Euphemism satire
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On today's NPR Morning Edition, there was a segment about a new TV show that parodies NPR :"New Peacock comedy 'In the Know' parodies NPR". And the featured aspect involves 41 seconds of dueling euphemisms:
For some useful linguistic background, see John McWhorter's 2016 essay "Euphemize this".
There are various trailers and such-like things for In The Know on YouTube, for example:
mg said,
January 25, 2024 @ 10:45 am
Sound clip isn't working.
[(myl) — sorry, fixed now. I published the post just before starting a class, which is why it took me a couple of hours to notice the problem and fix it…]
JPL said,
January 25, 2024 @ 3:57 pm
A lot of the dueling is done via the intonation contours, e.g., on "Oh, I'm sorry!" and "How dare you!". The latter I always find amusing and interesting, usually evoking several replays in my head or sotto voce to myself, as it did this time.
Samuel Cole said,
January 26, 2024 @ 10:45 am
I feel like this just missed the boat. It would have been really funny and brave in, say, Fall of 2020. But now it just feels like it's making fun of a subculture that is on its way out.
David L said,
January 28, 2024 @ 12:55 pm
The NBC news station in Portland ME always refers to "people experiencing homelessness." Every now and then they interview people on the streets, who say things like "I've been homeless since I lost my job" or "us homeless people prefer our encampments to the shelters" and so on.
Clearly they need re-education camps.
Olaf Zimmermann said,
February 2, 2024 @ 6:58 am
They're not "homeless", they are "mobile internet users". MIUs.