On irritating, VOICES

[davidn]

There's a man on Food Network in the evenings called Marc Summers, who I gather used to be on television quite a lot a couple of decades ago. I don't know whether it was the years of presenting Double Dare that drove him mad or whether, he's always been like this, but he has, two very IRRITATING vocal features. The first, is the arbitrary EMPHASIS on several, words. Occasionally, he ALSO, feels the need to pause, IN, the middle of sentences, usually somewhere near the END, but often just at random PLACES, throughout. He's like the illegitimate offspring of Johnny Vaughn and Jeremy Clarkson.* Whitney doesn't mind it at all somehow, but once you've noticed it you can never un-notice it and watching Food Network Unwrapped becomes a twitch-inducing torture second only to nails on a blackboard or Mark Vanderbilt trying to sing. Aaaeeergh!

Right, after typing all that I checked his Wikipedia article, and it turns out that his presenting job in the 80s did actually bring about a disorder, so I'm officially a git.

* Sorry about this

Comments

[yemminie.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha Mark Summers, so true. My dad sat next to him on a plane once.

[stubbleupdate.livejournal.com]

I like the way that Clarkson always, always, always put the emphasis on... at the end of his sentences

[davidn]

There's a fantastic Dead Ringers sketch about the other Top Gear presenters taking an audio course on How To Sound Like Jeremy Clarkson. "The basic technique is to rise slowly throughout your sentences and always hang on to the last... two words."

[davidn]

It's not quite as simple as that - the TV's just at the other side of the room from my desk, so Whitney's choice of television permeates towards me. However, Food Network does have some decent programmes, Iron Chef and Good Eats being particularly hilarious.

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

I was going to say something about a Dead Ringers sketch but then I realised I've totally forgotten the names of the people involved and can only refer to them as Ex-Footballer Who Sold Crisps Also and That Other Presenter, and it wasn't that a propos anyway.

However, Good Eats is my favourite thing on tv. Waffleman!

[davidn]

The Waffles episode was on just today. It was quite an experience.