Tuesday, March 18, 2014

David Brenner tells a joke in asl



Almost.

I am impressed so many times how close people come to actual asl in their natural gesticulations. I have encountered people who are so expressive I'd swear they had training, their capacity to pantomime and come so close to standard signs is amazing, it lacks only finger spelling. Some people are naturals. David Brenner, may he rest in comedy, his corpse suddenly erupt into paroxysms of giggles for eternity, has a good half of it acted out, he need only fill in the specifics to tell the exact same joke. 

For you
real
beginning, middle, end
working
hand
my hand, my hand
sure
out
over there
my hand
fine
come
fixes
hand works wiggles
what?
two
off there
there
come
hey
me
cut hand
you
back there
two
stick it
hand flies

But this is all crazy talk.

You know what else is crazy? London is crazy and zero-tolerance policies are crazy. 

People of the world, how do you say the word "London?" This is needed for the song "London Calling." 

When "London" is entered at spreadthesign only one country responds, UK, and that is odd because I've seen several. I'm looking for consensus and for range, but there is only one, and Britain is showing their word for "London" is our word for "crazy," and universally so, a finger twirling around the temple. 

The logical way to say "London" by way of asl convention is to place an L where the  word "England" is made. That is, say "England" with an "L," bang you've got London.  This clip shows, hope they don't get angry, nicked this from page source. Aslpro: London

That makes sense. That is what would come out your body without even thinking as a way to avoid spelling the word. 

Another way is go along with British in acknowledging the crazy of London and twirl an L at your temple to distinguish London-crazy from regular-crazy. See how letters come in to assist for specificity? That is rather SEE, seeing essential english, throwing bits of proper English in there to help brighten the image just a bit. like and English-sprinkler, sprinkling English letters around as if it were seasoning salt. As English speaker I'm prone to tossing these letters around where the do not belong, where they are not all that specifically helpful, say, to change "will" to "would" the English subjunctive does not matter that much, I just think it does. 

Signingsavvy brings the crazy to London with an "L" to the temple, sticking up, the thumb circling the temple, while handspeak brings the crazy to London with an "L" to the temple too, this time as a gun twirling around aimed at the temple. 

She'd be kicked out of American school for making a GUN to say the word, "London" and that is crazy.

Here is a boy signing London Calling if you care to see. He is saying "calling", like yelling out of his mouth, as "call out". Not the word "call" based on the word  "name" as call forth someone's name. Not that. And not telephone call. (two types of telephone, Y at the ear, as fake phone, and fist at the ear, the actual way to hold a handset)  Two other types of "call" available, all of them work. This song has a camp about it that allows for the phone call type of "London calling," as "Hello. It's 1979's calling, they want their song back." That has the advantage of putting the hand right at spot needed for the word "London."

David Brenner called, said, "BANG, that's funny." 

2 comments:

deborah said...

I can finger spell, but I can't follow finger spelling.

Also, I learned k and p one way, but apparently there is another way that I find hard to keep straight. Or was I doing them wrong all along?

ricpic said...

Did Brenner look like a dime store Indian to you? He did to me.