A couple of weeks ago in lecture, we spoke about the use of metaphors in the tech field. A metaphor is “a term or phrase applied to something to which it is not
literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.”
It reminded me of a sketch that I watched a number of years ago and like many sketches these days, it was fairly easy to find on YouTube.
You simply have to appreciate the cleverness of this skit. There are so many jokes and subtle play on words that one might miss them on the first watch through. The skit begins with a customer expressing disappointment in an item he bought from the store - his blackberry is frozen. In this case, the store is a grocery and the blackberry in question is not a phone but rather the fruit. The fruit is literally frozen (cold) a metaphor that in the computer world refers to a program that does not respond to user actions. The store owner asks if it has run out of juice. The pun here referring to juice from a fruit and juice which refers to battery life.
The store owner proposes to try the blackberry on Orange and literally places it on top of an orange. This joke eluded me until I scrolled down into the comments section. Orange is a mobile phone provider in the UK and the owner was trying to get the blackberry to work on this provider. This leads directly to the next joke - the black spots on the orange. Black spots is another term used in the tech world to refer to places with no phone coverage. In the skit, there were actual black spots on the orange. On a side note, I wonder if there is a reason that computer scientists are fascinated by fruit - Blackberry, Apple.
The next segment talks about troubleshooting and references moving the blackberry to different places but the customer complains that all that accomplishes is mess the windows. Windows obviously a pun on glass windows and the OS. The store owner suggests waiting for the latest version of the blackberry. This is another common element in the field of technology. Technologies constantly change and latest versions of a product are released almost yearly or sometimes more frequently. The customer then asks for a date and is promptly handed the fruit. There are no direct connections to technology here but it's funny nonetheless.
The customer also has a problem with his apple. Again, fruit not iDevice. The owner comments on how old it is noting that, "two new versions have already come out!" Apple, the company is infamous for frequently releasing newer versions of their products. Apple is also infamous in its requirements for cables. The change of the charging cable for their iPhones and now the removal of the headphone jack were both hotly debated changes. To be fair, the skit was released before these changes were implemented but the idea of connecting extra cables to computers have been around for a while. The video pokes fun at it by the customer stating that he could not figure out how to connect a dongle to the apple. According to Merriam-Webster, a dongle (apart from being a fun word to say out loud) is "a small device that plugs into a computer and serves as an adapter or as a security measure to enable the use of certain software."
The skit concludes with what is in my opinion its best joke. The customer asks for something for his grandson and the owner recommends the 'Eggs-box' which sells for 3.60. This is a play on Microsoft's Xbox 360. In this case, a box of eggs stands in for the console.
Bibliography
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI&spfreload=5
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dongle
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