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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Lesson Twelve: The Retreat

The retreat follows this construction: Strong assertion.  Followed by a retreat -- series of qualifications negating the original strong assertion.

MONTY PYTHON had many classics using this technique with Chapman's Colonel character.   For example:

ColonelNow, I've noticed a tendency for this programme to get rather silly. Now I do my best to keep things moving along, but I'm not having things getting silly. Those two last sketches I did got very silly indeed, and that last one about the bed was even sillier. Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do...except perhaps my wife and some of her friends...oh yes and Captain Johnston. Come to think of it most people likes a good laugh more than I do. But that's beside the point. 

From:  http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/justthewords.htm



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