Television set for Wikipedia userbox icons, or other things. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Teleconfusion: An abnormal condition variously characterized by stupor, stereotypy, mania, and either rigidity or extreme flexibility of the limbs, resulting from watching too much television.
Through the Chaos (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You may have experienced one of the symptoms of Teleconfusion after watching The Apprentice, or America’s Got Talent or the recent season of Survivor.
Symptoms of Teleconfusion
- Restless body syndrome: shifting positions from sitting upright, to prone, to flipped upside down on your head, a different perspective for watching the news.
- Excessive trips to the bathroom to floss and pluck your eyebrows then yell at the glassy-eyed lunatic who stares at you like a pheasant under glass.
- A kitchen safari: searching the cabinets, hunting for comfort foods, Cheerios and vodka, “The Breakfast of Champions.”
- Incessant yammering, the result of mixing sugar and alcohol, unless the blather is emanating from the television and not your sputtering mouth.
- Shaking your head like a bulldog. Drool hangs from your chin, stretching with each back-and-forth motion, a look left toward your husband, cowering on the couch, then right toward a sound bite dive bombing your ear.
The spittle grows to elongated Silly Putty proportions, then snaps, splattering the television, walls and hubby, catapulting him from the couch.
Howie Mandel says, “You are what this show is all about.”
Me? Is he talking to me?
Sharon Osborne adds, “I vote yes!”
To what? Hauling me off in a straitjacket?
Donald Trump sits behind a city block-long conference table, staring blankly with his high-end mug and low-brow talk.
“You know I think you’re great, Lisa. I’m great, too, because I’ve got more money than the U.S. Treasury and look terrific in this Persian rug glued to the top of my head. Lisa, I love you, but you’re fired!”
My right eye twitches. I wanted Lisa to win.
The medics storm the family room with a stretcher and backward-strapped suit.
“Hi Daddy,” I say, with a Cheerio stuffed in each nostril. “Happy Thanksgiving!”
My husband signs the papers. I bark at him like a Schnauzer, as they carry me out the room.
In the distance, Howie Mandel gushes, “Your life will never be the same.”
Howie was right! They locked me up and smelted the key.
Note: Teleconfusion is a word my late father-in-law used to describe the effects of watching crap on television, a medium in which he worked for most of his adult life. He started in radio, directing Arthur Godfrey, and then transitioned into television.
Related articles
I think I’ve been duped and dumbed by teleconfusion. Wait. I can still write a complete sentence……for now.
🙂
I’m totally teleconfused.
I like telecon…televis…Netflix.
I like them, too, when they don’t kill brain cells, which happens when rubbish hits the lobe.
And I don’t watch TV at all! I’m a freak!
I think you’re freaking smart.
Clever! I suffer from teleconfusion, but then again, I suffer from plain ole’ confusion too. Your father in-law needs this word to be entered into Websters, or at least the Urban Dictionary!
His last great contribution to society – teleconfusion. That works!
Oh, my God. I’m old enough to remember Arthur Godfrey. Clearly, I don’t need television in order to be confused. 🙂
Either do I. I confuse myself quite well . . . add television to the mix and I blow a fuse.
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