John Oliver throws shade on linguists

[Tony Cooper]

In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM

Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
at:
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds



--

Tony Cooper Orlando Florida

[bil...@shaw.ca]

On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 4:51:55 PM UTC-7, Tony Cooper wrote:
> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>

Not available in my country.

bill

[S K]

"they are going to regret fucking with a linguist"

"nobody is intimidated by a linguist. you are basically an English major who wasted more time"

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:

> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.

10:18, moron.

I sat through an entire minute of bizarre ranting to get to that "gem,"
which made no sense whatsoever.

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>
> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
> at:
> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds

Too bad you're too stupid to understand her work, which looks like
it could be quite important in dealing with verbal aggression.

Abstract
THE DEGREE OF CERTAINTY SYSTEM IN WRITTEN SPANISH IN MEXICO
by
Jaseleen Ruggles
Advisor: Professor Ricardo Otheguy
Practitioners in threat assessment have considered direct threats as being high-level
threats of future violence (O’Toole 2000: 9), but empirical studies testing the predictive
validity of direct threats have contradicted this intuition (Dietz, Matthews, Martell et al.
1991; Smith 2006). Studies that include analyses of the deployment of English verbal
roots (such as kill, hurt, etc.) have failed to show significant correlations between lexical
choices and the occurrence of realized outcomes (Dietz, Matthews, Martell et al. 1991;
Scalora, Baumgartner, Zimmerman et al. 2002a: 1360; Scalora, Baumgartner,
Zimmerman 2002b: 46, Smith 2006). This analysis focused on inflectional affixes, rather
than on lexical stems and aimed to uncover how formal choices made in specific acts of
language use could predict the likelihood of realization of violent acts. Offender writings
containing verb forms under study were collected from 201 crime scenes. A total of 169
were cases of single homicide.

How she got mixed up with Sacklers I neither know nor care, and if
we have to say "Dr. Jill Biden," who only has an Ed.D. (just like Bill
Cosby), why shouldn't this Ph.D. be a "Dr." if she wants to be?

[S K]

Big chief linguists who saw through the hole in the donut have analyzed "them's fightin' words"

With rare exceptions like R L Trask - soi-disant linguists are cantankerous borderline autists as the resident curse on the group goes on illustrating.

[Tony Cooper]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 06:29:07 -0700 (PDT), "Peter T. Daniels"
<gram...@verizon.net> wrote:

>On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>
>10:18, moron.
>
>I sat through an entire minute of bizarre ranting to get to that "gem,"
>which made no sense whatsoever.

My God! A whole minute of your life lost! A minute that could have
been utilized in researching the writings of our own, late but
lamented, expert in verbal aggression to see if he was a fan of Joss
Sackler's contribution to linguistics.

>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>>
>> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>> at:
>> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds
>
>Too bad you're too stupid to understand her work, which looks like
>it could be quite important in dealing with verbal aggression.
>

Evidently, she lost interest in verbal agression by Mexican drug lords
when she married David Sackler and became more interested in profiting
by creating opioid addiction in the US. And fashion for the rich with
her LBV clothing brand.

[bruce bowser]

On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:

Well the whole idea of John Oliver and maybe even Trevor Noah is bringing UK English and ideas to a paying frontier North American audience. That's got to have an effect on how language is studied. Am I wrong?

[Tony Cooper]

John Oliver's Sunday night HBO show is one that is set to
automatically be recorded on my TV. (I don't watch "live" TV;
anything I watch has been recorded).

He can be brilliantly funny or numbingly hyper. His show has gone
from primarily humor to investigative journalism with satirical
humorous interjections over the years.

He came to my attention when he was a "correspondent" on "The Daily
Show with Jon Stewart". Later, he often appeared with Stephen Colbert
on "The Colbert Report", and Colbert frequently has him as a guest on
"The Late Show".

His style is not for everyone.

While he is English (now an American citizen), I no longer notice his
Englishness. I don't see how his Englishness has any affect on the
language.

[Tony Cooper]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 11:09:09 -0400, Tony Cooper
<tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 07:34:36 -0700 (PDT), bruce bowser
><bruce2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>>> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>>>
>>> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>>> at:
>>> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds
>>
>>Well the whole idea of John Oliver and maybe even Trevor Noah is bringing UK English and ideas to a paying frontier North American audience. That's got to have an effect on how language is studied. Am I wrong?
>
>
>John Oliver's Sunday night HBO show is one that is set to
>automatically be recorded on my TV. (I don't watch "live" TV;
>anything I watch has been recorded).

