Talk:Announcer's test

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Sweeping statements / "unreferenced" notice[edit]

The announcer's test is given to anyone in radio or television who wants to be an announcer.

Going by the evidence of the article as it stands, this is a wild exaggeration. There are no sources given for the use of the test other than the Jerry Hall website, which says nothing about the test's status (as a serious test, that is) after the 1940s (which makes "is given" questionable too). There is also no indication of whether the test is/was confined to the United States.

All that can be said reliably given the sources provided is that the test was used by some radio stations in the U.S. in early 1940s and that Jerry Hall and others have since developed it into a comedy routine. This isn't anywhere near enough to say that the test "...is given to anyone..." wanting to be an announcer. I've therefore added the {{unreferenced}} template. Loganberry (Talk) 23:14, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've added several new references to the article, particularly in reference to the BSA info, the Flo & Eddie tibetan memory trick, as well as a 2000 interview of Jerry Lewis on CNN's Larry King Live. I still can't really find anything about it's use as a serious test by radio stations in the 1940s, or by Radio Central New York, specifically. Google searches for 'Radio Central New York' don't really turn up anything that helps this out. Dr. Cash 02:16, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

historical conflict[edit]

While looking for references, I seem to have discovered a conflict in how Jerry Lewis found out about this.

On jerrylewiscomedy.com, it states, "Del Moore, a long time friend of Jerry Lewis's, took this test at Radio Central New York in 1941, and passed it on to him." But in an interview with Jerry Lewis on Larry King Live, Lewis himself says, "Well, I first heard it at NBC when I was substituting for Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon decided he was going to teach me the announcer's test." So something here just doesn't add up,... Dr. Cash 01:19, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Another announcer's test?[edit]

A recent web search revealed this "test", apparently given to some radio announcer's in the 1920s: "Penelope Cholmondely raised her azure eyes from the crabbed scenario. She meandered among the congeries of her memoirs. There was the Kinetic Algernon, a choleric artificer of icons and triptychs, who wanted to write a trilogy. For years she had stifled her risibilities with dour moods. His asthma caused him to sough like the zephyrs among the tamarack."[1]

Perhaps this raises a new avenue of research into this particular article,... Dr. Cash 03:50, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Variations[edit]

This obviously has a rather long oral tradition associated with it. I first learned it visiting a friend who was attending MIT in the early 1970s; it was very popular in the dorms. In particular, the last verse was rather more elaborate and poetic than the ones floating around now. It also makes a better announcing test, as it involves more real words that are less than obviously phonetic:

"Ten lyrical spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who hawk call and quiver round the corner of the quoin of the quay, all at the same time."

Also, the tweezer reference may be to "Don Alvaro's", a brand of cigar which may have come with a tip-cutting tool that resembled a tweezer. User:isdnip

And I learned it as " ten lyrical spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who haul salt from the corners of the quays of the quarries all at the very same time." This is what my dad transmitted to me, and he got it, in the 1970's, from a radio announcer's handbook. Sierra

That is how I learned it as well Brand Eks (talk) 19:48, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have also heard the following two lines added at the end:

"Eleven blithering bohemians blatantly blathering about the flavor of chewing gum versus the inimical outcome of mankind".

"Twelve subversive, massive, passive, yet conversive gargoyles all named Jose eating peaches while skillfully spitting the pits from atop the room of the Notre Dame". Brand Eks (talk) 19:58, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I learned the last line as: 'ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep that go around the quo of the quay of the quivvy all at the same time'. My mother and grandfather were watching I believe it was the Ed Sullivan Show when someone came on and repeated it. This would have been in about the mid-late 1950s. But my question is, can anyone else repeat it all in one breath?! Baadcatj (talk) Baadcatj (talk) 06:29, 6 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

German version[edit]

Not exactly a reliable source by Wikipedia's standards, but there's supposedly a German version, which is mentioned in the fifth comment attached to this article about Ed McMahon's death -- "When I told my friends in Germany about it, they taught me an equivalent memory test (all alliterative) in German. “Ein Eselreitergehilfe. Zwei zornige Zebrawächter”, etc."

