Friday, November 16, 2007

Bingo is so LAME-O!

My friends, family, and readers of this post know that two cliches in dialogue that vex me more than others - that irritate, provocate, exasperate, and peeve me to the point of pulling my hair by the fistful - are "bingo" and any derivation of "I don't know you anymore".

These word piƱatas seem to show up in even good films. It's weird.

So, when I saw American Gangster last night (a good film but hard to follow initially) and heard the word "bingo" early on, I dug my nails in the chair and reminded my friend how much I loathe that cliche. But since this particular "bingo" had only been kind of casually thrown in, she said it wasn't THAT big of a deal, told me to chill, and we quickly got re-absorbed in Denzel.

And then... and then... It happened again!

This time, "bingo" was spat at us in exactly the "eureka!" way you would expect and we fell out of our chairs in uncontrollable hysterical laughter at the most inappropriate and un-funny moment possible in the entire film.

I'm really quite fortunate that movie theaters are too cheap to hire ushers these days.

10 comments:

Grubber said...

Bingo!

You've hit the nail on the head with what is wrong with movies nowadays. :)

You knew that was coming didn't you :)
cheers
Dave

MaryAn Batchellor said...

You just wanna see me bald.

ASA said...

1970's NYC slang, maybe...?

MaryAn Batchellor said...

In the first instance, Matt, maybe. But the second time, I'm gonna have to say that it was used as the cliche word for when a character gets the answer or result he's looking for. I wish "bingo" was as outdated as "groovy" but I don't think we're ever going to get there. EVER!

Grubber said...

a bald Batchellor?

Anonymous said...

and Bingo was his name-o

Anonymous said...

There are rumours that bingo is being banned in the US, is that true?
In the UK, bingo has suffered in recent months due to the ban on smoking in public places, causing smoking customers to either go outside for a cig and face the harsh cold (not a good move for the aged) or stay at home and not play, thus forcing people like me to Free Internet Bingo Games. But banning bingo completely is ridiculous! It is a very mind form of gambling at the most! If you’re going to ban bingo then the lottery has to go too surely? Isn’t that gambling?
Bingo is a number game, based on pure luck, so really it’s not even similar to other gambling games such as poker and sports betting. It’s just like buying a lottery ticket just you have to get more numbers! So then why is it such a problem? Its just takes away the older generations entertainment while the younger generations indulge in perfectly “legal” things like DRUGS! Can they not see which the bigger problem is?

MaryAn Batchellor said...

Never heard any such rumors. Little ol' folks in senior centers all across America would have nothing to do if that happenned. Ain't gonna happen.

Anonymous said...

you hate bingo :-o you will probably hate my site then :-)

and I think Denzel uses the word bingo in all his films, its his version of i'll be back!

MaryAn Batchellor said...

I don't hate playing bingo. I think it's a cop-out word to use in dialogue.