Of Hamsters and Elderberries…and Nietzsche

According to Nietzsche (so far as I understand him), language is nothing more than an arbitrary collection of metaphors that equate one thing to another. Whoever happens to convince everyone else to share their metaphors is the person who creates “truth.”

But what about art forms that attempt to break down those metaphors? Specifically, I’m thinking of absurdism. Instead of presenting us with the usual and expected, absurdism attempts to shock us out of complacency by presenting us with an event or an action that is completely out of the ordinary. It is given no explanation or rationale. It simply is. The audience must then make sense or it or accept that there is no sense to be made and deal with this unprecedented and inexplicable occurrence.

Of course, absurdism doesn’t always have to be just strange. It can also be humorous. The British acting group Monty Python often used absurdism for comic ends, and while their bizarre sketches often served to shake up audiences, they also made people laugh.  Perhaps they didn’t intend to make people question exactly why we all buy into the same definitions of experiences or who exactly is doing the defining and why, but they might have, just for a moment, defied any common or expected definitions. What do you make of two people flying into a diner in which they are surrounded by singing Vikings and can only order Spam? For a second, you’re not sure what to think.

Ironically, this form that is meant to break down metaphors also builds metaphors of its own. Maybe the first time someone watched a group of “silly English kuh-niggets” trot up to a castle while banging coconuts together while being taunted by a Frenchman who declares, “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”, he or she was baffled. However, now that Monty Python has something of a cult following, many of their nonsensical phrases have taken on new meaning, even if sometimes that meaning only is, “I know that reference. I’m a Monty Python fan too!”

I can go up to many of my friends and say, “Your mother was a hamster…” and receive the reply, “… and your father smelt of elderberries!” The phrase, once so nonsensical, has taken on a lot of meanings for my friends and me. It reminds us of the times we’ve watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail together. It brings to mind our shared sense of humor. It also recalls one of the moments in which we first bonded as friends. It is attempting to equate all of these experiences with language, even though, as Nietzsche would point out, we are creating an equality where there really is none.

So, in attempting to disrupt the connection that we create between language and experience, Monty Python’s absurdism has actually created a metaphor of its own. In attempting to undermine the way we view experience and language, has it undermined itself? What would Nietzsche say about that?