Mike Lloyd

Life in the slow lane: rethinking spectacular body modification

Breathing corresponds to the first autonomous gesture of the living human being. To come into the world supposes inhaling and exhaling by oneself ... we forget this first and last gesture of life ... we breathe badly, and we worry little about the air that surrounds us, our first food of life ... we do not really take charge of our life, of our respiration, of the air. (Irigaray, 2002, p. 73) ... we still understand very little of how the body practices that comprise ‘us’ have come down to and inhabit us, passing into our being, passing our being back and forth between bodies and passing our being on. (Thrift, 2000, p. 38)

On the Way to Cycle Rage: Disputed Mobile Formations

Abstract On a sunny Sunday afternoon in 2012 a conflict arose between two men riding a popular mountain biking track in New Zealand. This gained both local and international attention after one of the riders posted his video of the incident on a social media site where it went ‘viral’. The video helped identify the other rider, who was taken to trial and convicted of assault. This paper uses the video as data for an ethnomethodological analysis of the joint production, in real time, of an ordinary trouble that takes an unexpected turn. The two riders come across each other travelling downhill at speed on a narrow track, and quite quickly they develop a disputed mobile formation. The camera-clad rider wants to pass the older rider in front, and proceed at a faster pace, but except for an intriguing and brief interlude, the older rider will not let the other pass. Consequently, the camera-clad rider grows increasingly frustrated; the problem is, he is oblivious to the way his own actions in showing he is faster, result in dangerous tailgating. It is this, along with some ‘lecturing’, that annoys the older rider. At the end of the ride, complaints and accusations are made, and then a brawl breaks out. The paper uses snapshots and transcriptions from the video to analyse how visual, vocal and tactile aspects of their interaction, situated in the terrain they are travelling through, contribute to the conflictual ending.

‘It’s on video, every second of it’: a micro-sociological analysis of cycle rage

A case study is presented of a violent incident that arose between two men riding a mountain biking track in New Zealand. This gained both local and international attention after one of the riders posted his video of the incident on a social media site where it went ‘viral’. The video helped identify the other rider, who was taken to trial and convicted of assault. The fairness and means of the conviction is not at issue here, rather, the interest is in the video as a rare record of the joint production, in real time, of an ordinary trouble that takes an unexpected turn. The two riders catch up with each other, travelling downhill at a decent speed on a narrow track. Their riding requires significant concentration, nevertheless, while biking they are able to communicate, verbally and visually. This communication shows disagreement about the format of their riding-together, with the camera-clad rider wanting to pass the older rider in front, and proceed at a faster pace. Except for an intriguing and brief interlude, however, the older rider will not let the other pass. Consequently, the camera-clad rider grows increasingly frustrated, but the problem is he is oblivious to the way his own tailgating affects the rider in front. It is the tailgating, along with some ‘lecturing’, that annoys the older rider. At the end of the ride both stop, complaints and accusations are made, then a brawl breaks out. Adapting Katz’s (1999) work on emotions, we see both riders doing being ‘pissed off’, but with one shifting to ‘being done’ by his anger, escalating into violence. Screensnaps and transcriptions from the video are used to analyse the fine detail of a 5-minute mountain bike gone wrong.

Show and Tell: Making Humour with a Naked Man

TALLY HO! It’s time for the Adventures of Naked Man. Today in Saturday Magazine we introduce Naked Man, and you’ll be seeing a lot of him over the coming weeks. Naked Man is an all-action chap who moves in his Boys’ Own-style world untroubled by the fact that a hat and pair of shoes are his only nod to modesty. From having fun with his chums at school to his adult adventures, Naked Man has refused to surrender to the tyranny of wearing trousers. The Evening Post invites its readers to provide a caption for each of his adventures, the first of which appears on p. 12.

When Jemaine met Keitha: Flight of the Conchords tackle Australia

First screened in 2007 on HBO television, Flight of the Conchords has received the best international reception of any New Zealand-based television comedy. The series shows the two Kiwis, Bret and Jemaine – a musical duo – bumbling their way through trying to make it in New York. This article selects the ‘Unnatural Love’ episode of series two as a case study, and through close consideration of the material in that episode, argues that it constitutes transnational joking. The target or butt of the humour is Australians. However, also through a consideration of detail, it is argued that no one is likely to take offence at such a portrayal. Televisual equivalents of transnational jokes do share much in common with written or told jokes, but also have additional subtleties, partly because of the very nature of the televisual medium.

