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Colour Contagion · Original Minific ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 400–750
Show rules for this event
Lecture: A World Without Dentists
Nobody expected the nation-wide dentist suicide pact. Not that dentists were the most chipper people on the planet, and it was almost certainly assured that America would lose a few dentists to suicide a year due to the terrible social stigma surrounding dentists, but those were acceptable loses back in those days.

Water was wet, the sky was blue, and dentists committed suicide at a disproportionate rate much higher than other professions. That was just normal, everyday red-blooded America. But that was soon to change.

On New Year’s Day of 2033, the American Dental Association issued an announcement to the American public. It contained only three words:

“Fuck you guys.”

Soon after, 99% of American dentists committed suicide. What exactly precipitated this event is still a cause for speculation, but the lack of advanced dentistry quickly had a profound effect on the American public and society at large.

Notably, this brought about a change in American speech patterns, which we here at the Washington University College of Neo-Dentistry refer to as “Britishfication.” With only rudimentary dental equipment and knowledge, Americans were forced to adapt to a more limited cadence and vocabulary choice.

We can observe how this disease affected behavior in this clip. Watch Paul, an American afflicted with Britishfication speak to his friend Will, another American without the condition.

“Oi Willy boy! ‘A’re ya?”

“Paul, what the fuck happened to you? What’s wrong with your teeth?”

“Oh it ‘int nuth’n Willy ol’ chap.”

As you can plainly see, Paul speaks as if he has shit in his mouth. In the old days, we referred to this condition as "being British", and it was thought to be a genetic defect. However, due to new technology, we have discovered that this is due to an extremely advanced case of tooth decay compounded with severely misaligned teeth which creates an inability to properly pronounce words. Unfortunately, this disease is completely incurable once it has manifested, and pulling the diseased teeth seems to only make the problem worse.

There is compelling scientific evidence that prolonged suffers of this condition experience extreme aberrant behavior such as an unwarranted interest in the Royal Family of England's Wedding and cognitive impairment. For example, Americans will suddenly and unexpectedly begin referring to soccer as "football" and football as "handegg." Other deficiencies include an irrational hatred of French people and a compulsive urge to boil the shit out of perfectly good food.

We at the Washington University College of Neo-Dentistry have proposed a simple yet elegant solution to this malady, however: a bullet, lodged directly between the eyes. I am aware that the Hippocratic Oath specifies that we should do no harm, but it is truly crueler to let these people live saying “colour” with a “u.”

Nearly two-thirds of Americans in the New England area continue to endure the horrors of this condition. For shorthand, I’ll refer to these people as “Tories”, but there is a third of the New England population that is particularly resistant to Britishfication. I will refer to these people as “Patriots.”

The Tories, with their newfound “Brit” status, wish to return the country back to England, where their disease-ridden, disgusting mandibles will be accepted. To do so not only spits in the face of the field of Neo-Dentistry, but also our country. We at the Washington University College of Neo-Dentistry, for the sake of the continued existence of dental science and our country, cannot allow this to happen. We must purge these subhuman beasts from our great land and restore America to greatness.

I hope you’ll all join me on the battlefield.

And remember to brush your teeth and floss daily.
Pics
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#1 · 1
· · >>Cassius
Wah wah wah, comedy crybaby coming through, wah wah.

I've seen these British gags a lot before, and although you've framed them a different way, that framing is kind of flimsy. I mean the amount of money dentists make honestly. Are they upset about people not taking care of their teeth? Because that only means more money.

I'm sure lots of people will like enjoy this, but I'm afraid you've been struck by the comedy crybaby. And I will undoubtedly strike again.

Good luck!
#2 ·
·
Plot twist: This is the highest comedy on my slate.
#3 ·
· · >>Cassius
For a story about dentists, I'd say the humour here lacks teeth.
#4 ·
·
This is so close to Those Purple Days, by Lord Fotheringay-Phipps. About the same sort of humo(u)r.
I should rank them the same, but since I can’t, I will have to draw lots to know which one gets on top of the other.

I think it could be Cassius's, but just out of the remark on French people. But it isn't because there are small typos Cassius prolly wouldn't make, we all know how fussy he is about misplaced quotes and other punctuation incorrectnesses.

Also, I wonder what Quill would think of this.

Also, we never know why the dentists decided to kill themselves. Tooth times. :/
#5 · 1
· · >>Cassius
As a non-dentist, I'm really not qualified for this. Here goes nothing.

