A phenomenon that Bill Griffith returns to from time to time, under a series of names. Today it’s repetitive phrase disorder, manifested in the tetrametrical mantra turtle-headed sea snakes:
Savor its power: say it three times!
Previously in this blog, on 3/3/10 in “Mantra of the moment”:
Zippy and his acquaintances are given to picking up and chanting “found mantras”, expressions that they find satisfying to repeat — in episodes of what Bill Griffith calls onomatomania (or phrase repetition disorder, here): [Zippy strip with “remote control bathtub jet ski”]
In earlier Zippy postings on this blog we’ve experienced people shouting “Grundy Gulch” three times (here), and also the attractions of “nuclear Obama-lama-ding-dong” (here).
found mantras, onomatomania, phrase repetition disorder, repetitive phrase disorder… Of these, I latch onto the second:
onomatomania, onomatomania, onomatomania!
Word attraction extended to the phrase level and made into a satisfying (though compulsive) verbal routine.
[Added a bit later: the name repeitive phrase disorder is of course an echo of repetitive stress disorder, a commonly used name for a medical condition resulting from repeated motion, also known under the names repetitive stress syndrome, and repetitive stress injury, and now conventionally referred to under the name repetitive strain injury.]
July 19, 2021 at 11:44 am |
[…] treating the phrase as a kind of mantra, has come up in Zippy strips under various names; see my 10/3/17 posting “Repetitive phrase disorder”, with several alternative labels for “Word attraction extended […]