Legends of the Hidden Temple

I stumbled upon a gem of a video today during my daily YouTube video searches (and by daily I mean hourly).  The nineties were full of bad fashion but they did have fantastic TV shows on Nickelodeon. Legends of the Hidden Temple, for example, is a classic 90s kids' game show. Legends of the Hidden Temple, hosted by Kirk Foggs, aired from 1993-1995. The contestants had to answer questions based off subjects such as geography, history and myths. There are six teams at the start of the game but only one is able to go through the Temple to try to retrieve the artifact. Nineties TV shows always seem to have wonderful clips and I was not disappointed with this one. When I watched this clip, I couldn't stop laughing. I truly couldn't.

First thing that stuck with me in this clip is the Peter Pan ad that just stays on the screen a little too long. Because I had seen the title of the clip, I was only waiting for the kid to say that he enjoys collecting bags. Then I took the time to re-watch it and discovered even more quirks about this interview Kirk was holding. He was doing a pretty poor job... During the first watch of this I didn't even notice because he had such a confident voice and no real outer motions of being nervous or being unprepared. He did stumble over a few words but for doing it live in front of a studio audience he was doing great in my opinion. Although, why would a girl who collected cow stuff collect milk? Milk spoils. Evidently he did not plan that comment out at all. And poor Mary. Kirk says, "Mary obviously wants to be...is a cheerleader" that slight moment of hesitation is all it takes to make this interview that much more cringe worthy. If only he had actually read over the participants' bios instead of just going with it. 


One of the best parts of this interview is actually in the YouTube comments. The top rated comment poster claims to be the Brent in this very video. He states that on his form he wrote that he collected BUGS not BAGS. Brent is clearly upset at Kirk's apparent illiteracy. I think I would be to if I was stuck with the name Bagboy all through high school. 


If this video taught me anything it would be to continue speaking confidently to the end and hope people don't realize the mistakes you have made. A speech is all about the delivery. If you believe in your material so will others. Kirk did a pretty good job with that. Also you should probably do some studying before you talk about teenagers on a game show because they could end up with unfortunate nicknames. 

In preparation for the speeches we are going to be presenting next week, I have been looking back on my rather short history of giving speeches and the strong and weak points of each. The first speech I remember giving was in fourth grade for student council. I was running against one of the teacher's pets in the class and I felt a bit distressed. She went up there and gave a nice five minute long talk about making school lunches healthier and that we could have longer silent reading times. I began to panic due to her seemingly perfect points that would win any fourth grade teacher over. Feeling my defeat as I walked to the front of the class, I completely blanked on every point I had and ended up uttering a single sentence before scuttling back to my desk. That single sentence won me the votes of my peers and gave me the position of our class's representative in student council.

What was the aww inspiring sentence that made twenty fourth graders deem me worthy enough of leading their class you ask. "If you want to be jolly, vote for Molly!" Although it was more of a mumble so the exclamation point may be out of place. Once I discovered I won, I figured out that it wasn't my teacher who was voting for my but my friends. Quite frankly, no fourth grade kid is going to be jumping for joy at the idea of healthy lunches and that teacher's pet was not appealing to her audience. I did not realize this until years later of course but the lesson was learned.

During my senior year, we had to create a senior project and then present it to our English class and then a panel of judges. By far, one of the most nerve-wracking moments in my life. While listening to my classmates give their speeches I was always struck by their vocabulary or style of speaking. Many kids went for the I'm-a-super-genius-so-I'm-going-to-use-huge-words approach while others went for the good ole talk to us like we are about seven years old. Anytime someone spoke with in those ways, I was unable to really pay attention to anything they were saying. Some kids speeches were so scientifically worded that I was lost within the first minute. Their intro sentence was riddled with words they had difficulty pronouncing. Those who dumbed it down were using a vocabulary with about five words and seemed as though they were reading from a See Spot Run book.

Seeing these examples, I now take into account my audience better and what they would like to hear. Most elementary school students don't want more quite time, they want funny little sayings they can remember for the rest of the day. Most high school seniors don't want to sit through hours of incomprehensible speeches or ones that insult their intelligence, they want speeches that are easy to follow and that catch your interest.

L'esprit de l'escalier

Kairos. This word can be defined in just four words: the right rhetorical moment. Despite being only six letters long and having a definition of four words, this word packs quite a punch in everyday life whether you are aware of it or not. Kairos is having the opportunity to speak your mind on a certain topic at the precise and opportune moment. Kairos gives you the chance to tell the someone when they are wrong and correct them with your own little rant. Many people don't understand when the proper time is to make a statement, such as this kid:

Clearly, this child does not have a grasp on kairos and when the proper time is to express his love for turtles. But it did make for a fantastic viral video that never fails to make me laugh. People who don't have an understanding of kairos are those who bring up points that have absolutely nothing to do with the conversation. A friend of mine up here is great at adding points that add nothing to the conversation at hand but rather gives points from previous conversations. Example:
Me: Wow! One Direction is the best band ever and they are soooooo good looking.
Friend 1: I know! They are amazing!
Friend 2: I like to sleep on my stomach.
Me: Oh, ok. Well...Harry is my favorite.
It should be noted that about ten minutes and three conversations earlier we were, in fact, discussing sleeping habits but he clearly missed his opportunity to discuss his sleeping style. I would call his little moment of realization l'esprit de l'escalier, which means spirit of the staircase in French. This means that you figure out what you are supposed to say right after you miss your chance. It more commonly relates to a comeback that you have thought of. This is sometimes referred to as elevator wit in America although I think the French version sounds a bit more refined. I am all too often a victim of l'esprit de l'escalier and to help lessen my downfalls with this I often come up with situations in my head so I have clever rebuttals at my ready. Never quite works out as I hope though. Either I completely fumble in my deliverly or the other person's way of pointing the statement is slightly altered and I can't use my comeback. I believe that it takes a very special person to take advantage of kairos is a witty situation. Journalists and comedians are pros in the way of kairos and they are always the first to respond. I only hope I can be half as good as they are one day.

The Language in Nazi Germany

I am a huge fan of Stephen Fry.  In my mind, he is one of the smartest men to walk the planet and his grasp on the English language is enviable.  I could listen to him speak all day long and generally when I begin watching videos of him, I can't stop. Fortunately, it actually worked out for me last night while I was deciding what to write about.  The title of the video was quite misleading in a sense because I believed he was going to be talking about the German language specifically, at first.  But it was much more than that. 

Fry was discussing how we haphazardly throw around derogatory terms about others without realizing that we may eventually believe in our harsh words.  The Jewish persecution began with language.  By calling Jewish people rats or vermin on the radio everyday for weeks on end, listeners began to believe that they were sub-human.  I wonder just how often this occurs within our media today without people even realizing it.  Rhetoric can be used in a multitude of ways but it is just about impossible to think that a terrible act, such as the Holocaust, could have been started simply by language.  

It is so easy to look back at World War II and blame it entirely on the Nazis but as I learned in the video, it was not the Nazis who did it but rather humankind.  We can’t make brash judgments on groups of people because we are them as well.  Hearing about the book that was built out of a Nazi’s letters home reinforced the fact that they were humans no matter how inhumane and disgusting their actions were.  We are, as Fry said, the only species that does this.

Stephen Fry states, “It is important to remember that it is language that guarantees our freedom,” but in this case it also took away so many lives and freedoms.  We have to be careful and be aware of how we state our opinions and the word choices that we make. The last thing he says is, “We have to be alert to it and think about it,” so nothing as grotesque as the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide.

This I Believe