Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Telephone

Did you ever play the game telephone as a kid? Where one person starts a phrase, whispers it to the next person, etc. until you get all the way to the end of the line and see what the last person thought the message was. Depending on how many kids you have in that rotation, you can get some pretty crazy stuff that's nowhere near the originally intended message.

"Phil's hair is red" inevitably turns into "Bill's dad is dead." Poor Bill.
"Mary has a bunny" morphs into "Barry can't have money." Poor Barry.
"Teacher's pup is teething" makes "Preacher's butt is bleeding." Poor preacher.

And everyone is rolling in the floor from laughter. But isn't it interesting that the final phrases always seem much worse than the original message?

Well consider when the game of telephone is an entire city, my city to be exact:
This game was started when apparently a local police officer warned his wife about a rise in gang activity in the area, probably telling her to make sure she doesn't go out alone at night, keep the doors on her car locked, etc. Well that police officer's wife told her sister, who told her husband, who told a coworker, who told a friend, who told his mom, and on and on and on...

All until I got the awesomely specific news via email that the local gangs were having initiation and to get in the gang they had to rape and kill a white girl from a specific local university (the one I attend classes at actually).

Then I got another awesomely specific email that the local gangs were initiating members and they had to rape a young, white girl from the "richer" area in my city.

Then I got another email that was even more specific. The local Cript (supposed to be Crip, but misspelled) gang is initiating members. They are going to "get" a white girl this Saturday at the local mall.

It's interesting to get all these variations on the same theme.
Notice how it's always a white girl. *Boogety!*

This crap happens EVERY YEAR around this time.
Let me just sum up my response:

Yes, there are initiations going on.
No, there is no substance to these claims.
Yes, you should use common sense when going out.
No, you're not a target, you're not that special, shut up.
Yes, my boyfriend is a cop.
No, the gang investigators haven't heard anything.
Yes, the says the emails are bullshit.
No, you don't know better than the police do.
Yes, you're an idiot for believing it.
No, the gangs just kill each other.
And yes, I think that's natural selection at work.

Note to Self: One stupid sheep alone is just a stupid sheep. Many stupid sheep together are paranoid, smelly, and panic at the slightest noise.

6 comments:

Maki said...

LOL!!! I do remember this game!!! And your 'note to self" - true that!

Y of F said...

ooft.

p.s. If i were a cop, i would just let them kill each other.

And yeah- Not that special..

But i love telephone! especially at long boring dinner recptions. try it!

Anonymous said...

Great post! Especially love your note to self on this one! So very true. Mass hysteria scares the crap out of me.

colbymarshall said...

Amazing- I have gotten that email about the mall like three times this week. I always shake my head and say, "are you kidding me?" Happens every year. And amazingly, it seems like its always the same people who send it to me...

dougsbike said...

I don't care what any of you people say. If the email came from a friend of a friend of a mother of a nameless unknown cop then it must be true. I don't know why anyone would not believe it. I mean really the Telegraph got their info from a police spokesperson. This email comes almost sort of kinda directly from a friend of a friend of a mother of some person.

MJ said...

Maki - I used to love this game as a kid.

SM - That does sounds like fun. And yeah, I would let them kill each other too.

Teeni - Scares me too.

CM - No kidding. It's the same paranoid people EVERY YEAR.

DB - LOL <3