November 16, 2002
MORE IS LESS:
Speed thrills, say American TV producers (John Plunkett, November 15, 2002, The Guardian)Actors in US sitcoms and drama series are speaking more words a minute than ever before in a bid to make their characters appear more intelligent and appeal to younger viewers.Scriptwriters on some of America's biggest TV shows have upped the word count significantly because they believe the faster characters speak, the more intelligent viewers perceive them to be.
Under the same theory, by stacking dog dirt high enough you'd make it smell better. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 16, 2002 2:12 PM
Comments
Orrib:
How does speaking fast make a character appear smarter?
Fast speaking will come across as gibberish
xavier
Gibberish is smarter than most Tv I've seen in the past 15 years.
Posted by: oj at November 16, 2002 1:37 PMWell, I've always assumed that the faster someone could write . . .
Posted by: David Cohen at November 16, 2002 1:59 PM...the faster I make a fool of myself.
Posted by: oj at November 16, 2002 2:50 PMOn the other hand, the faster they move past a really lame joke, the better for all of us.
They're trying the Bob Saget approach to comedy: pack as many mediocre jokes as you can into one minute, and wear down your audience until they start laughing anyway.