Nothing is new

Tonight I was preparing dinner in the kitchen, as several of my housemates were lounging around. The conversation was typical, running through the news of the day, our classes, random observations about silly ads on TV; just the usual stuff. The Simpsons was playing in the background, and each of us were reciting lines, or exclaiming, “Oh I love this next bit.” It got me thinking about how big an impact this show has had on our lives. I doubt that there are many people on Earth who haven’t watched an episode. It sounds like a cliché, but that show really has shaped a generation. I know that I quote it all the time. Then I started to think about the other TV shows and movies that I quote frequently, and I realised, not many of my witty or humorous responses are original. It was this realization that sent me back to high school. I can picture it clearly. It’s a hot sticky Monday afternoon, the week has just started, I still have an hour an a half before I can go home (likely to sit through a re-run of Bewitched), and my over-enthusiastic English teacher is trying to get us to deconstruct poetry, or an ad, or Shakespeare. She’s passionate and excited and I feel bad that I am not more enthused. I feel a little guilty looking at the exercise book that I’ve been doodling on past 20 minutes, whilst trying to run all the ink out of my pen. She claps her hands, “Guys! Isn’t that interesting? Nothing is original! Everything has already been said!” She seemed to find that fascinating. I now find it sad. For two reasons. Firstly, if everything has already been said, then nothing I ever say will be profound, or remembered, or even be unique. Secondly, it’s sad because all the expressions that I utter are TV quotes, essentially mindless, pointless collections of words that are intended to make an audience chuckle, and then be forgotten while they wait to be advertised to. Ah well, such is life.