Ask me about classical poetic forms and I’ll probably have a lot to say. I’ve studied Latin, read Milton and Dante, Virgil and Homer, Shakespeare and Marlowe, and written a lot of bad poetic verse that will never EVER see the light of day. So, when I hear the phrase ‘dactylic hexameter’, it gets my brain bubbling with a kind of nerdy excitement that will make most folks, even my friends, call me a giant dork.
But if I tell you that the epic poetic form of dactylic hexameter is directly linked to why any internet denizen immediately associates the expressions ‘Danglybit Whippersnap’, ‘Sassafras Diaphragm’, ‘Beenybop Wimbledon’, and ‘Benadryl Cabbagepatch’ with one singular being, wouldn’t you be curious too?
That’s right. My argument here is that the association of Benedict Cumberbatch with all number of hilarious memetic wordplay is due to the poetical nature of his actual name, and how it is reminiscent of a classical poetic form: the dactyl.
Let me back up and explain a little more.
Classical poetic forms took many shapes, but the one most commonly associated with epic poetry is dactylic hexameter. Infamous works such as the Aeneid, when reverted to their dead language counterparts, fit around this form. Take the first line of Virgil’s seminal work, for instance:
Arma virumque cano, troiae qui primus ab oris*
[*translation: ‘I sing of arms and the man, who first from Troy…’]
While not strict Dactylic Hexameter, it fulfills the loose requirements of the poetic form: two dactyls, two spondees, a dactyl, and a spondee.
Further explication:
A dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short ones, and is represented most often like this: /_ u u /
A spondee – two long syllables, is represented thus: / _ _ /
So, to translate the first line of the Aeneid into syllabic forms, it reads as follows:
‘ _ u u/ _ u u/ _ _ /_ _ /_ u u /_ _ ‘
Okay, so, lesson in ancient poetry complete. Now you know what a dactyl is and you’re going ‘Hex, what does this have to do with a British actor with a comical name?’
The answer, of course, is everything.
Take the actual name: Benedict Cumberbatch. Say it aloud a couple of times, slowly, the way one might recite poetry, and there’s an association, a pattern:
BEN-e-dict CUM-ber-batch.
/ _ u u / _ u u /
His name is a pair of dactyls, the like of which would start off any quality epic poem of the Homeric or Virgilian era.
Now, dactyls and spondees stuck together in this way aren’t as common in the twenty-first century. It’s an ancient poetic form, designed for recitation rather than reading. The poetry of it, much like Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter, is the vocalization of the syllables rather than the association one might get whilst reading to oneself.
So, when you read the words ‘Bendydick Lizardsnatch’ on your screen, it often takes a moment for the association to click. I, personally, often find myself having to express the phrase aloud before realising ‘OH, THAT’s why it’s funny, because ‘Terrible Cricketmatch’ sounds like Benedict Cumberbatches’ name!’
Emphasis on the sounds like.
The dactylic form being less common makes these combined syllables stand out, even if the creator of the memetic phrase makes a point of straying from the initial syllables of initials of the root of the meme. Thus, we associate Benedict Cumberbatch with everything from ‘Solipsist Cummerbund’ to ‘Frumious Bandersnatch’, from ‘Britishman Sillyname’ to ‘Brokendown Battleaxe’.
Is Benedict’s name Dactylic Hexameter? Not in full – he’d need a much longer name to fulfill that requirement. But his name is a pair of dactyls, and dactylic form’s rarity in modern literature is what makes his name so unique, and therefore so susceptible to the memetic wordplay we’ve seen across the internet.
And thus, we get to my point, which is a point I tend to make often, and will continue to do so over time: internet memes are much cleverer than the average person gives them credit for.
So, those of you riffing on Benedict’s name? Congratulate yourselves, because you’re engaging in a form of wordplay that’s not only clever, but poetic, and even a little bit epic.
Now, go forth and pair some dactyls. Beauteous Jumpingjacks would be proud of you.
(also I tried to make a ‘pair of dactyls’ joke in the bulk of the post but it just didn’t work out, so here’s a picture of two pterodactyls to make my friend Pi inordinately happy about Pterosauria* puns).
EDIT: *Pterosauria, not dinosaur. Pi corrected me and I learned something today.
New Media Mayhem 