What do you call a pair of flying dinosaurs?

December 3, 2015 1:03 PM

It's rare that a comments section is more entertaining than the post or article to which it is attached, but this post comes with a garden of delightful double dactyl verse dedicated to Benedict Cumberbatch.

My personal favorite:

Withering Slytherin
Benedict Cumberbatch
Exobiologists
Study his face.

They try to fathom the
Anthropomimicry
Skills of his evident
Alien Race.

What's a double dactyl?
Some mefites have used the form in the past.

Here are many, many more examples courtesy of the Internet Archive.

posted by Wretch729 (17 comments total)

This is fantastic and is putting a smile on my face after a very long day.
posted by noneuclidean at 2:02 PM on December 3, 2015

Also, love the tags
posted by noneuclidean at 2:03 PM on December 3, 2015

MetaTalk MetaTalk
Benedict Cumberbatch
Noone since Doctorow
Drew the blue herds.

Elementarily,
Dear Doctor Watson, we're
Over-enamored with
Awkward white nerds.
posted by The White Hat at 2:08 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Reading these, I realized that Alan Menken uses this structure in Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, in The Court of Miracles:

Maybe you've heard of a
Terrible place where the
scoundrels of Paris col-
lect in a lair

Maybe you've heard of that
mythical place called the
Court of Miracles
Hello, you're there!

And

Justice is swift in the
Court of Miracles
I am the lawyers and
judge all in one

We like to get the trial
over with quickly be-
cause it's the sentence that's
really the fun!

This means, of course, that you can use the tune of The Court of Miracles to set any double dactyl to music, just as one of my high school classmates realized Oliver Wendell Holmes's Old Ironsides matches perfectly to the tale of a less heroic vessel, the theme song to Gilligan's Island.
posted by SubterraneanRedStateBlues at 2:14 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Sokka and I have had several double dactyl throwdowns over the years, and my (inferior) response to his Cumberbatch poem was this offering:

Denterprise benterprise
Benedict Cumberbatch
playing "John Harrison"
awfully wan

J.J.'s reveal comes so
unmelanistically
Trekkies all over shout
YOU ARE NO KHAAAAAAN
posted by Amberlyza at 2:16 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

I always love double dactyls, and yes, Benedict Cumberbatch is a perfect name for them.

A long time ago, New York magazine had weekly (or so) competitions, and every once in a while they'd have one for double dactyls. I had the rhythm in my head for weeks after.

I've frequently wished for a competition subsection of MetaFilter.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:22 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Perhaps I'm persnickety or merely crotchety, to get annoyed at light posts on the Blue. You may think this nonsense is very amusing but not every forum was made just for you.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:16 PM on December 3, 2015 [6 favorites]

Jiggery pokery,
Benedict Cumberbatch
Took on G. Sanders and
R. Montalbán's

Signature characters
Unhesitatingly
Now he's a pro at
Reforming ex-Khans
posted by lore at 4:15 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

Crotchety smotchety
Beelzebub Camembert
Has not been, will not be
The preferred norm

Mefites coexist with
Amicability
Though I note you failed to
Follow the form
posted by Wretch729 at 4:18 PM on December 3, 2015

Benedict Cumberbatch
Oh, so Sherlockian.
Deduces the murderers,
Leaves them as cons.

Cumberbatch, Benedict,
(lots of fans love him so)
induces in others, though,
little but yawns.
posted by Death and Gravity at 4:20 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

PoTAYto PoTAHto, Mee-fi or Meffy; a
crockety bloat and a big plate of beans.

How did these people get cats in their scanners now?
Veer way off-topic 'til mods intervene.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:50 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Joe in Australia: You are indeed crotchety, getting annoyed at posts on the Blue. You say it’s nonsense but we think it’s funny. Copacacetic and cromulent too.
posted by mono blanco at 6:55 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

I haven't read it yet -
I don't know anything.
That's why I'm commenting
Viva la snark

All of my favourites
Extemporaneous-
ly come from things I said
Thus in the dark.
posted by Mchelly at 7:16 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

It's kind of scary how almost everything fits into dactyls. When things don't, I get annoyed:

Metatalk, AskMeFi
Fanfare, and Projects and
Music, and Real Life; Jobs,
Podcast, and Chat.

The name of this website, though
(Incomprehensibly!)
Has two stressed syllables -
Try scanning that!
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:42 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

I offer the euphonious glory of 'Bendydick Cumberbunt' for your double dactylating pleasure.
posted by Sebmojo at 9:02 PM on December 3, 2015

Emily Dickinson

Higgledy-piggledy
Emily Dickinson
Liked to use dashes
Instead of full stops.

Nowadays, faced with such
Idiosyncrasy,
Critics and editors
Send for the cops.

~ Wendy Cope

posted by maryr at 9:31 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

'Crowley, allow me
to lend you a syllable.
Spondee for dactyl, mate.
Wilt thou a trade?'

'ALEISTER CUMBERBATCH!?
UNECONOMICAL...
YET NECRONOMICAL.
THE BARGAIN IS MADE.
posted by kid ichorous at 2:40 AM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]