Thursday, June 23, 2011

All You Can Eat

My latest Bizarro gag involves an infinite beef loop:
 
Many of us have had similar thoughts when presented with a ridiculously oversized portion at a restaurant, but for this poor guy it's mathematically true.

I quite enjoy this type of wordplay, where unrelated phrases are chained together using a shared word. Many years ago, I collaborated on an ABC book whose title (Alphabet Soup Kitchen) employs the same linguistic trick. Certainly there must be a name for this device, but I've yet to find it. It's not a pun, spoonerism, or malapropism. What is it called? Scholars of English are encouraged to comment, particularly those who have names like Johnny Carson Daly or who once played in a band called Frijid Pink Floyd.

For comparison, here's my original concept sketch, which now looks a little like a self-portrait:
My next collaboration with my good friend Dan Piraro will appear on Sunday, June 26. Our previous joint works can be viewed in this blog's Bizarro archive.

17 comments:

  1. On Wheel of Fortune they call it a Before and After, one of their more common puzzle types. Another great one Wayno!

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  2. It's like "Before and After" on Wheel of Fortune. I'm not aware of what it's called, either. Maybe you could tweet the question to @oxfordwords.

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  3. On "Jeopardy" they call these "Before And Afters" -- a challenging category of question/answers, but a LOUSY name. Surely there's a better one out there?

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  4. I was in a steak restaurant in Tennessee once. They had a steak on the menu that, they said, would be free if you could eat it all. I saw a guy order one. It was bigger than the platter on which they delivered it. He could not, of course, eat it all.

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  5. The August 2011 issue of Games magazine has a puzzle blending facial characteristics to produce characters like "Diana Ross Perot" and "Elton John Lennon." I was hoping they'd come up with the device name, but they simply called the puzzle "Last Names First."

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  6. Anonymous5:19 PM

    You would have yo use a Mobius Strip Steak Knife to cut this.......

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  7. On Wordnik.com they're called "Sweet Tooth Faries" here's a list of a whole mess of 'em:

    http://www.wordnik.com/lists/sweet-tooth-fairy

    You can add your own too if you're interested.

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  8. I really like this comic but I'm not sure why this steak would be a problem. Cut it once across any narrow section, and you've got a normal (yet long) strip of steak. What am I missing?

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  9. Sean, thanks for the comment.

    Yes, in actual physical reality, if there was such a configuration, you could cut into the steak. The line about not being able to finish it played off the idea that a Möbius strip has no beginning or end.

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  10. I don't want to be a [noun that describes what I'm being (a stickler?], but wouldn't the same hold for a steak circle? A circle (or say a ring) has no beginning or end. It has 2 sides which makes it different from the Mobius strip. I can eat a ringolo very quickly (even one that was mistakenly shaped in a Mobius fashion.)
    Sorry! Not trying to be a troll (does denying it make me a troll?). Just being true to my background in math.

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  11. Sean, you're indeed mathematically correct. I still stand by the cartoon as a work of humor. A circle (round steak?) wouldn't be as funny!

    Of course, I do appreciate readers who pay close attention!

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  12. I'm going to call a string linked by common words a set of streptonyms. The prefix "strepto" means "chain" and the suffix "nym" means "word." I chose the plural since a construction of this type would always require a series of words. I searched for "streptonym" and can't find any hits, so I'm claiming it.

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  13. Actually, strepto- seems to mean "twisted chain" and the actual Greek suffix is -onym, so the let's say that the "twist" refers to a humorous twist. Both parts are from the Greek language, and they overlap on the letter o, similar to the way the phrase is constructed.

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  14. Perhaps, like me, Sean O'Hagan hadn't ever heard of a Strip Steak? This is fundamental to finding the comic, funny ;)

    Only figured out there must be a Strip steak based on the comments...

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  15. Matt, Outside the US, this cut is apparently called a club steak.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_steak

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  16. Anonymous7:06 PM

    You need to get a Klein bottle of wine to go with it

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    Replies
    1. See the blog for July 31, 2021

      https://waynocartoons.blogspot.com/2021/07/may-i-have-another.html

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