use his comeback, as well as his friends’ unwanted workshopping of the joke.
In a way, that workshopping has never ended—at least on Twitter, which is likely the largest collection of jokes, good and bad, by professionals and amateurs, ever created. Many of those jokes involve formulas, and the Jerk Store has become a popular one. On Twitter, every day is the Summer of George.
Most variations start with “The Jerk Store called,” which is as trusty a joke starter as “Relationship status:” and “When life hands you lemons.” From there, the joke can go just about anywhere. Comic Warren Holstein makes a food joke out of the formula: “The Jerk Store called but I couldn’t understand their thick Jamaican accents.” Matt Koff reveals what would likely happen to a real-life Jerk Store: “The Jerk Store called. It’s closing because it couldn’t compete with Amazon. :(“ Some use the formula to comment on politics: “The Jerk Store called; they’re no longer hiring because of fear of Obamacare mandates.” I particularly like this joke, which finds the funny in sadness: “The jerk store called. We didn’t chat for long but it was good to hear their voice. It was good to hear anyone’s voice. I’m so alone.”
Other tweeters abandon the formula when making Jerk Store jokes, like Laura Palmer: “I’m applying at the Jerk Store and I need references.” This holiday tweet sounds like perfect storm of jerkdom: “Looking forward to the Black Friday deals at the Jerk Store.” Food trends also get spoofed: “when will the jerk store start getting organic jerks. tired of getting these jerks full of gmos.” Here’s a particularly clever joke, playing on an annoying Frankenstein-related correction: “Actually, the jerk store’s monster called.”
This term/joke formula isn’t going anywhere for at least a few reasons. Seinfeld is still omnipresent in reruns, and I reckon the entire series is imprinted on the collective unconscious. Plus, the world is full of jerks. The following are some recent epistles from the Jerk Store to help you get through the polar jerk-tex. Jerk Store might never make the OED, but it’s one of the most successful joke franchises in the world.
The jerk store called, you left your credit card at the register. They are open until 8 if you want to pick it up today.
— Chris Hallbeck (@ChrisHallbeck) November 17, 2014
The Jerk Store called. They miss you. They love you. They just want you to come home.
— ben (@benicus_rex) November 13, 2014
The jerk store called. I didn't answer because I think it's unethical for jerks to be commodified & under a socialist system they'd be free
— thxgvng internet dad (@Fauxgyptian) September 15, 2014
O my sod, I am sorry for my sins w/ all my heart. In choosing to look out & failing to look within, I have ∞ voicemails from the jerk store
— lanyard (@lanyardigan) September 12, 2014
the jerk store called & they said that making television references from the 90s won’t stop the decay of all things. kind of a weird message
— dire dire deer (@m_kopas) November 17, 2014
I'm looking for a girl who's George at the Jerk Store and Elaine on the dance floor.
— Scott Dooley (@scottdools) August 23, 2014
The jerk store called.
The v-necks are on backorder Chad.
— Dani Fernandez (@msdanifernandez) June 8, 2014
The Jerk Store called, they're out of 30th anniversary DVDs with Steve Martin commentary
— Mattheim Sussroller (@suss2hyphens) May 18, 2014
The Jerk Store called…. again… [sigh]… dude, just give them back their shopping cart
— lemons (@respected_loner) June 28, 2014
Hey, the Jerk Store called, but there is a new Jerk Outlet out by the highway and they have much better prices let's go on Saturday.
— Trademarked Name™ (@rj_white) June 17, 2014
Who would even OPEN a jerk store?!
— |\/|∆®|{•├┤Ø%û5 (@markhoppus) October 31, 2014
Headline image credit: Seinfeld logo. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The post The Jerk Store called…and called and called appeared first on OUPblog.
Blog: Picture Book Illustration by Kim Sponaugle (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Dragons, kim Sponaugle, Comedians, Picture book illustrator, Children's book illustrator, Picture Kitchen Studio, books about dragons, Funny Dragons, Terry Barto, Add a tag
Sketches have just begun for "Nickerbacher"
written by director and choreographer Terry Barto.
Blog: Shelf-employed (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: YA, book review, adult, nonfiction, J, Charlie Chaplin, filmmaking, Non-Fiction Monday, comedians, bio, Add a tag
Fleischman, Sid. 2010. Sir Charlie: Chaplin, The Funniest Man in the World. New York: Greenwillow.
For many, particularly the younger generation for whom this book is written, Charlie Chaplin is an icon, but not an icon in the sense of its earlier definition - as a symbolic star, an iconic idol of the silver screen, but an actual icon - a face with a ridiculously small mustache and bowler hat; a silhouette with bowed legs, a cane, and over sized shoes. Sid Fleischman's book, Sir Charlie Chaplin, The Funniest Man in the World, breathes new life into this icon, the genius of the silent screen.
From Chaplin's meager beginnings as the son of minor vaudevillian performers, a drunken father and a mother beginning to lose her voice - Chaplin fell still farther into the depths of London's Cockney slums. Already educated in the school of hard knocks, seven-year old Charlie and his older brother Sydney were sent to a workhouse in 1896, "owing to the absence of their father and the destitution and illness of their mother," according to the ledger entry at the "booby hatch." His mother, as she would many times throughout her life, was admitted to a ward for the mentally ill.
Using period quotes and engaging prose packed with personification and similes,
...Chaplin was losing confidence in his isolated and bullheaded judgment. Disaster holding aloft a mallet, as in one of his slapsticks, might be waiting for him in the theater. Silent films had become as out-of-date as the once-stylish spats he still wore over his shoes.Fleischman gives a chronological account of Charlie's rise to fame with the creation of his signature character, The Little Tramp, his personal foibles (including paternity scandals), his wartime contributions, his fall from favor with the American people (including his investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee and J. Edgar Hoover during the notorious "red scare" years), and his eventual arrival at the place of elevated regard that he finally held in his later years and beyond. He was belatedly honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, and knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1975.
In the book's preface, Fleischman reveals that he arrived in Hollywood in the 1950s to write movie screenplays only shortly after Chaplin had left for Switzerland, but "his (Chaplin's) footprints were everywhere." Fleischman credits Chaplin's films with tutoring him in the school of "spectator theater" and the gift "of the visual." Fleischman's interest in and connection with his subject is apparent throughout.
Fans of Chaplin will appreciate this intense look into the ups and downs of a life devoted to the entertainment of others; sometimes at great cost to Chaplin himself and those closest to him. Those who know Chaplin only as a bowler-wearing icon will (hopefully) scurry out to the public library in sea
Blog: Born to Write (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: comedians, countdown, keith olbermann, richard lewis, Add a tag
Why does Richard Lewis remind me of every member of my family?
I was gone once he went for "Wasilla as a yeast infection."
If someone asked me what comedian most resembles your writing style, it would be hands-down Richard Lewis.
Check out his Fred Astaire-George Bush song-and-dance moment. Finally, something to laugh about after 8 years!
Richard Lewis on COUNTDOWN on MSNBC, Monday, October 13th, 2008
Anyone up for a moose pot pie?
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