In March 2006, Dr David Lawson, writes:
"For someone in tremendous pain like Job’s, words are often meaningless. Bible passages intended for good can seem shallow and pedantic. Prayer is often just a deep moan, or cry of pain, and frequently prayers from the good hearted feel more like rocks pelting the wounded than words to the Almighty."
Interesting this seems to be post FG. It would be amusing if a religious scholarly article was influenced, directly or not, via the Family Guy. More likely he takes it from a more literary source, being a learned gentleman.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Usage in a poem
Mayspace user Adam, used SaP in a poem, March 18, 2006, of which I quote the first verse:
i'm done with all of your sexual degradation
just because of my gential deformation
could you stop being so shallow and pedantic
and start being just a little more romantic?
Interesting choice of words - again though I feel he's just using the phrase because it's cool and sounds nice. What's so pedantic about sexual degradation? Perhaps he first thought of "shallow", since he's being judged by the deformation, and then simply added "pedantic" because it made a trendy phrase.
i'm done with all of your sexual degradation
just because of my gential deformation
could you stop being so shallow and pedantic
and start being just a little more romantic?
Interesting choice of words - again though I feel he's just using the phrase because it's cool and sounds nice. What's so pedantic about sexual degradation? Perhaps he first thought of "shallow", since he's being judged by the deformation, and then simply added "pedantic" because it made a trendy phrase.
John Tytell, 1997
In "The Living Theater: Art, Exile, and Outrage", 1997, John Tytell says on page 97:
"What the play required was a fabulous display of passion, Julian observed, but Tobi's sterile, shallow and pedantic direction put Judith in a straitjacket"
Interesting usage, as it's combined with "sterile", and is also offered as an opposite to "passion". I don't think he really pulls it off, and he's really just use the words for their own sake here, not that there's anything wrong with that.
"What the play required was a fabulous display of passion, Julian observed, but Tobi's sterile, shallow and pedantic direction put Judith in a straitjacket"
Interesting usage, as it's combined with "sterile", and is also offered as an opposite to "passion". I don't think he really pulls it off, and he's really just use the words for their own sake here, not that there's anything wrong with that.
James H. Toner, 1995
In "True Faith and Allegiance: The Burden of Military Ethics", page 77, Toner says:
"If there is no purpose to life and if there is no meaning except what pleases me, ethics has not functions; it is a shallow, pedantic exercise, and its conclusions must be mere emotivism."
Now, while he misses the "and", I think this counts. He is arguing against moral relativism, and probably arguing for the existance of God as a foundation of ethics. He later describes America as having "Moral Autism". From the christian conservative perspective, his use of shallow and pedantic is quite correct, but from a secular viewpoint, it's somewhat less so.
"If there is no purpose to life and if there is no meaning except what pleases me, ethics has not functions; it is a shallow, pedantic exercise, and its conclusions must be mere emotivism."
Now, while he misses the "and", I think this counts. He is arguing against moral relativism, and probably arguing for the existance of God as a foundation of ethics. He later describes America as having "Moral Autism". From the christian conservative perspective, his use of shallow and pedantic is quite correct, but from a secular viewpoint, it's somewhat less so.
MySpace Shallow and Pedantic profiles
Several young people title their MySpace profiles "Shallow and Pedantic":
Bekah1987 - Female, 18 years old, Fillmore / Urbana, ILLINOIS
bah19 - Male, 20 years old, Lindon, UTAH
fuhhgetabotit - Male, 16 years old, Brooklyn, New York
Tyler - Male, 20 years old, Augusta, Maine
This clutters up the search results in Google a little, since there are currently 485 results if we limit ourselves to searching Myspace. "shallow and pedantic" along gets 10,000+, but if we do -site:myspace.com, we get 638. Does not compute!
Bekah1987 - Female, 18 years old, Fillmore / Urbana, ILLINOIS
bah19 - Male, 20 years old, Lindon, UTAH
fuhhgetabotit - Male, 16 years old, Brooklyn, New York
Tyler - Male, 20 years old, Augusta, Maine
This clutters up the search results in Google a little, since there are currently 485 results if we limit ourselves to searching Myspace. "shallow and pedantic" along gets 10,000+, but if we do -site:myspace.com, we get 638. Does not compute!
Modern Usage pre-FG
Petarded showed in June 2005. There are very few usages on the internet that pre-date that (and that are not references to much older usages).
From the newsgroups, we have
Feb 17 1997, 4:22 pm by Buck Foss. on soc.motss
... Jess, the idea in my post, more obvious than the nose on your face, was that people
inside this group believe that they are not shallow and pedantic. ...
Dec 6 1997, 7:52 pm by William Lowe, on comp.sys.mac.advocacy:
... because the most persistent of the PC posters, people like Mueller, Hughes, Field,
and the like, are so quick with silly, shallow and pedantic flame bait ...
From the newsgroups, we have
Feb 17 1997, 4:22 pm by Buck Foss. on soc.motss
... Jess, the idea in my post, more obvious than the nose on your face, was that people
inside this group believe that they are not shallow and pedantic. ...