That is a misstatement. I watch sports "live". I sometimes watch CNN
"live".

[Mack A. Damia]

On Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 9:29:10 AM UTC-4, Peter T. Daniels
wrote:

>> On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>> > In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>> > about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>> 10:18, moron.
>>
>> I sat through an entire minute of bizarre ranting to get to that "gem,"
>> which made no sense whatsoever.
>> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>> >
>> > Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>> > at:
>> > https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds
>> Too bad you're too stupid to understand her work, which looks like
>> it could be quite important in dealing with verbal aggression.
>>
>> Abstract
>> THE DEGREE OF CERTAINTY SYSTEM IN WRITTEN SPANISH IN MEXICO
>> by
>> Jaseleen Ruggles
>> Advisor: Professor Ricardo Otheguy
>> Practitioners in threat assessment have considered direct threats as being high-level

>> threats of future violence (O探oole 2000: 9), but empirical studies testing the predictive

>> validity of direct threats have contradicted this intuition (Dietz, Matthews, Martell et al.
>> 1991; Smith 2006). Studies that include analyses of the deployment of English verbal
>> roots (such as kill, hurt, etc.) have failed to show significant correlations between lexical
>> choices and the occurrence of realized outcomes (Dietz, Matthews, Martell et al. 1991;
>> Scalora, Baumgartner, Zimmerman et al. 2002a: 1360; Scalora, Baumgartner,
>> Zimmerman 2002b: 46, Smith 2006). This analysis focused on inflectional affixes, rather
>> than on lexical stems and aimed to uncover how formal choices made in specific acts of
>> language use could predict the likelihood of realization of violent acts. Offender writings
>> containing verb forms under study were collected from 201 crime scenes. A total of 169
>> were cases of single homicide.
>>
> How she got mixed up with Sacklers I neither know nor care, and if
> we have to say "Dr. Jill Biden," who only has an Ed.D. (just like Bill
> Cosby), why shouldn't this Ph.D. be a "Dr." if she wants to be?

Daniels displaying his jealousy. He could never find a doctoral
committee that would listen to his bullshit.

[Richard Heathfield]

On 15/08/2021 16:13, Tony Cooper wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 11:09:09 -0400, Tony Cooper
> <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 07:34:36 -0700 (PDT), bruce bowser
>> <bruce2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>>>> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>>>>
>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>>>>
>>>> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>>>> at:
>>>> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds
>>>
>>> Well the whole idea of John Oliver and maybe even Trevor Noah is bringing UK English and ideas to a paying frontier North American audience. That's got to have an effect on how language is studied. Am I wrong?
>>
>>
>> John Oliver's Sunday night HBO show is one that is set to
>> automatically be recorded on my TV. (I don't watch "live" TV;
>> anything I watch has been recorded).
>
> That is a misstatement.

As I read that claim, I almost yelled "And how the hell would you know!"
And then I worked it out. Oops.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

[Tony Cooper]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 16:55:19 +0100, Richard Heathfield
<r...@cpax.org.uk> wrote:

>On 15/08/2021 16:13, Tony Cooper wrote:
>> On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 11:09:09 -0400, Tony Cooper
>> <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 07:34:36 -0700 (PDT), bruce bowser
>>> <bruce2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>>> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>>>>> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>>>>>
>>>>> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>>>>> at:
>>>>> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds
>>>>
>>>> Well the whole idea of John Oliver and maybe even Trevor Noah is bringing UK English and ideas to a paying frontier North American audience. That's got to have an effect on how language is studied. Am I wrong?
>>>
>>>
>>> John Oliver's Sunday night HBO show is one that is set to
>>> automatically be recorded on my TV. (I don't watch "live" TV;
>>> anything I watch has been recorded).
>>
>> That is a misstatement.
>
>As I read that claim, I almost yelled "And how the hell would you know!"
>And then I worked it out. Oops.

"Live" is about as ambigious as can be when it comes to TV. The
introduction to "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is "Live on tape
from..." or something like that.

The meaning is that the show was recorded earlier than it is aired,
but scenes were not re-done. They recorded the live show.

[Tak To]

You are entirely wrong. The joke is not about linguists or
language, much less UK vs North America. It is about the
statement "They're going to regret fucking with a linguist",
which sounds juvenile as quoted. Oliver was just making an
"in-kind" reply, i.e., an equally juvenile retort --
intentionally.

