Friday, July 25, 2008

Block That Metaphor!

In this review of a recent production of Damn Yankees, we come up against this monstrosity:

Base-hit jokes are pitched like fastballs, making it into the catcher's glove as often as they don't [....] Everything works in the most basic of ways, but only the songs sail over the plate with the greatest of ease - nothing of the remainder could be mistaken for a grand slam.

So are we trying to get hits or pitch strikes? This isn't a mixed metaphor--it is all about baseball. The trouble is we don't know which team we're rooting for.

3 Comments:

Blogger New England Guy said...

Remove "Base hit" and replace "grand slam" with "perfect game" or some other pitching accomplishment. (This is difficult because pitching is a difficult metaphor for broadway-"strike-out" or "no-hitter" are negative-sounding in the theater sense) Of course, why you would want your jokes to go into the catcher's mitt rather than being hit out of the park is odd.

Its still very bad writing but at least it would be internally consistent

6:09 AM, July 25, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

People who like musicals generally don't like sports.

10:17 AM, July 25, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A gross generalization. C'mon A-rod clearly liked Evita!

11:48 AM, July 25, 2008  

Post a Comment

<< Home

web page hit counter