1045: Constraints

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Constraints

Title text: [title-text similarly alphabetized]

Explanation

An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising or satirical statement.

Just in case you have been living under a rock for the last several years, Twitter is a short message social network / communication service. All messages (known as tweets) on the service need to be under 140 characters, including private messages.

All the words spoken by the woman, from Yeah to Alphabetization are in reverse alphabetical order. They also have 120 characters so would be a valid tweet — hence the joke, and hence "whoa"...

And so is "Title-text similarly alphabetized". Backwards-alphabetized, that is.

Transcript

[A man sits at his computer desk, motioning toward the screen as a woman stands behind him.]

Man: I don't get why authors and comedians spend so much energy trying to be clever on Twitter. Couldn't they put that creativity into more books and scripts? -- Is there something they like about the 140-character format?

[Same picture, only the man has his arm down.]

Woman: Yeah. Writers working under tight restrictions produce novel material -- like, for example, epigrams employing backward alphabetization.

[The man remains at his computer desk. The woman is no longer in the frame.]

Man: ...whoa.

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Discussion

Sometimes, seventeen

Syllables are not enough

To just express a Davidy²²[talk] 08:25, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Lol, nice! – Yfmcpxpj (talk) 02:26, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

But sometimes they are!

I rewrote your third line as

"To express a thought." --108.162.216.45 21:35, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The first post works exactly the same way with "sixteen" :P --172.69.54.165 14:25, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

Clever...but then it's not a haiku anymore? – Yfmcpxpj (talk) 02:26, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

To compose a rhyme with seventeen syllables is very diffic.172.71.26.47 12:10, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

"Whoa." is also an example, but one word examples are particularly easy! --DrMath 06:17, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

I can't see the image... what's wrong with it ? --KoundelitchNico (talk) 14:26, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I just don't find the alphabetization thing to be all that impressive. Everything is written like that. Am I missing something about the very concept? (C comes before O, then jump back to the start, N, back to the start, C, E, P and T.) (I just don't find: I J U back to start S T back to start D O back to start N T back to start F I N back to start D) (Epigrams employing: G N back to start I Y back to start O back to start L P back to start M back to start E back to start S back to start M back to start A R back to start G I P back to start E) 108.162.242.5 02:00, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Words wholly taken (not letters individually) do come backward alphabetized. --173.245.62.74 12:56, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Twitter allows up to 280 characters now. The explanation needs some updating. 172.68.253.5 10:28, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Done. Herobrine (talk) 07:41, 5 May 2018 (UTC)