Fun_People Archive
8 May
That's it, I've had it, you are Amish, young man!
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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 8 May 97 14:47:44 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: That's it, I've had it, you are Amish, young man!
Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: "Harry I. Rubin" <harry@redarrow.com>
Forwarded-by: Amy Hanlon <amy@inktomi.com>
Forwarded-by: Michelle Volpe <mvolp@ctp.com>
Brief Seinfeld monologues
With any kind of physical test, I don't know what it is, I always seem to
get competitive. Remember when you were in school and they'd do those
hearing tests? And you'd really be listening hard, you know? I wanted to
do unbelievable on the hearing test. I wanted them to come over to me
after and go, "We think you may have something close to super-hearing.
What you heard was a cotton ball touching a piece of felt. We're sending
the results to Washington, we'd like you to meet the President."
*
The proof that we don't understand death is we give dead people a pillow.
I mean if you can't stretch out and get some solid rest at that point, I
don't think there are any bedding accessories that can make the
difference. But the suit and the pillow really shows how we have no idea
what to get these people ready for. I mean, what situation are you going
into with a suit and a pillow? There's no business nap meetings.
*
Somebody just gave me a shower radio. Thanks a lot. Do you really want
music in the shower? I guess there's no better place to dance than a slick
surface next to a glass door!
*
It's tough to do a good deed. Let's look at your professional good-deed
doers, your Lone Rangers, your Supermen, your Batmen, your Spidermen.
They're all wearing disguises, masks over their faces, secret identities.
They don't want people to know who they are. Too much aggravation.
"Superman, yeah thanks for saving my life, but did you have to come though
my wall? I'm renting here. They've got a security deposit. Now what am
I supposed to do?"
*
I'm on the plane, we left late, and the pilot says, "We're going to be
making up some time in the air." I thought, "Isn't that interesting. They
just make up time." That's why you have to reset your watch when you land.
Of course, when they say they're making up time, obviously they're
increasing the speed of the aircraft. Now my question is, if you can go
faster, why don't you just go as fast as you can all the time? "Come on,
they're no cops up here! Nail it! Give it some gas! We're flying!"
*
You can measure distance by time. "How far away is that place?" "About 20
minutes." But it doesn't work the other way. "When do you get off work?"
"Around 3 miles."
*
The worst way of flying, I think, is standby. You ever fly standby? It never
works. That's why they call it standby. You end up standing there going,
"Bye."
*
Frankly, I don't believe people think of their office as a workplace anyway.
I think they think of it as a stationery store with Danish. You want to
get your pastry, your envelopes, your supplies, your toilet paper, six cups
of coffee, and you go home.
*
There are many different jobs for cops these days. It seems to me that
Chalk Outline Guy is one of the better jobs you can get. It's not too
dangerous, the criminals are long gone - that seems like a good one. I
don't know who these guys are. I guess they're people who wanted to be
sketch artists but they couldn't draw too well. "Uh, listen Johnson, forget
the sketches, do you think if we left the dead body right there on the
sidewalk, you could manage to trace around it? Could you do that?" I don't
even know how that helps them solve the crime. They look at the thing on
the ground, "Oh, his arm was like that when he hit the pavement, that means
the killer must have been.......... Jim!"
*
Then there's the psychiatrist. Why is that with the psychiatrist every hour
is only fifty minutes? What do they do with the ten minutes that they have
left? Do they just sit there going, "Boy that guy was crazy. I couldn't
believe the things he was saying. What a nut. Who's coming in next? Oh no,
another head case."
*
Talk-show hosts never seem to have any idea how much time is left in the
show, you know? They're always looking off camera, "Do we have time? Are we
out of time? How are we doing on time?" You never see Magnum P.I go, "Should
I strangle this guy or are we gonna take a break here? Can you stay for
another beating? I'll tell you what, I'll bop him in the head, we'll do a
commercial, we'll come back, I'll drive in the car real fast. Stay with us."
*
The main difference between the man's wallet and the woman's wallet is the
photo section. Women carry with them a photograph of every person they've
ever met every day in their whole life since the beginning of time. And
every picture's out of date. "Here's my cousin, 3 years old, she's in the
Marines now. This is my dog, he died during the Carter administration." They
get stopped by a cop, no license and registration. "Here's my fifty-six
people who know me." Cop goes, "Alright ma'am, just wanted to make sure you
had some friends. Move it along..... Routine pal check."
*
I will never understand why they cook on TV. I can't smell it. Can't eat
it. Can't taste it. The end of the show they hold it up to the camera,
"Well, here it is. You can't have any. Thanks for watching. Goodbye."
*
Sunday paper is the worst. Weekend. You want to relax."Oh, by the way,
here's a thousand pages of information you had no idea about." How can they
tell you everything they know about every single day of the week and then
have this much left over on Sunday when nothing's going on?
*
Sometimes you go to a nice restaurant, they put the check in the little
book. What is this, the story of the bill? "Once upon a time somebody
ordered a salad." There's a little gold tassel hanging down. Am I graduating
from the restaurant? Should I put this on the rearview mirror of my Camaro?
*
One thing I love about living in New York is it's every different type of
person piled one on top of the other. I am for open immigration, but that
sign we have in the front of the Statue of Liberty, "Give us your tired,
your poor, your huddled masses." Can't we just say, "Hey, the door's open.
We'll take whoever you got." Do we have to specify "The wretched refuse?"
Why not just say, "Give us the unhappy, the sad, the slow, the ugly, the
people that can't drive, people that have trouble merging, if they can't
stay in their lane, if they don't signal, they can't parallel park, if
they're sneezing, if they're stuffed up, if they have bad penmanship, if
they don't return calls, if they have dandruff, food between their teeth,
if they have bad credit, if they have no credit, missed a spot
shaving........... In other words, any dysfunctional, defective slob that
you can somehow cattle prod onto a wagon, send them over. We want them."
*
Any day that you had gym was a weird school day. It started off kind of
normal. You had English, Geometry, Social Studies, and then suddenly you're
in Lord of the Flies for forty minutes. you're hanging from a rope, you have
hardly any clothes on. Teachers are yelling at you, "Where's your
jockstrap?!" Kids are throwing dodge balls at you, snapping towels - you're
trying to survive. And then it's History, Science, Language. There's
something off in the whole flow of that day.
*
My parents took me to Amish country, which to a kid, to see a bunch of
people that have no cars, no TV, no phone you go, "So what? Neither do I."
Who wants to see a whole community that's been grounded? That's the way they
should punish the kids after they've seen Amish country. "All right son,
get up to your room. That's it, I've had it, you are Amish, young man. For
the rest of this weekend. Did you hear me? Amish! And don't come down till
you've made some noodles and raised a barn."
© 1997 Peter Langston