Saturday, October 11, 2008

The awesome power of the comma...


Okay, nearly a year ago, I posted this thought. But you see, back then, no one was reading my blog. Today I have, virtually...some...readers.
These are the kinds of things that I spend my brain cells on:
Ask yourself...in the classic, Sheb Wooley song, "The Flying Purple People Eater," is it the monster, or the people that he eats, that are purple?

Is he a one eyed, one horned, flying, purple, people eater? Or a one eyed, one horned, flying, purple people eater? The comma, after the word purple, changes the whole meaning of the sentence. For that matter, he could be a one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater. 
As it turns out, according to the song, it's the people that are purple, but whether they fly, or not, is still up in the air.

If you are what you eat, does that mean that the People Eater is purple? We just don't know, he could be purple, he could be plaid. And, what about the narrator of the story? We have to assume that he is purple, after all, he begs that tough People Eater not to eat him (actually, I'm just assuming that the narrator is a male, because the song is sung by a man. It's getting deep) and if he had a reasonable expectation that he was going to be eaten, we must conclude that the narrator of the story is, therefore, purple. Hmmm...

Don't think too hard about this.

10 comments:

Val said...

Ok, so is this post a day wearing on you. he he he

Aaron said...

I'm with Val.....stop the insanity.

Rose said...

I love it, if I could post daily, this would be it. But I can't come up with this stuff. And I can't post daily. Just can't do it.

I'm not going back, but I will say, I get Young Frankenstein. It's a hit in this house.

Wendy said...

Okay, I was trying not to post on the weekend or even read posts on the weekends because..well I'm tired! So I get up this morning and happen to check my dashboard and see a few new weekend posts. I had to sign on and wow Chris..the depth of mind on a weekend! :) If I get a vote I would want him to look more like the second photo..and I guess we're safe if he only eats purple people.
Thanks for making me laugh!

imbeingheldhostage said...

man, that made my brain hurt. Remind me to only come over here when I've had some sleep... what do purple people eat?

Chris said...

Green eggs and ham.
I think.

stefanie said...

Well, you just rocked my world.

I always thought the eater was indeed able to fly, happened to be purple, and enjoyed munching on people.

Paradigm shift.

Kmommy said...

LOL!! Hilarious! :)

Val said...

Chris, nice post in the deseret news.

Cecily R said...

Duh. The monster is purple. Purple people would just be weird.