Double-talk is a form of speech in which inappropriate, invented, or nonsense words are interpolated into normal speech to give the appearance of knowledge, and thus confuse or amuse the audience.

It developed out of dialect comedy and became popular in the first half of the 20th century, especially in English-speaking vaudeville and music halls. Vaudevillian Cliff Nazarro, for instance, would say, "Make yourself invidded, with the keforth and the grepps. Be great with the floom and the sonic keptefin."

Comedians who have used this as part of their act include Al Kelly,[1] Danny Kaye,[2] Gary Owens, Irwin Corey,[3] Jackie Gleason, Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar,[4] Stanley Unwin,[5] Reggie Watts,[6] Vanessa Bayer[7] and Mario "Cantinflas" Moreno Reyes.[citation needed]

It has also been used in films, for example Charlie Chaplin's character in The Great Dictator, many of Danny Kaye's patter songs, and Willie Solar's screeching singing in Diamond Horseshoe (1945).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America, vol. 1, Routledge, 2007, p. 621, ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2, ... Al Kelly was synonymous with double-talk.
  2. ^ Nilsen, Alleen Pace; Nilsen, Don Lee Fred (2000), Encyclopedia of twentieth century American humor, p. 246, ISBN 978-1-57356-218-8, Danny Kaye was a master at tongue-twisters, doubletalk, and dialects.
  3. ^ Corey Kilgannon (April 14, 2008), "A Distinguished Professor With a Ph.D. in Nonsense", The New York Times
  4. ^ Dobuzinskis, Alex (12 February 2014). "Comic legend Sid Caesar dies at 91". Reuters. Retrieved 2014-02-13. Some of Caesar's most popular bits were built around pompous or outlandish characters - such as Professor von Votsisnehm - in which he spoke in a thick accent or mimicked foreign languages in comic but convincing gibberish.
  5. ^ Dick Vosburgh (17 January 2002), "Stanley Unwin", The Independent, archived from the original on February 1, 2011, In the 1930s, "double-talk artists" enjoyed a brief craze in American show business. Comedians such as Jackie Gleason and the long-forgotten Cliff Nazarro and Al Kelly spouted nonsense words like "kopasetic", "franistan", "strismic" and "kravistate". Their double-talk was usually used to hoodwink a stooge and was delivered briskly, loudly and aggressively. Britain's Stanley Unwin, however, delivered his own brand of double-talk in the most benign way
  6. ^ Watts, Reggie. "Reggie Watts at TEDx Berlin". TEDx Berlin. TEDx, Youtube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  7. ^ Bayer, Vanessa. "Weekend Update: Dawn Lazarus". Weekend Update Weather Report. Saturday Night Live,Youtube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 7 May 2017.


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