--
Tak
----------------------------------------------------------------+-----
Tak To ta...@alum.mit.eduxx
--------------------------------------------------------------------^^
[taode takto ~{LU5B~}] NB: trim the xx to get my real email addr


.

[Tony Cooper]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 15:47:09 -0400, Tak To <ta...@alum.mit.eduxx>
wrote:

>On 8/15/2021 10:34 AM, bruce bowser wrote:
>> On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>>> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>>>
>>> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>>> at:
>>> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds
>>
>> Well the whole idea of John Oliver and maybe even Trevor Noah is bringing UK English and ideas to a paying frontier North American audience. That's got to have an effect on how language is studied. Am I wrong?
>>
>
>You are entirely wrong. The joke is not about linguists or
>language, much less UK vs North America. It is about the
>statement "They're going to regret fucking with a linguist",
>which sounds juvenile as quoted. Oliver was just making an
>"in-kind" reply, i.e., an equally juvenile retort --
>intentionally

Oliver's retort was "Nobody is intimidated by linguists". I thought
it was a great line, and may take it on as a sig line or personal
mantra.

One poster did view link this and thought he had wasted an entire
minute by learning the context. He didn't see the joke, either, but
then he never does...especially when it's on him.

[Snidely]

Tony Cooper scribbled something on Sunday the 8/15/2021:

> While he is English (now an American citizen), I no longer notice his
> Englishness. I don't see how his Englishness has any affect on the
> language.

It's true, he doesn't mention rounds or WCs or The Knowledge. But my
efforts to keep up with him mean that I wasn't on the lookout for uses
of the subjunctive, so I miss out on the grammatical differences
between AmE and BrE.

(And Bruce, isn't Trevor Noah bringing SAfE to the US? Different
snapshot of BrE than either Oliver or Americans)

/dps

--
Maybe C282Y is simply one of the hangers-on, a groupie following a
future guitar god of the human genome: an allele with undiscovered
virtuosity, currently soloing in obscurity in Mom's garage.
Bradley Wertheim, theAtlantic.com, Jan 10 2013

[Snidely]

Remember when Tony Cooper bragged outrageously? That was Sunday:

It's a great joke, Tony. I was ROFL for minutes. Hadn't stopped by
the time J Oliver got to "and that brings us to the bankruptcy".

/dps

--
"First thing in the morning, before I have coffee, I read the obits, If
I'm not in it, I'll have breakfast." -- Carl Reiner, to CBS News in
2015.

[Tak To]

On 8/15/2021 11:09 AM, Tony Cooper wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 07:34:36 -0700 (PDT), bruce bowser
> <bruce2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>>> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM

In case you don't already know, one can append &t=<nn>s to the
url to specify the starting point.

>>>
>>> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>>> at:
>>> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds

----- -----

> John Oliver's Sunday night HBO show is one that is set to
> automatically be recorded on my TV. (I don't watch "live" TV;
> anything I watch has been recorded).
>
> He can be brilliantly funny or numbingly hyper. His show has gone
> from primarily humor to investigative journalism with satirical
> humorous interjections over the years.

I watch him mainly for his surgical precision in pointing out
the factual and logical fallacies in the opponent's arguments.
On many occasions I marveled to myself, "Now that's the way to
argue the issue!"

His jokes are more often than not unrelated to the political
topic. E.g, he has a running gag in that he can "summon"
George Clooney any time simply by snapping his fingers. So
he might snap his fingers accidentally and GC would appear
in a split-screen and ask wearily, "What's it this time?"
JO would then apologize to GC profusely and GC would snap his
(GC's) fingers and disappear. They are usually enjoyable
but can be distracting at times.

Btw I don't agree with all his political points.

> He came to my attention when he was a "correspondent" on "The Daily
> Show with Jon Stewart". Later, he often appeared with Stephen Colbert
> on "The Colbert Report", and Colbert frequently has him as a guest on
> "The Late Show".

I have never watched a complete episode of Colbert. I came
across John Oliver by accident. "Now that's the way to argue
the issue!" was my reaction. (I don't remember what the issue
was.)

> His style is not for everyone.

That can be said of anyone. Do you have any aspect in mind?
(Just curious.)

> While he is English (now an American citizen), I no longer notice his
> Englishness. I don't see how his Englishness has any affect on the
> language.

Same here.

