Minimal Original Material

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Snooze and snore siesta silliness

I can't guess what this one might be about, but anything that Morsch considers "silly" is bound to be great fodder for me.

Now here’s an event I’m sorry I missed: Last week Spain started it’s first-ever siesta competition, which will end on Oct. 23, where the winner will be chosen on how long he or she can sleep and snore.

My guess is that the topic of this article will be how qualified Morsch thinks he is for this competition. See also: his columns on National Cheese-ball Day, etc etc.

Napping and snoring. I would not be opposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) considering both as new events for the 2012 games in London.

Is his use of "(IOC)" supposed to be funny? I can't really think of a reason why he put that in there, unless he's trying to sound smart.

In the areas of both sleeping and snoring, I’ve essentially been in training my whole life for that and would have to be considered among the favorites for the gold medal.

Bingo. The "for that" is unnecessary.

According to a wire service story, the goal of the competition was to promote Spain’s post-lunch nap time. Contestants will be put into groups of five over the course of nine days and “timed by a doctor with a pulse-measuring device to determine how long they spent snoozing.”

Ah, the ever-popular "wire service story." Has anyone else noticed that Morsch's articles are surprisingly short on humorous commentary and surprisingly high on boring summaries of other articles?

Contestants could score extra points for snoring as well as wearing goofy nightwear or sleeping in an odd position.
The competition was organized by the newly formed National Association of Friends of the Siesta, which had what was described in the wire service story as “a machine to measure the decibels (of snoring) emitted.”

Should I laugh at this? Does this count as "humor"?

Two observations:

Get ready, folks, here it comes!

First off, there is a machine designed specifically to measure snoring decibels? Cool.

Okay, not funny, but at least he's not repeating someone else's comments.

And secondly, the National Association of Friends of the Siesta is a cool name for a group. Or a band. Nobody was sleeping on the job when it came to creatively naming the organization.

It's a terrible name for both a group and a band. If they were really thinking, they would call it something that spelled "NAPS." They're only one letter away. The "sleeping on the job" joke is almost painfully pathetic.

The top prize for the winner will be about $1,400, but no gold medal at this point.
If they have the competition again next year, I may consider actually going over to Spain to compete.
But I’ll have to sleep on that idea.

I like how he breaks up those last few phrases, like he's building up, step-by-step, to the glorious final pun. Forget humor - only about a third of this post were original observations by the author. A job well done.

Labels: Mike Morsch, Montgomery Newspapers, Outta Leftfield