Friday, August 19, 2022

Sherlockian explaining meme

 I don't usually do memes. You see them trending, folks try to have a little fun and play along, catching the heat from the meme's fifteen minutes of fame. They're so often just cheesey and silly. And then came this little beauty, an old photo of a girl named Denu Sanchez in a club in Argentina, explaining something to her then-boyfriend.


She just seems so earnest in her delivery, and perhaps a little drunk. It's in a club, so you know she has to be shouting over the music. And people began using it in the best way, as I watched it rise: To have her deliver quotes. I think the first one I saw was a particularly poignant Buffy the Vampire Slayer quote from an episode called "The Body." Song lyrics followed. "I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere" got in on the act, as did some other podcasters I follow. Some used it to deliver their own bit of explanatory knowledge of something, but it was the quotes that called to me.

So after an initial foray with a Sherlock quote, I dove all the way in and had her reciting Vincent Starrett's "221B." 


I mean, there are some lines that are thrust upon us time and time again in Sherlockian circles, and the idea of one of up being a little tipsy in a club and just shouting the poem at some poor trapped audience seemed oh-so-likely.

One can easily envision her as an incarnation of Sherlock Holmes, shouting pronouncements at her Watson. I later fancied her as a drunken Conan Doyle telling William Gillette, "YOU MAY MARRY HIM, MURDER HIM, OR DO WHAT YOU LIKE TO HIM!" because Conan Doyle in a crop top at a club just makes me laugh.  But I had to stop after that. Her work was done.

Memes are such a peculiar thing, catching a feeling in that "picture is worth a thousand words" way, then adding the few perfect words to give that picture a conext. The two guys arguing from the old reality show American Chopper have gotten more mileage than their motorcycles ever did, with more opinions coming from their mouths than their brains ever held. And now we get this young lady whose brain now seems to hold all knowledge, wisdom, and cleverness the world contains.

So, of course, she have to have Sherlockian uses. Nobody is that smart without reminding us of Sherlock Holmes at least a little bit. 

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