One Reason to Want to Date Me

(In the tradition of EEK.)

When I meet people for the first time, but even with some people I've talked to every week for the last two years, I am basically just making a constant stream of references. It's like my side of the conversation is indistinguishable from a guy explaining all the jokes in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

I realized just how irresistible I find this urge when I met a bunch of new people at Marmo's party last week. In three conversations with three different people in the space of half an hour, I made reference to TvTropes, the movie Happiness (funniest child molestation movie ever) and Douglas Adams, in all but one case stopping these respective conversation dead in their tracks (the exception was the guy who'd read all of Douglas Adams, who referenced me right back to the game Galcom for the iPhone and iPod Touch).

Why do I think references are so important? There's a strip in Tailsteak's online comic "Band" where a character explains why Simpsons quotes are always relevant - they form a common ground between participants in the conversation.

I always thought that a diverse spread of references was a particularly American trade (for the record, though, Tailsteak is Canadian). Let me explain. When I went to my strange and obscure school in South Wales, all the people who came from the same country would occasionally all meet up, have dinner and talk.

These meetings would be a little window in to the soul of the nation, sort of. (I say "sort of" because this is going to sound like it's straight out of the prejudice map.) The Welsh would get together and drink. The Italians would get together and argue.

With us Americans, a certain national language would occur. I don't know quite how to explain it except to say that, although everyone at our school more or less spoke English, no one from outside the country understood what we were saying. Cartoons, movies, events of the 1980s.

This is what would define us as citizens of the U.S.A. And that's why you have to watch TV to know what anyone in this country is talking about.