I love to invent acronyms for things. I used to mock a friend who had a MENSA membership that the name stood for Man-Eating Nasty Snarling Aliens, and the group was really a front for aliens to gather all of humanity's smartest in one place when they invaded. Hmmm, that would make a great comic book plot (or a terrible TV series plot)!
Anyway, the point is that my hands aren't clean when it comes to making the initials of preexisting names stand for something.
But there does come a point when the activity passes the point of fun and silliness, and enters the real of trendy grim realism and sucking the fun out of everything.
Take, for example, last week's episode of The Flash (don't worry, no spoilers here). Co-written by DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, it was apparently decided that the name Firestorm had to stand for something.
I mean, we can't have a teenager transformed into a nuclear super-hero just give himself the name Firestorm, can we? I mean, that is far too comic-booky for modern audiences!
No, instead the name has to derive from this:
What the screen tells us that the next hero on the DC block got his name by making an acronym of the title of an 800 page pdf file of a scientific paper.
And that F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. is really an acronym for Fusion, Ignition, Research Experiment and Science of Transmutation Originating RNA and Molecular Structures.
Seriously.
Isn't that the most terrible thing ever? It gets even worse..as blog-buddy notintheface points out, because the phrase contains "RNA", it's actually an acronym that includes another acronym. That is special.
I guess it's a good thing that Johns isn't working on the Marvel TV shows, or he'd reveal that D.A.R.E.D.E.V.I.L. actually stands for DNA Activated Radar Enhanced Dual Extra-sensory (non-Visual) Impairment Lessener.
Yes, it's terrible. But then again, I'm not paid to come up with better, like a certain Chief Creative Officer is.
On the plus side, this made me think of that MST3K sketch where Tom Servo was fundraising for H.E.L.P.I.N.G. C.H.I.L.D.R.E.N. T.H.R.O.U.G.H. R.E.S.E.A.R.C.H. A.N.D. D.E.V.E.L.O.P.M.E.N.T.
ReplyDeleteAnd being reminded of MST3K is always a good thing.
Can't tell if you did it intentionally or not, but I'm impressed that your DAREDEVIL acronym included *two* acronyms in it...
ReplyDeleteErich--True dat.
ReplyDeleteOTL--It wasn't intentional, at least not consciously.