Perhaps someone can translate this article to German and post it to the German language Wikipedia? WTF? (talk) 04:16, 13 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Another variation[edit]

Another variation, that I personally recorded "off the air" during a Jerry Lewis MS Telethon (late 1960's - early 1070's?) has verse eight as,"Eight brass monkeys from the sacred secret crypts of Egypt" and verse ten as "Ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep, who haul stall around the corner of the quod (slang, British Prison)on the quay (a structure built parallel to the bank of a waterway for use as a landing place) with a Qui Vive (this is the French equivalent of the English question 'Who goes there?' that's asked by someone who's serving as sentry or on guard duty) all at the same time" These versions seem more likely as it all makes sense and are certainly easier to remember, IF one knows what the words mean and can visulize the action sequence. (Sadly, the magnetic audio tape has long since degraded and was discarded - all that remains is my trascription, as shown above.) --GabbyJim (talk) 05:34, 3 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Verse 10 has words that do not seem to be used as their correct parts of speech: haul, quo, & quivery. Perhaps Jerry Lewis did not hear or remember it properly. An alternate that makes sense would be more likely as the original: Perhaps as above, or something like "Ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep, who all stall around the corner of the queue [line-up] at the quay, all quivery at the very same time." Alternatively: " ... corner of the quad [short for quadrangle] at the quay...". If the sentence does not seem to make sense, it seems artificial -- & less like a fair challenge of articulation & memory.--JimWae (talk) 22:37, 26 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
On the Tonight Show as guest host for a week in the early 60s, this was presented as a challenge to Jerry Lewis by Ed MacMahon, the announcer.... Or was it Jerry challenging Ed? Somewhere there's tape of this. I guess it is likely this was a planned skit - but perhaps it was announcer Ed who taught it to Jerry.--JimWae (talk) 22:59, 26 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
"haul salt..."? More lively than having denizens of the deep "all stall..." --JimWae (talk) 10:43, 5 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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Is Haien's variant worth mentioning?[edit]

I've added "[sic]" after "horseman", which should be "horsemen". The error occurs in the novel, at least on line. But Haien's version looks to me like an older version imperfectly recalled. "Dressed in full battle array" is redundant, and "one good hen" violates the tacit rule that each entry is longer than the previous one. I question whether this variant, among so many that have appeared, is worth including here. Sicherman (talk) 21:28, 26 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not. Jordan Brown (talk) 15:06, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Earwitness testimony[edit]

I taped the Announcer's Test that Jerry Lewis presented when appearing as a guest host on The Tonight Show, sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. He used it one night, and it caused such interest and confusion that he repeated it the next night, which I had hoped he might and therefore had my recorder ready. I transcribed the tape, memorized the text as faithfully as if it were a sacred revelation, and have since used it on countless innocent victims, providing many survivors with copies in writing. I can therefore provide earwitness testimony that the version of the Announcer's Test provided in the main article as of 8/28/12 is correct and complete, exactly as Lewis presented it. Nothing has been added, altered, or removed. I cannot say whether any other version is by Lewis himself, is by someone else seeking a modified effect, or reflects an oral tradition started by someone who heard the test and tried to reconstruct it. I suspect that the last explanation underlies almost all variations. Ornithikos (talk) 17:04, 28 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Every letter of the alphabet[edit]

What's special about using every letter of the alphabet? After all, we're listening to the announcer, so wouldn't it make sense to use every phoneme of English instead? (For example, there's no particular point in using 'c' since if you have a 'k' and an 's' then you have the same sound already. On the other hand, you'd want to include not just 'a e i o u' but all the vowels of English, of which there are several more than just five.) -- pne (talk) 20:27, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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