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Reggie Watts making fun of "big idea" presentations

David Pescovitz at 12:19 pm Fri, Aug 10, 2012

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I got a kick out of Reggie Watts at PopTech 2011 taking the piss out of the cliches so frequently heard at conferences dedicated to big ideas, innovation, deep thinking, the future(s), the long view, sea changes, transformations, disruptions, etc. (Thanks, Jake Dunagan!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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  • http://twitter.com/D_Billy David William

    His TED talk was similarly excellent: http://www.ted.com/talks/reggie_watts_disorients_you_in_the_most_entertaining_way.html

  • Mike Norman

    Pop Tech is without a doubt.

  • EH

    Is “trope’ing” a verb yet?

    • methodius

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trope_(music)

      • EH

        Well yeah, but I meant in verb form.

  • fatcat1111

    If there were still jesters, Watts would be their king. 

  • latelatelateshow

    I’m guessing the sly, slow, understated-ness is part of his schtick, but after about 20 seconds I was squirming and had to turn off this video. Plus the Bert Lahr hair is a trifle off-putting

    • Poet

      You have to see this one through as Mr. Watts purposely tries to get rid of you at times which is indeed part of what he is and always will be. Really though this was a rough in the gem.

      • BunnyShank

         tries to purposely put you off like Andy Kaufman?

  • mcarlson

    That was genius. I love it.

  • Teller

    Very fonny. Reminds me of Morozov’s review of the Khannas’ latest booklet.

  • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

    What is the tech that keeps him from sweating a river when he wears sweater in every performance? Turning down the heater, turning up the A/C?

  • elisd

    Wonderful.  Love the way parody opens up the message in the medium.  Reminds me of Peter Rose’s hilarious piece of video art ,”The Pressures of the Text”. http://www.ubu.com/film/rose_pressures.html

  • UniAce

    This is just about the greatest thing ever in my life that I’ve seen at this point.

  • Snig

    Except for the musical interludes, reminds me of my more wretched undergraduate papers when I had nothing to say, but ten pages to say it in. 

  • http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

    For better or worse I think I may be utterly incapable of taking anyone seriously ever again.

    Has this guy ever been on Yo Gabba Gabba? They should make him the guest for an episode.

  • http://twitter.com/matcatastrophe mat catastrophe

    If anyone’s interested, here’s an actual takedown of the TED method of “thinking” – http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/105703/the-naked-and-the-ted-khanna

    Not that Mr. Watts’s TED piss-take wasn’t spot on, it’s just that it lacked any real ideas of its own…..which, come to think of it, is just SOOO damn meta.

  • http://www.facebook.com/TotemT.Totem Totem T. Totem

    He’s kind of doing to live “performance” what the Museum of Jurassic Technology does to “museums”. (Though has anyone noticed lately, the MJT is a littly shoddy and unkempt – you can’t always tell if an exhibit is genuinely part of the cute bamboozlement, or just actually broken down.)