173. E-Prime

Kyle and Emily stumble into an old Shakespearean dilemma this Chump season when Seth introduces them to E-Prime. To be or not to be? That is a question, but the bigger question is just semantics.

From the wayward roots of an existential verb to Magritte’s “The Treachery of Images”, the Chump Chump challenges the Butter No Parsnips trio to communicate on a higher level of abstraction for the holidays. What does that mean exactly? Ask none other than the founder of the Institute of General Semantics Count Alfred Korzybski. He’s dead though, so Seth gives it his best shot.

What’s life like without being? Who am I? What were we? Where have we been? Is this all there is?! All of these questions with none of the answers await you in this philosophically, semantically burdensome episode that sheds all the weight of being and replaces it with something seemingly so much more difficult. Cheery Chump!