I get to be as self-indulgent as I want without wasting anyone's time. Guilt-free solipsism -- excellent!

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With Sonnet's encouragement, the time has come to air a major pet peeve of mine: I really, *really* hate it when movies and/or TV show titles use the format "Verbing Person"

To wit:

Regarding Henry.
Killing Zoe.
Saving Private Ryan.
Saving Silverman.
Eating Raoul (the progenitor?).
Teaching Mrs. Tingle.
Finding Forrester.
Chasing Amy.
Judging Amy.
Crossing Jordan.

and those are just the ones Sonnet and I could come up with off the top of our heads. It's cloying, it's outrageously lazy and lacking in creativity, and it's time for it to stop.

Unfortunately, there is little reason for optimism. Julia Louis-Dreyfus's new show is apparently called Watching Ellie.

Verbing Persons crop up in song titles too. For instance, Ben Folds is a major culprit -- his new record features songs called "Losing Lisa" and "Carrying Cathy". The alliteration ups the cloy factor significantly. Yet for some reason, it's not as offensive with song titles, perhaps because I know there weren't committees of studio execs trying their damnedest to find the cutest, least offensive, focus-group-proof title that their soft little brains could devise.

Anyway, let it be trumpted across the land: no more. I won't stand for it. I'd love to have written a wickedly funny dissection of the phenomenon a la Sars, but such a gambit is beyond my powers at the mo. Instead, I ask for your help --if you have other examples of Verbing Persons, pass them along and I'll make you famous.
| posted by Alex at 3:38 PM