Dec 6 1997, 7:52 pm by William Lowe, on comp.sys.mac.advocacy:
... because the most persistent of the PC posters, people like Mueller, Hughes, Field,
and the like, are so quick with silly, shallow and pedantic flame bait ...
Audio clip from Family Guy
Here is the audio clip of the first usage of "Shallow and Pedantic" in Family Guy, hosted on YTMND.
Thomas F. Marshall c.1850
From Speeches and Writings of Hon. Thomas F. Marshall (1801-1864) (bio), written 1850, published in this collected form 1858, page 383.
With all his shallow and pedantic parade of names and dates, I fear he knows little of real history. He has never penetrated into the great deep of moral and political science.
Here Marshall is discussing Ben Hardin (b 1784), a Kentucky politician, (bio). Marshall alternates between praising Hardin and criticizing him for many pages, but basically the intent of the piece is to discredit Hardin.
"Shallow and pedantic" is a difficult insult to recover from. How can one demonstrate that they are not shallow? Even harder, can you show you are not pedantic without seeming even more pedantic?
With all his shallow and pedantic parade of names and dates, I fear he knows little of real history. He has never penetrated into the great deep of moral and political science.
Here Marshall is discussing Ben Hardin (b 1784), a Kentucky politician, (bio). Marshall alternates between praising Hardin and criticizing him for many pages, but basically the intent of the piece is to discredit Hardin.
"Shallow and pedantic" is a difficult insult to recover from. How can one demonstrate that they are not shallow? Even harder, can you show you are not pedantic without seeming even more pedantic?
Family Guy
"Shallow and pedantic" was made popular after its use in 2005 by Peter Griffin in the episode Petarded, of the animated series Family Guy. The Griffins invite the neighbors over for game night. While they are playing Trivial Pursuit, Lois gives Peter the "Pre-School Edition" questions to let him have his moment. After winning the game, Peter becomes an insufferable bore and starts talking down to everyone. Soon, feeling smart, Peter starts picking up words and using them in completely inappropriate situations. While watching a political talk show, he picks up the phrase "Shallow and Pedantic," describing the government's efforts in the Middle East.
Later, at the dinner table, Peter says to his wife, "Now that you ask, Lois, I find this meatloaf rather shallow and pedantic."
After this episode, the phrase achieved some popularity on the internet as an amusing deprecation. However it seems most people use it without really understanding the meaning behind it, simply because Peter used it, and it sounds semi-intellectual.
"Shallow" and "pedantic" are not particularly obscure words. However, they are not words one uses very often in conversation. The combined phrase is unusual, and in modern usage, the utterance is either a direct reference to Family Guy, or an imitation of some other simliar usage seen on the internet.
Later, at the dinner table, Peter says to his wife, "Now that you ask, Lois, I find this meatloaf rather shallow and pedantic."
After this episode, the phrase achieved some popularity on the internet as an amusing deprecation. However it seems most people use it without really understanding the meaning behind it, simply because Peter used it, and it sounds semi-intellectual.
"Shallow" and "pedantic" are not particularly obscure words. However, they are not words one uses very often in conversation. The combined phrase is unusual, and in modern usage, the utterance is either a direct reference to Family Guy, or an imitation of some other simliar usage seen on the internet.
First Post
The ealiest known usage dates back to 1831
"Servile and impertinent, shallow and pedantic, a bigot and a sot, bloated with family pride, and eternally blustering about the dignity of a born gentleman, yet stooping to be a talebearer, an eavesdropper, a common butt in the taverns of London, [...] such was this man, and such he was content and proud to be." - Thomas Macaulay, The Edinburgh Review, September 1831
Later usage:
* "[the Brahmanas] form an aggregate of shallow and pedantic discussions, full of sacerdotal conceits" - Arthur Anthony Macdonell, A History of Sanskrit Literature, 1900
* "Our objections may seem shallow and pedantic, and may even be represented as a complaint that we had the less given us rather than the more" - Henry James, The Future of the Novel, 1956
"Servile and impertinent, shallow and pedantic, a bigot and a sot, bloated with family pride, and eternally blustering about the dignity of a born gentleman, yet stooping to be a talebearer, an eavesdropper, a common butt in the taverns of London, [...] such was this man, and such he was content and proud to be." - Thomas Macaulay, The Edinburgh Review, September 1831
Later usage:
* "[the Brahmanas] form an aggregate of shallow and pedantic discussions, full of sacerdotal conceits" - Arthur Anthony Macdonell, A History of Sanskrit Literature, 1900
* "Our objections may seem shallow and pedantic, and may even be represented as a complaint that we had the less given us rather than the more" - Henry James, The Future of the Novel, 1956
Shallow and Pedantic
"Shallow and Pedantic" is a useful description of most of the content on the internet. It also well describes the general quality of debate engaged in by most humans. I like this phrase a lot, and so have started this blog as a way of tracking the history and contempary usage of this most useful phrase.
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