However, at the beginning Stephen Colbert thought "America's Choice" was too weak, and came up with his own title for it:
And although the ridiculous stream of words flowed quickly across the screen, I noticed something immediately that distracted me.
"Judgement Day."In case it doesn't jump out to you, in American English it's generally considered correct to spell it "judgment"--dropping the "e" off of "judge" before appending the "ment" to it. (The British still spell it with the middle "e," but I doubt Colbert's graphics people would be paying intentional tribute that, even though they are our allies now. Without shaking off their empirical shackles a couple centuries ago, we wouldn't be having the event that inspired the special, so it seems inappropriate given the nature of the show.)
But my point is not to vilify a simple lack of running a spell check (and it's likely that the graphics program used lacks spell checking capability). My point, as always, is that my brain cannot stop noticing. And that detracts from my enjoyment in ways that people with (shall we say) a less discerning mindset presumably do not experience; they laugh at the joke without pause.
And most important: Because they didn't notice in the first place, they feel no compulsion to note it on their blogs.
Lucky bastards.
So, if someone could please sneak up on me and hit me in the back of the head with a blunt object--just enough to knock this awareness of how words are spelled, not enough to make me seem like a good Republican vice presidential nominee or someone who'd vote for Proposition 8--I'd appreciate it. (Please don't let me hear you coming, or else I'll almost certainly flinch and that might ruin everything, leaving me with only a concussion and full cognition.) I mean, I'd like to still be able to understand the rest of The Daily Show, without having my viewing options reduced to merely Fox & Friends.
After that, I'll be able to watch TV and read the internet, all without being encumbered with useless knowledge regarding the arbitrary quirks of how our language has been tweaked by whoever* the hell it is that decides how words are supposed to be spelled (even if the country from which that language originated still spells them a different way) and the distracting consequences of that knowledge, which is my right as an American.
(If you could, please hum a few bars of "God Bless America" to yourself to help accentuate that last paragraph. Thanks.)
I'd say maybe it's just me, but that's stupid; of course it's just me. That's my point. I'm tired of it being just me.
No matter what the election results might imply, elitism is the bailiwick of the unhappy. And I'm willing to give a bit of happiness a try.
Someone can knock me slightly senseless. We can do this.
Yes we can.
~
Let's make it simple: In the Thoughts on This section below, please just indicate on a scale of 1 - 10 how much of an asshole I am.
~
* Addendum on November 8, 2008:
An astute reader noted in the Thoughts on This that in the sentence indicated with the asterisk above the term "whomever" should have been used. And that's true. At least I think so. I have used "whomever" in all these posts before; clearly on more than one occasion I have exhibited some awareness of the distinction.
However, now that I think about it, I think that in the moment I was typing that line I was overcome by the spirit of Colbert. And by that I mean I unconsciously adapted "truthiness" for grammatical purposes, and went with what felt right.
For that reason, I shall leave it as is, with apologies to those who are aware of the rules of usage for "whomever" and come across it. Undoubtedly that will cause them to be distracted by it in much the same way I was distracted when watching the show. Therefore, I recommend any such readers rate me high on the asshole scale in the Thoughts on This.
More important than that: This self-revelation about why I did what I did granted me insight into what happened on the show. When those who prepared the graphic in question included "judgement" it wasn't so much that they sought to acknowledge any variation in how it can be spelled. They felt that the "e" was the way to go, and they went with it.
That doesn't change whether the common spelling in American English is "judgment"--and in the Blogger editor it flags the alternate "judgement" as misspelled, as is also the case with the Microsoft Office dictionary for "English (U.S.)" so I'm having to ignore those little red underlines as I type this--nor does it alter my reaction to seeing that spelling on an American TV show, but it does explain how the graphic was completely consistent with the Colbert philosophy.
With any luck, continued viewing of his program will have the same mental effect as the blow to the head mentioned in the original post. I can only hope.
And now is a time for hope.
(Let's continue to not dwell on this starting sentences with conjunctions I've been doing rampantly, okay?)
in your blog... it's "by whomever." Just thought an obvious wordsmith like you would want to have it correct.
ReplyDeletea solid 8.
ReplyDeletejenji
Also, they kept saying "an historic". In American English it is "a historic". In British pronunciation, the "h" is more silent so they say "an historic".
ReplyDeleteI understand John Oliver is a cool guy, but really, his English should not be rubbing off on Jon or Stephen. :)
First, "judgement" has become acceptable simply through excessive repetition. It has nothing to do with British or American English. Either form is equally acceptable in either country, and no one but newspaper editors concerned with print space has cared for at least fifty years, if not longer.
ReplyDeleteSecond, "an historic" is also correct regardless of country. If you're pronouncing a hard H in that word, you're simply saying it wrong regardless of what country you live in. It has nothing to do with dialect. Even in Charleston, SC, one of the deepest of the Deep South states, sites are referred to as "an historic site," as in, "The USS Yorktown is an historic site."
You don't notice errors involuntarily; you just notice bullshit you think are errors because you don't know half of what you think you do. And seriously, the only people worse than grammar nazis like myself are people who play grammar nazis on the internet.
deer Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteu r to kute. u kan haz cheezeburger plz?
kthanxbai
xoxo.
Thanks for all the comments. For the interested:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #1: You flatter me with "wordsmith" (I can only aspire to deserve that moniker). Please see the addendum I've just added to the original post.
Jenji: I just realized I didn't mention which end of the scale indicated the bigger asshole-ness. But thanks either way.
Anonymous #2: I think Jon was saying "a" and Stephen ostensibly correcting him with "an" so that may have been a bit, not necessarily the influence of Mr. Oliver. However, I must admit I have come to prefer "an historic" (and found a site that noted we tend to still say "a history," which I realized I have done; funny how the pronunciation switches between noun and adjective). But you noted what distracted you, and thus you followed the actual thesis of the post. That is appreciated.
Anonymous #3: Keep carrying the flag for the (ahem) "grammar nazis." That will be quite the battle. You have my sympathy (sincerely), as you clearly have it much, much worse than I do. Not that I would ever consider myself worthy of inclusion in such a group, nor would I ever pretend to be representing such a group.
Not only are my language skills not keen enough, but as a general rule I avoid groups with "Nazi" in the name. (Speaking of that, I have to admit that I'd consider actual Nazis to be worse than either of the sort of people you cite. But hey, that's just me.)
And you imply you know what's going on in my mind. Is that something in which one can get certification? If so, I should sign up for that; clearly I need it. Any info you can provide about that would be appreciated.
hb: 143.
Remember, everyone: I have a picture of a corn dog in my title area. That should tell you something about the general tone of these posts.
Please feel free to point out any dumb typos you may find on my blog. I also notice stuff like "it's" being used as a possessive form and "judgement" being passed off as proper Americanish (as opposed to English).
ReplyDeleteRay