Sunday 11 March 2012

Episode 12: Hippopotomonstrosequippedaliophobia!

         This one's for the laughs! There's this politician in Nigeria who goes by the name of Honorable Patrick Obiahagbon. I don't want to go into details about his political career, I just want to highlight his ludicrous prowess entertaining his audience with speeches that are super saturated with Latin words, long English words, and improvised grammar that no one but the speaker can understand. Make no mistake, he is passionate about what he does, but it's really hard to take him seriously when all he does is generate laughter with his speeches.
                                          By the way, that's a real word


      Here's an example of what he can do. I'll post a funnier one further down
          Everyone and their mum has at least one video of this guy on their phone for those moments when you need a funny video to liven up a conversation with a friend. He's become so notorious for his speeches that The Vanguard newspaper actually interviewed him and titled the article "Why I speak big grammar". Here's a link to the full article http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/03/why-i-speak-big-big-grammar-hon-obahiagbon/ and if you can't be bothered, here are a few quotes from the interview:
  • "Sincerely speaking, I want to tender an unreserved apologia to my colleagues and all those who feel that my language is obscurantist. The truth is that I do not set out deliberately to mystify my audience, to deposit my audience in a portmanteau of indecipherability or in portmanteau of conundrum. No, no, no, no! Far from it."
  • "If you have the opportunity to listen to my speeches or debates ten, fifteen years ago, then it would have been a different kettle of fish all together. So, I am convinced that I've tried, I am trying and I will continue to try to ensure that my language, or my idiolect is as limpid and as diaphanous  as possible."

Enough said.This next one has his best punchline in my opinion. It's at the point where he coins the word "Cabalocracy" and uses it to form a catchphrase. 
              This one was in January 2012 and is connected to Episode 6 of this blog.
      
  Actually, instead of posting more videos, I will try to make this post shorter than my previous posts. I tend to make really long posts, and I'm not sure how many people read it all. So tell me what you think in the comments section, and you can search for more videos on youtube if you find the ones I posted funny.

2 comments:

  1. you are invited to follow my blog

    ReplyDelete
  2. Will check it out. You're also invited to follow mine.

    ReplyDelete

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