Complex Numbers

Got Me Doing It

Entry #3 for June's "Journalistic Intentions"  [18+]

Got Me Doing It  

This one has a remarkably short description for a TVTropes page, but I can distill it even further: One character has some kind of manner of speech or habit, and another ends up unconsciously copying it.

From what I've seen, and glancing at some of the examples, this is usually comedy. It doesn't quite fit the Played For Laughs   trope because it's not a parody of a serious plot device. But the point is it's normally intended to elicit at least a smile or a sensible chuckle from the audience. And as we all know, or should know anyway, the wall between comedy and tragedy is paper-thin, and one often hears the other having loud orgasms in the next room.

I just came up with that, and I'm quite proud of it.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. So I can see it being drama too, is the point, if it's framed right.

But there's a third choice. Someone's probably already done it, but I can't be arsed to read all the examples on the linked page, nor can I remember any instances of it. And that third choice is using your weird mannerisms to do good.  

That page I just linked is also about using one's powers to do evil, but using this one to do evil would still be comedy. As apes, we're very, very good at aping, so if one of us does something creative or slightly "off," others can pick up on that and, under the right circumstances, mimic it. The expression is "monkey see, monkey do," but monkeys aren't apes. We are. This is often called something like "leading by example." Under the right circumstances, your good deed will be contagious.

A real-life example of this would be a phenomenon I've heard of but never experienced because I almost never go there and never through the drive-thru: the "pay it forward" (PIF) conga line at a Starsucks. Coincidentally, I'd just heard yesterday of another one of those happening. With all the inflation going on, my comedian mind immediately went to "each order will be more expensive than the last," meaning that every customer would pay an ever-increasing tab.

And then, naturally, I thought of how I could use that power for evil. To do so, I'd have to work in an office or have a bunch of friends, but hey, I'm a writer, so I can imagine impossible things. What you do is, if you know there's a PIF line at the Starsucks drive-thru, you get in the line and order like 60 venti espresso soy milk double-shot cocoa mocha lattes (or whatever the goddamn stupid trendy drink is these days) and all of their danishes. Then the person in front of you is morally obligated to pay for your $5800.00 order instead of her $6.50 single short Tazo herbal tea, which the person in front of her had to pay for. And then you only have to pay for the Grande Americano of the idiot behind you.

Of course, I would never actually do such a thing, because you might get some goody two-shoes hero working there who warns the lady in front of you that you ordered everything in the store, and then you're on the hook for the $6300 bill (it went up while you were waiting for the order to fill). Because I consider it my hobby to think about everything that can go wrong with a scenario. That's an important skill for a writer to have, you know.

Normally, I only use the power for good.

Normally.