This video is hilarious, but also captivating to me. I think it relates to The Grand Poobah whenever I hear Jo describe the play as an exploration of how we relate to others and the world around us, and how we assimilate those influences to create identity and meaning in our lives. The boy in this video relates to the world in such a specific and compelling way. Formally... "Hello, this is jedialex17, here with another Star Wars toy review." Objectively... "Let's get a closer look at the figure." Valuably... "Everything's just good about him." Spatially... "And here's his arm." Capitalistically... "It's really a good thing to get." Economically... "They're really hard to find." Relationally... "It's cool if any of you have one like this." Critically... "I really recommend you get one if you can find it." Artistically... "Just look at the detail on his eyes." Categorically... "It's just a really amazing... well, it's not a figure, it's an alarm clock." Familially... "We have to get a new piece for it, but my dad can fix it, so..." Temporally... "We're gonna fix the wires at some point, if we can find a part ever." Linguistically... "That's really all I can say." Culturally... "Until next time, keep collecting, may the force be with you, bye."
All this is to say, this kid's interests lie in a very specific place, and he is totally invested in incorporating tools from the wider world to explore that place. Why do you think he's making this video? He must have been watching the Antiques Roadshow on TV, or seen "professionals" review collectibles online. He took that critical framework from its original context, displaced it, and made it apply to his life. Now that the review framework is decontextualized, it becomes really funny to us as it is applied to a Jar Jar Binks Alarm clock.
This process can be called "catachresis". That word means "the misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor." This kid takes the Antiques Roadshow formula, without their "expertise", and misapplies it to humorous results. But... I would argue that catachresis is how all meaning is created, and how we all learn. We take meaning we found elsewhere, rip it from its context, bastardize it, and make it our own. We do this over and over and over again until it stops being funny or stupid (being a little kid means people are either laughing at you or ignoring you) and starts making sense to other people or yourself. This is why culture is always changing. Every time we do even little things like use a word, any word, we create a new context for it and violently change its meaning.
This is what the Poobah explores. The text tries to make manifest a journey through a specific set of these associations in order to cobble them together into a new and funny and stupid and catachrestic commentary on how our associations, especially in college, change us and make us who we are.
May the force be with you.
-Ryan Rebel
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