An Ode to Tetris

[rebness]

Someone on my LJ Friends list recently posted about Adam and Joe, a pair of wonderful British nerds who used to have a low-budget show on Channel Four that was damned hilarious. They did cuddly toy versions of Trainspotting, Friends and Fight Club, amongst others. (You can check them out at the link above.) They also did a series about Tokyo, and as well as keeping British audiences up-to-date with Japanese inventions and stuff, they did things like composing songs. About football-- "Ball, ball, ball/footy, footy, footy/ball, ball, ball/woo-hoo" and, my personal favourite, Tetris.

Dear Tetris. You have kept me amused through airport queues and train journeys, helped me ignore other people and built the muscles in my hand. So here is the original Adam and Joe Tetris song, to be sung to the sinister Tetris tune you get when typing your username in when your score flashes up. No, really.

Sometimes when the world is tough
With unemployment, war and stuff
I'm sitting on the lav and staring
At the ceiling, I'm despairing
'Cos the future frightens me
Too much responsibility
I grab GameBoy nostalgically
And plug my Tetris in.

As soon as Tetris blocks cascade
My anxious thoughts begin to fade
My girlfriend left me recently
Now she's a distant memory
Because I've got a long thin block
Which very soon is going to dock
Beside a massive Tetris rock
And make it disappear

My friend Joe's a Tetris sceptic--
Says it makes you epileptic
But he doesn't understand
It builds the muscles in your hands
And it improves co-ordination
Puts you in a situation
Where you use imagination
To stack loads of odd-shaped blocks
Baaaah!

Comments

[leithal.livejournal.com]

When I play too much Tetris, it tends to take over my entire brain, and I end up doing things like dreaming about it... and trying to fit the stupid little bocks together in my mind even when I'm supposed to be doing other things... I mentioned this to my prof who I got to do fieldwork with this summer and she said that actually, maybe that's a good thing because maybe while I'm playing mental Tetris, what my brain is actually doing is fitting pieces of information together, so that when I sit down to write a paper or whatever, the information has already sorted itself out without my even knowing it.

I think I plan to spend this semester testing that theory.

Also, I am becoming convinced that Canada Post hates one of us, as I have not yet received your second letter either. When I get around to catching up on all of the letters that I have to write at the moment, I'll write you another one just to see what happens when I send it.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

That's so annoying! I find that when I'm going asleep, all I can see in the darkness is a long block going slowly down a screen. Good to know it's helping, though.

You're kidding about the post? I'm thinking certain posties need a good smacking with a wet trout right about now... >:

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

A bump to the head does nobody good!!

I dream about Tetris too, when I'm having Tetris phases. So I don't play it anymore.

[ladydaydream.livejournal.com]

Adam and Joe - that show was hilarious! I can't believe I'd forgotten about the songs until I read your LJ. :D