Most people seem to interpret the question the way you’d expect — how do you lift a fleeting and likely unimportant-in-the-grand-scheme conversation up out of dulls-ville so that you’ll at least remember or learn something from it?Actually, the top-rated response now is "If Batman died, would the Joker be happy?"
Reddit being Reddit, many of the answers are jokey and stupid, consisting of intellectually stimulating fare like “Would you rather have a vagina on your forehead or a row of penises down your back like a stegosaurus?” But there’s some good stuff, too. The top-rated response is “What's something you like that most people don't?”...
February 18, 2016
"Tired of Small Talk? Try Medium Talk."
"Everyone has an intuitive sense of what 'medium talk' might mean...."
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I suppose Serious is a big word to the cartoon consumers.
Politics should generally be confined to big talk. There's not enough room in medium talk for it.
Men already figured this out: sports. It's very serious, with great detail, story lines and allegiances. But it's ultimately meaningless.
Would discussing the best way to eat candy corn count as medium talk?
Or what kind of arrangement of things (and what sort of things) constitute what can properly be called a "sandwich"?
I have debated people on these subjects. The subjects were small, but the opinions and arguments were big.
These two examples that are quoted are not even close to medium. The are still in the small category.
Since the obvious answer to whether The Joker would be happy if The Batman died is no, I don't see that talk lasting very long.
People who are tired of small talk should switch to tiny, not medium, talk. Discuss. (Be sure to address the merits of Erving Goffman while you are at it. But keep it tiny.)
What do you think of the designated hitter rule in MLB?
Would Donald Trump make a good waiter?
Medium Talk: Worst talker: Close Talker, Low Talker, High Talker?
My wife is German. Germans have no sense of small talk. If you meet someone and ask them"How are you" get ready to hear all about how they actually are. No "Fine, how are you?"
I propose an entirely new formal greeting that will banish time-wasting small talk forever -- no more babbling banalities, just interesting conversation... or blessed silence: Good morning (afternoon/evening). Why are you?
“Would you rather have a vagina on your forehead or a row of penises down your back like a stegosaurus?”
How is that intellectually stimulating? It sounds like an invitation to be stimulating in an entirely different manner.
I usually think of "small talk" as being conversation that isn't intended to actually convey or elicit any meaning, aside from "I'm friendly, and have time to kill".
Small talk: Lovely weather we've been having.
Medium talk: I'm headed to the store, do you need anything? (Actual semantic value conveyed and elicited, but it's still a pro-forma polite nothing.)
All the examples in the article were still basically fluffy talk about nothing.
"So [a proper small-talker would insert: don't you hate people who start sentences with "so"? Hmm, says the small-talking partner: "So what?" And so on] so as I was about to say before I side-tracked myself, how do you like your talk: small, medium, big, or mega?" Advantage: you can go meta to mega, or retreat into micro.
I liked, "Is Robert's father present here?"
New Orleanians practice "medium tak" constantly, e.g., discussing what their last meal was, were it was eaten and its merits or lack thereof, while simultaneously discussing where their nest meal will be eaten and the merits of their favorite dishes. ONLY New Orleans could support a daily 3-hour talk radio show having to do with nothing but food in all its glorious manifestations..
Sorry I think I'll go back to reading the Federalist Papers.
"medium talk"/"next meal" geeze...
How many different diets sat at your table last Thanksgiving?
What was really going between those two in: Rear Window? Casablanca?
In The Force Awakens there is a fight in the woods after the sun's power is all sucked away - how are they able to see?
How much would you pay to go to the moon? to not go to the moon?
Did I show you my cell phone videos of the little kids lighting sparklers on the 4th of July? where I almost set myself on fire?
I'm lactose intolerant myself so I'm sticking to milk.
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"Reddit being Reddit, many of the answers are jokey and stupid, consisting of intellectually stimulating fare like “Would you rather have a vagina on your forehead or a row of penises down your back like a stegosaurus?"
It could've been better asked as: would you rather have a single sex organ -- male or female -- on your forehead, or a row of sex organs -- male or female -- down the spine of your back?
Because a hooker with a row of vaginas on her back could probably make good money, quick.
I am Laslo.
""Tired of Small Talk? Try Medium Talk.""
Actually, the top-rated response now is "If Batman died, would the Joker be happy?"
Isn't that more like micro-talk, or nano-talk?
Would the Joker be happy? What kind of dumb question is that?! He'd be hysterical!!
"Men already figured this out: sports. It's very serious, with great detail, story lines and allegiances. But it's ultimately meaningless."
That presupposes that one is interested in and knows about sports. I'm not and don't.
The Joker answered that question in THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, when he said to Batman, "You complete me!"
He wasn't joking, either.
“Would you rather have a vagina on your forehead or a row of penises down your back like a stegosaurus?”
That's the thinking of a 12 year old boy.
More adult questions would be, "How would you like (or hate) to die?" or, "If you had a fatal disease, would you want to know, and would you want to know how little time was remaining to you?" or, "If you had to have a fatal disease, which fatal disease would you prefer to have?"
There are many such speculative questions, not all having to do with one's mortality, that would be interesting because they could actually happen.
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