In this past week’s episode of 30 Rock Everything Sunny All the Time Always Liz said something along the lines of
(Sorry - not the exact line, but as best I can remember)
I was stunned - it was as if she was commenting on the “Hi, Opal” SDMB tradition.
Anyone else catch this?
As much as I love Opal, she wasn’t the first to raise that objection.
It’s as old as time.
Yep. I encountered it well before the Dope in grammar school or possibly high school (80s/early 90s). The admonition was something like, if you’re going to break out into a numbered or bulleted list, it has to be at least three items. Otherwise, just in-line it.
It’s a silly “rule.”
The joke is a bit of meta-humor about comedy writing, and the trope of writing two normal things and then a punchline. Don’t read anything more into it, because that’s all it is.
Or, to put it trope terms, it’s the Rule Of Three for jokes, aka The Triple.
Or “Arson. Murder. Jaywalking”
If you want to really throw people for a loop, you can turn the Triple on its head and compose a quintuple with two punchlines:
Of course, after that line was written, three writers nearly succumbed to brain fever.
Nevertheless, Tina seems the type to read the SDMB.
I think Tina’s too busy to read the SDMB.
However, last night I was reading to my kids a story with included a list of 4-5 character names, and one was Opal. After reading the name I said, as an aside, “Hi Opal!” and kept reading. My kids stopped me and wanted me to show them where it said “Hi Opal” and I had to admit that I made that part up.
I throw in little jokes pretty often when I’m reading to my kids, in the same tone of voice as for the rest of the text, to see if they’re paying attention. They usually are. One common interjection: “He stroked his beard thoughtfully,” after it tickled my funnybone in a book I read long ago. Bonus points if I get away with it in referring to a female character.
I was waiting for this thread to pop up.