The first definition given in Wiktionary for “exaggeration” is “the act of heaping or piling up”. When piled higher and deeper, it can be called “hyperbole”, which is condensed from the French word “hy-per-bol-excrement”, meaning “cut the crap before you look like an idiot”.
Some professionals don’t mind risking looking like an idiot. Therefore, they readily indulge in hyperbole--for example, mimes. Mimes move exaggeratedly across the stage in order to convey to the audience that they are actually doing something meaningful, such as cleaning a window or looking for a hidden doorway that would allow them to escape from an invisible box. Most people over the age of 24 months have grown tired of this charade, however, leaving former mimes to try to make a living as drum majors.
Another master of exaggeration is the stand-up comic. People do not laugh at stories of ordinary people doing ordinary things in an ordinary way. They tend to laugh at ordinary people doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way or extraordinary people doing extraordinary things in an ordinary way or some variation thereof.
Paradox is another form of exaggeration. Examples from comedy are the heart-broken clown of Red Skelton or Jackie Gleason’s indolent, effeminate son of wealth who also happens to be a lush.
In the end, the word “exaggeration” may simply be a fancy word for a lie, albeit in a context that is benign, rather than malevolent. If your lover asks, “Does this [whatever] make me look fat?” and your answer is “Darling, you have the perfect proportions,” then you have exaggerated, perhaps even indulged in hyperbole. However, if you reply, “Do pigs wallow in shit?” you have neither lied nor exaggerated. However, the chances of your scoring that evening are close to zero—and that’s no exaggeration.
© 3 June 2015
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