Friday, December 11, 2015

Mimesis

Mimesis is a really cool word. If at first it looks like “mime”, you have a good eye. Mimesis is the imitation of another thing, be it people, disease, or animals. In the TV show The Big Bang Theory in the episode called “The Cornhusker Vortex”, Sheldon tries to communicate with Leonard using this fancy but nifty word. (Leonard is at Penny’s watching a football game with her and her friends.) When Leonard doesn’t understand him, he attempts to use other metaphors that the rest of the people in the room don’t understand. Being that they’re all (attempting) to watch a football game (American football), Sheldon needn’t have bothered, but the thought is there. In that thought, however, we learn a cool new word that might not have otherwise ever been heard.

(132 words)

Sheldon: So Leonard, how goes the mimesis?
Leonard: Mimesis?
Sheldon: You know. Mimesis. An action in which the mimic takes on the properties of a specific object or organism. Mimesis.
Leonard: What the hell are you talking about?
Sheldon: I’m attempting to communicate with you without my meaning becoming apparent to those around you. Let me try again. Have the indigenous fauna accepted you as one of their own? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.


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