Keyser-Soeze Phenomenon

[Dan Goncharoff]

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he
didn't exist."

Why the hyphen in "Keyser-Soeze"? It is a first and last name. Roger Ebert
supposedly used the term "Keyser Soeze syndrome" to refer to "...a lot of
recent films [that] seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that
redefine the reality of everything that has gone before."

DanG

On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 5:09 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Keyser-Soeze Phenomenon
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A former prosecutor on Tru TV describes tot-mom Casey Anthony as exhibiting
> "what I call the Keyser-Soeze Phenomenon."
>
> KS is a central but off-screen character in _The Usual Suspects_ (1995).
> IIRC, everybody describes him inconsistently.
> What's Keyser really like? Who knows! All we know is that it's vitally
> important.
>
> The allusion is to CA's seemingly preternatural ability to change her story
> about what happened to her daughter at the drop of a hat and without a
> blink, while incorporating any details that the detectives happened to
> present her with.  The impression is that almost everything she says is a
> lie, but she really really expects you to believe it.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org