An Inelegant News Story about an Inelegant News Story about an Inelegant Story.
In the Beginning...
A documentary film crew was in Djibouti to support the work of a native born historian now residing in London who specialized in the ancient culture known as Punt. With new important artifacts found, it was necessary to travel to Djibouti to interview witnesses and document the artifact, it's location where found, etc. While the documentary crew was hired by the Doctor of Antiquities and the long relationship of the crew to the Doctor, they were actually separate entities working mostly independently of each other. The Doctor would collect critical facts while the documentary crew would interview people, document the site, etc.
Upon a weekend sabbatical just prior to travel into the country, the crew eats an unusual dinner made of spices and vegetables including a rare mushroom. This was a dinner cooked outdoors just outside of the capital city by a chef known for traditional and ancient foods for the region. It was cooked over an open fire in the traditional way with the chef explaining in detail the traditions and importance of the ingredients as well as how some of these traditions have become lost and why it is important to preserve these dishes. This would be the last day the crew could talk directly in English without an interpreter.
The crew enjoyed the meal commenting on the complex flavors and sang songs and told stories through the evening. They camped over night and awoke with the bright sun rise over the arid horizon. It was a beautiful morning and everyone felt a sense of energetic enthusiasm that comes with such a wonderful night. They took off quickly and arrived to their destination just about early evening. They then quickly set up their gear and started the first few witness interviews. Just one problem however.
Perhaps it was the richness of the dish, perhaps the spices, or even the freshly harvested mushrooms taken directly from the wild just that morning, but something effected the general gastronomy of the entire crew in an obvious way. For westerners, especially men, this can be a source of great humor and it was. For the locals, this was just plain rude and in fact insulting. While the crew tried to work and remain serious at all times, various sounds and smells would interrupt their work and they would have to start again and again repeatedly making the whole situation funnier or more insulting. For the westerners, this had become unbearably funny making any slight felt by a local even worse. Finally, during a particularly bad interview, a local dignitary asked the interpreter about the situation. "Why are these people so insulting and why do they think their insults are funny?" The interpreter was careful in his answer. He explained that, "For westerners, their problem was a traditional source of humor and they do not realize how insulting it is to you. They are trying very hard to be professional, however, their plight seems to put them at odds with professional behavior making the situation even funnier to them." He explains, "They do not mean harm. They really are trying to be respectful, however, the vastness of their plight is so great that they cannot help themselves." The dignitary asks, "How did this get started?" The interpreter then explains the traditional meal with the vegetables, spices and mushrooms. The dignitary begins to smile slightly at first then very broadly. He explains, "The mushrooms are too a joke. They are the source of the problem." The two put their heads together and hatched a plan.
The next day, while the air had cleared, the situation had not cleared entirely. Much of the work that was attempted, had to be done again. The audio was heavily contaminated and the interviews were, well, rather poor. So they set up again. However, the hilarity did not end. The dignitary explained the joke to all around and fed them the same mushrooms in a similar dish of vegetables and spices. While the film crews issues were fading, though returning for additional bouts, the interviewees were dishing up the goods just as violently as the day before. While this went on for the entire day, the results were the same. Contaminated audio, bad interviews, and awkward feelings abounded. At the end of the day, the dignitary along with the interpreter, explained that while it is not customary to laugh at such a thing, they could appreciate how humorous it was to the crew. They too wanted in on the joke. And so the film crew was punked twice but as the dignitary explained, "I wanted to ease your worry and let you know it was okay. It is funny to us too."
The Inelegant News Story
As the documentary was wrapping up and going to the editing booth, the film crew went to work promoting the film ahead of it's debut. They lined up interviews for television and radio as well as print articles. The Doctor published his scholarly work and promoted it as well within his circles. Again both teams worked largely independent of each other and well, let's just say this, the whole story I told you was not in the report given to the Doctor. So when during an early morning drive radio show interview with two shock jocks in London the story eked out, it was hard to put back in the bag. And hence, several interviews inquired about the story including one via video conference in Brighton where the television news crew found the entire story uproariously funny. As the interview unfolded, the documentary film crew tried to play down the original story and not talk about it at all, however, the Brighton news crew did not let up. That is what they wanted to talk about and so very reluctantly, the documentary film crew tried to put the story to bed by down playing the effect, however, it did not work. With every word uttered, the news crew became emboldened and asked more questions breaking into a laughing frenzy on live television with two blocks to fill about eight minutes each. The news crew cleverly used double entendres to pose their questions and oddly, despite their best efforts, Freudian answers made the interview a classic if you have seen it. In the end, the news crew was out of control with one interviewer in tears on the floor having fallen out of his chair with laughter and the poor documentary crew feeling the sting of the original joke all over again.
The Inelegant News Story About an Inelegant News Story
Potty humor aside, one of the best jokes is to see otherwise steadfast and stoic television personalities loose control. And so the interview went viral at least on the news wires. The story found it's way into print, radio, and best yet, television where the original film could be seen. Comments were made, laughter was had, and in one case, two segment blocks of an American early morning news entertainment show was allotted to just this story. The irony was not lost as the American news crew interviewed the Brighton news crew. Now if you remember, the Brighton news crew was less than shy about their sense of humor and they already knew no bounds. Segments of the original interview was shown as the American news crew asked the Brighton news crew questions. However, the Brighton crew had other ideas. Again the double entendres flew with some words bleeped as the FCC does not allow such language. The American crew quickly lost control as the Brighton crew took over. In the control room, the shows producer struggled to find a replacement for the segment but could not as the automated time allotments came and went and the second segment was upon them. Panic was at full tilt as the Brighton crew had one more shot at ruining the careers of many American journalists and television professionals. However, this time, the American interviewers caught the irony of the situation and decided to go down with a BANG! Even more double entendres flew now from both sides as both sets of news professionals became totally lost in the humor of the chaos they have wrought on both sides of the pond. The interview was totally out of control as laughter again caused casualties, tears, and loss of dignity.
A New Title to this Story?
I could have easily entitled this story as "An Inelegant News Story about an Inelegant News Story about an Inelegant News Story about an Inelegant Story." Because as you can imagine, it did not stop there. The whole joke with the mushrooms echoed through the planet like the catastrophe that annihilated the dinosaurs as the additional news crews covered the American news crew covering the Brighton news crew covering the Djibouti disaster that should have remained a private joke in the first place. It is of course all too preposterous for it's proportion, however, it has not stop echoing has it?