Demetri Martin, Linguist???

One of my sons recently purchased comedian Demetri Martin's book, "This is a Book". As I was flipping through it, I noticed that Demetri Martin appears to have a true appreciation for the many aspects of language and how they can be manipulated to humorous effects. Much of his humor involves morphology, syntax, semantics, semiotics, pragmatics and orthography.

Here are some examples from the book.

Pragmatics

Syntax

"Nearly 1/2 of all people in the United States are torsos."


Semantics

"The boomerang is Australia's chief export (and then import)."


Semiotics

Morphology

A Palindrome

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A MAN AND HIS YOUNG SON. THE MAN IS TRYING TO TEACH THE YOUNG BOY THE NAME OF A PIECE OF FRUIT AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SINGULAR AND PLURAL:

-Son, say a papaya.
-Papayas.
-No "s."

Orthography

Word Play Poetry

See if you can figure out what is going on in this outstanding poem I spotted on Farragoswainscot.com.

Argument With a Mirror
by Jeffrey Barnes

"Reality is what is."
"What is reality?"
"It is obvious."
"Is it?"
"There are observable laws."
"Observable? Are there?"
"Don't you see? I do."
"I see you don't."
"Science explains what we can know."
"Can we? What explains science?"
"It finds man what meaning life has."
"Has life meaning? What man finds it?"
"Anybody—for isn't it everywhere? Look—you see?"
"I see. You look everywhere. It isn't for anybody."
"How can you say that? Many know!"
"I know many that say you can? How?"
"How can we know? I know we can!"
"How?"
"Do you doubt 'I think, therefore I am?'"
"I, therefore, think I doubt you do."
"You are so contrary!"
"So are you."

In this "poem," every exchange of dialogue is palindromic at the word level—they read the same backwards as forwards. The man arguing with his reverse image sometimes intrudes into the other's domain, risking nasty cuts and seven years bad luck.

Some Pre-Halloween, Costume-Related Word Play

Just received this cute palindromic, picture e-mail from my brother. Thanks for the laugh, Bro.

A palindrome is a word, phrase or sentence that can be read the same way forwards or backwards.