To me, the idea at the first was committing suicide. The second idea was about a disease caused by the lack of dentists thereof. I feel like I'm not putting two and two together. It seems to me that there are two ideas to this story, fighting for control, unable to bridge the gap in between. A little bit of closure would've helped. Forgive me if it said something of the sort, but maybe a little resolve would be that the Dentists formed this pact because they identified a disease that they can't cure, and in order to avoid the hatred and scrutiny from media they resorted to extreme measures.

Given the fact that you first had to establish "this caused this" is understandable though (and 750 word max doesn't provide any leeway). All I'm saying is that this needs a little more explanation.

All in all, this type of humor (don't kill me for dropping the "u") is not my cup of tea. But, in comparison to "purple days" (which is scarily similar) I appreciate this piece a little more.

I hope this comment was useful. If not, ignore me.

Thanks for Writing! (please don't hurt me Miller!)
#6 · 1
· · >>Cassius
Bottom slated for making me think about my teeth. I'm probably going to have the teeth dreams now. I hate the teeth dreams.

So, I liked this story up to "Fuck you guys." That was pretty funny. Just a good, punchy delivery.

After that you lost me. The problem with the bait and switch is often that the person who bites the bait LIKES the bait. They don't always like the switch. I don't here. It is basically one long "British people have bad teeth" joke which I really don't like at the best of times. Don't have much better insight for this one, unfortunately. Just very much not my cup of tea (ha, ha).

Thanks for writing!
#7 ·
· · >>Cassius
Alternate Title: Fuck the British 3-D

This was actually one of the first entries I read for this round, though it's one of the last I'm reviewing. Something about the title just caught my eyes, those few days ago. I really enjoyed this one the first go-around.

On a second reading, however, the cracks in the armor are very much present.

I'm going to agree with everyone else here and say I'd be shocked if the authors of this and "Purple Days" weren't the same person. Same style of humor, basically, similar subject matter, similar framing device, and also a similar lack of polish.

Now obviously I can't accuse anyone of copying someone else's work, so my best guess is that the author wrote both stories back-to-back without taking the time to really polish either. That's why they seem like sister entries.

It's weird, then, that I much prefer this over "Purple Days," if only because its jokes totally work for me. I get that it's one big "British people have bad teeth" joke, but some of the lines just make me giggle. My personal favorite is: "As you can plainly see, Paul speaks as if he has shit in his mouth." It's such a mean and unexpected saying, considering this is a professor speaking.

I also find the idea of a war between the US and Britain over dentistry to be even funnier than linguistics, but that's pretty damn subjective. The defense and pitfall of comedy is that it is really subjective, though.

I think, for instance, that Clue is a really funny movie, but a lot of critics seem to disagree with that sentiment.

For what it's worth, author, this is probably my favorite comedy for this round.
#8 · 3
·
As I've said in chat, the flaws with this story are pretty apparent, and the one-noted nature of the joke made it hard for me when writing to find content to continue engaging the reader. I wrote this at 4AM before the deadline and didn't really look it over too thoroughly or try to refine it in any substantial way; I had hoped the novelty of the idea and the front-loaded nature of the jokes would carry enough good will to get it through to finals, but sadly this was not to pass.

>>Miller Minus
>>Samey90
>>PinoyPony
>>AndrewRogue
>>No_Raisin


Thanks for the feedback. I'm sort of sad that Raisin reread this entry because obviously looking at it a second time altered his appraisal of the work, and the way I wrote it doesn't lend itself well to a second read because the twist of the joke is already revealed. Sometimes you write things with the intention for people to pour over every sentence and hope they pay attention to all the subtleties and nuances that are going into what is being written, and other times you write a story hoping people are just going to glance over it, have a laugh, and continue their day without thinking about it to much or going back over it with a more critical eye. Obviously this story was a case of the latter instance.

So when I heard he had looked it over a second time my immediate reaction was "Oh no." Raisins wasn't the only one who had this reaction though. Throughout the week and as the story become the point of discussion in the chat, you could see the initial enthusiasm for the entry slowly begin to wane with more thoughtful discourse, which is what I was hoping people would avoid. I think the fact that two other entries borrowed a similar idea did not help matters, either.

If I was going to go back and try this again, I would have spent more time and energy trying to be more creative about how I could expand the scope of the humor. >>No_Raisin's idea would have been good if I had thought of it: rival British dentists creating tooth abominations out of revenge for their own lack of skill / poor genetics / etc. but I didn't have that idea so I'm stuck with what I wrote down.