Legendary life on the street: ‘Blanket Man’ and contemporary celebrity

Nowadays, personal elements are far less important than the means of transmitting news about the noteworthy. The Internet has been important in this regard, but this process began well before its advent. Nevertheless, the rise of new media may have the consequence that the term ‘hero’ is no longer relevant for study. Situations where individuals within a community accrue fame through the oral transmission of stories about their deeds may be few and far between. Are we now living in an ‘age of celebrity’ that effectively means the demise of the hero? In the present article, we use a case study of ‘Blanket Man’ – an iconic Wellington street dweller – to reflect upon these important questions. Material presented comes from both detailed observational fieldwork and media sources. We argue that Blanket Man is literally a Wellington ‘urban legend’; however, it is not clear what celebrity term best describes his situation, because the way he has become well known certainly does not fit the existing models of celebrity creation. Much commentary places a dominant emphasis on the ‘media’; we highlight the continued importance of the spatial routines and face-to-face interaction of everyday life in the construction of this locally legendary character.

A gambler called “Steel Balls”

“Steel Balls” is the nickname of a New Zealand gambler who gained considerable notoriety through his widely publicized gambling exploits. In some media reports, he is quoted admitting to be a “problem gambler” requiring the help of psychologists and similar experts. At other times, he tells the media he is in control of his gambling, and would like to be left alone to pursue the (controlled) level of gambling he enjoys. Such variation in what people say and do is common, but we need to be careful in how we deal with this in our academic analyses. The case is made for the study of gambling to consider the important entanglements of language, self-identity, and social action. The work of Hacking on “looping effects” and “interactive kinds” is applied to the Steel Balls nickname, and to offer broader implications for the understanding of problem gambling.

'Where dId that Fokker CoMe FroM?' The Age's ADVeNTURes OF NAkeD MAN Cartoon CaPtIon CoMPetItIon

The Adventures of Naked Man is a cartoon series that features one naked man in a drawn setting where, because of some convenient object or body position, his penis is obscured from sight. Entrants to the competition submit a caption to complete the drawn setting and, with the obscured penis as their implicit focus, many entrants construct a penis joke. In this article, we show that the apparently simple humour of Naked Man disguises considerable complexity. As well as the traditional gender and power analysis, we note some interesting aspects of contemporary newspaper media, including the appeal of reader engagement in the construction of humorous word play and the incorporation of mildly sexual content.

On negotiating bodies and ecolinguistics: A response to Coupland et al. (1998)

Abstract This paper is a response to Coupland et al.s (1998) recent analysis of negotiating sun use. In critical engagement, a simple methodological point is made about the use of interview data. Despite claiming to analyse negotiation in context, Coupland et al. neglect to consider the implications for pragmatic analysis of an interviewer of female gender asking questions of sunbathers of male gender, while they are sunbathing. Linguistic contributions to the study of environment and risk are welcomed, but such contributions must in turn be prepared to consider the narrowness or breadth of their conceptual and theoretical foundations.

Nerds in the City: Flight of the Conchords Makes Good Television Humour

First screened in 2007 on HBO television, Flight of the Conchords has received the best international reception of any New Zealand-based television comedy. The series shows the two Kiwis, Bret and Jemaine — a musical duo — bumbling their way through trying to make it in New York. The failure scenario could have led to the typical sitcom fare of conflicting personalities with specific character types as the butt of humour; however, Flight of the Conchords avoids this standard route, and this may partly explain its popularity. Details are provided of exactly how the series makes ‘good’ humour, with a beginning contrast made to the Australian television series Kath and Kim, which has ridicule at its heart. Turnbull (2004) has pinpointed some unease about comedy based on ridicule, and specifically identifies genre mixing as a source of concern in Kath and Kim. In contrast, Flight of the Conchords, while getting close to ridicule, successfully avoids condescension by a different mix of genres and material.