I Have Never Been Prouder of a Tweet
Posted on July 14, 2021 Posted by John Scalzi 19 Comments
I regret nothing.
— JS
Whatever
FURIOUSLY REASONABLE
WHATEVER
Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, contributor – AMS
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You are giving Andy Zaltzman a run for his money with that pun.
Brilliant! And defenestration really is a great word.
WHOOSH! That’s the sound of the joke going over my head (I had to Google it to get it). Now that I understand it, I appreciate it. Good one!
The pun is exquisite
That. Wow. Fantastic.
I get that this is a pun on the defenestration of Prague, but I don’t get the “prog” reference. It seems like a great pun but without knowing that part, it doesn’t make any sense. Please elucidate!
John.
Hah!
Ouch!
Don French – “Prog” is short for “progressive rock”, the genre those defenestrated gentlemen were prominent in. Please don’t ask me to define it as I’m still not quite sure what it entails.
Apparently, this marked the start of a never-ending war in prog, because there’s nothing in 2001 corresponding to the Treaty of Westphalia. Rick Wakeman is still out there seeking his throne, in the midst of winter; Yngve Malmsteen never rode into the fog in a small town near Leipzig; and we all have to live down the sack of the Magdeburg Aldi in 1984, after the Asia concert (a truly horrible scene, leaving behind only two Lego cathedral kits (marked down to DM 4,50)).
Don’t get me started. I still have Brain Salad Surgery on vinyl somewhere, although my quadrophonic-stereo copy of the live Journey to the Center of the Earth wore out long ago…
Isaac Asimov once argued that the best reason for being widely read, filled with useless information, was so you could get jokes like this.
Tank you, I needed that.
Definitely gonna steal this.
I admit I had to look it up to get the joke. Who knew that Czech political revolutions and 70s British prog rock would have so much in common.
pun + defenestration? That’s next level quipping, that is!
And I have a nostalgic fondness for ELP: one of theirs was the first ever concert I attended, in high school. (Yes, I’m older than you!) Also the first time I got stoned, though not intentionally (at that point!)–though I didn’t yet partake of cannabis, the indoor arena where the concert took place was so thick with smoke, and with pretty much everyone around me toking industriously, I ended up very buzzed without having to do more than breathe. Had a great time!
Normally, when I am amused by something online, a gentle smile will settle over my gracefully curving lips, and perhaps a light chuckle will sound.
This time twin streams of coffee, from mouth and nose, fell onto my desk just ahead of my face.
Holy Roman Empire, Batman!
LOL!!!!