[Tony Cooper]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 13:55:02 -0700, Snidely <snide...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Tony Cooper scribbled something on Sunday the 8/15/2021:
>
>> While he is English (now an American citizen), I no longer notice his
>> Englishness. I don't see how his Englishness has any affect on the
>> language.
>



>It's true, he doesn't mention rounds or WCs or The Knowledge. But my
>efforts to keep up with him mean that I wasn't on the lookout for uses
>of the subjunctive, so I miss out on the grammatical differences
>between AmE and BrE.
>

I haven't noticed him pronouncing "schedule" or "laboratory".

His patter is so fast, though, that I might miss expected Britishisms.

>(And Bruce, isn't Trevor Noah bringing SAfE to the US? Different
>snapshot of BrE than either Oliver or Americans)

[Tony Cooper]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 17:06:46 -0400, Tak To <ta...@alum.mit.eduxx>
wrote:

"The Late Show" is one of the shows that is automatically recorded. I
watch the show the next day.

I always watch through the monologue, but sometimes stop watching some
of the guest interviews. Some become mutual ass-kissing statements of
appreciaton for each other and reminiscences of which famous event
they first met each other. Most of the guests are there to promote
their television show/movie/book*, and some are not that interesting
and are in shows that don't interest me.

I also record Jimmy Kimmel. Same comments apply. Kimmel is more old
school (cross-thread alert) late night talk show host in his
monologues, but the show has some funny running bits like the
interviews of people on the street.

Kimmel is on vacation, and guest hosts are sitting in for him. Last
week Sarah Silverman was the guest host for two nights, and delivered
the best laugh-out-loud monologues of the season. She's shit at
interviewing guests, but aces as a stand-up comedian.

*Well, that's why they appear. As I understand it, each guest is paid
the SAG/AFTRA minimum for an appearance which is, I think, $533.

$533 wouldn't buy the shoes most guests wear, so they aren't doing it
for the money.

[Tak To]

On 8/15/2021 4:30 PM, Tony Cooper wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 15:47:09 -0400, Tak To <ta...@alum.mit.eduxx>
> wrote:
>
>> On 8/15/2021 10:34 AM, bruce bowser wrote:
>>> On Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 7:51:55 PM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>> In his recent show on HBO, John Oliver dissed linguists. Jump to
>>>> about 9 minutes and 18 seconds into the show to get context.
>>>>
>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCaIhfETsM
>>>>
>>>> Mrs Sackler's (nee Ruggles) contribution to linguistics can be found
>>>> at:
>>>> https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=gc_etds
>>>
>>> Well the whole idea of John Oliver and maybe even Trevor Noah is bringing UK English and ideas to a paying frontier North American audience. That's got to have an effect on how language is studied. Am I wrong?
>>>
>>
>> You are entirely wrong. The joke is not about linguists or
>> language, much less UK vs North America. It is about the
>> statement "They're going to regret fucking with a linguist",
>> which sounds juvenile as quoted. Oliver was just making an
>> "in-kind" reply, i.e., an equally juvenile retort --
>> intentionally
>
> Oliver's retort was "Nobody is intimidated by linguists". I thought
> it was a great line, and may take it on as a sig line or personal
> mantra.

As some who wandered into this group from sci.lang, I think it
is a bit, well, too widely cast. Not that Joss Sackler did
not deserve such a retort (if she was accurately quoted).

> One poster did view link this and thought he had wasted an entire
> minute by learning the context. He didn't see the joke, either, but
> then he never does...especially when it's on him.

I think he noticed it, but deemed other things more
objectionable.

[Tony Cooper]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2021 13:22:40 -0400, Tak To <ta...@alum.mit.eduxx>

I think it depends on which pool one swims in. I have never dipped a
toe in the sci.lang pool, but I have been in a.u.e long enough to have
read many crossposters from that group. In this pool, there is only
one linguist who attempts to intimidate, and he is remarkably
unsuccesful in doing so.
>
>> One poster did view link this and thoughte had wasted an entire

>> minute by learning the context. He didn't see the joke, either, but
>> then he never does...especially when it's on him.
>
>I think he noticed it, but deemed other things more
>objectionable.
--

Tony Cooper Orlando Florida

[occam]

You overestimate our resident linguist.

[Snidely]

occam asserted that:

Oliver's joke is a great one, due to be include in compilations for
decades to come. No doubt it will stand him for an award.

Just like Tony has scored marks for diplomacy in this thread.

/dps

--
Killing a mouse was hardly a Nobel Prize-worthy exercise, and Lawrence
went apopleptic when he learned a lousy rodent had peed away all his
precious heavy water.
_The Disappearing Spoon_, Sam Kean