sketch
Published in
1 min readJan 24, 2017
- What was once creepy became sketchy and then became sketch. The OED tells us that there are only two meanings for sketchy: “not thorough or detailed” and “resembling a sketch.” “Was he sketchy?” “Yeah, he was badly drawn. Also was carrying a bone saw.”
- If you’re a comedy writer (like me) you may be bothered by the liberal way non-comedy writers classify “a short humorous play or performance consisting typically of one scene in a comedy revue or programme.” They may call it “sketch.” More likely, they may call it a “skit.” “Did your skit go well?” “No, it was pretty sketchy.”
- The connection between these definitions is clear: whatever it is, it comes your way unfinished and you may not be sure how to respond. What are we to think about “the sketchy man in the gorilla suit walking down the staircase”? He’s funny, isn’t he?
- Did you know there is a history of gorilla suits on Wikipedia? Golly, they will publish anything!
