The Second Shooter

This is a random little sketch I wrote awhile back, upon learning a new vocabulary word and determining that Aaron Sorkin could probably milk that moment for a solid minute of airtime. I decided to do the job for him. I'm pretty sure I'll never have reason to use this sketch in anything, so I'll share it here.

ONE: So I was reading this book about the genealogy of pygmies in the Pacific Northwest –

TWO: You were reading a book about the genealogy of pygmies in the Pacific Northwest?

ONE: Yes.

THREE: There are pygmies in the Pacific Northwest?

TWO: Genealogically.

THREE: Ah.

ONE: Don’t you want to ask me why I was reading about pygmies in the Pacific Northwest?

THREE: I rather assumed you were attending a midget convention in Seattle.

TWO: They prefer “little people.”

THREE: I prefer supermodels, but we can’t have everything.

ONE: Well the library sent me the wrong book from the thing.

TWO: You meant to read about the genealogy of slightly larger people, then?

ONE: No, I wanted the biography of the man who invented paperclips.

THREE: I can see the confusion.

TWO: Why does the library even have books about the genealogy of pygmy paperclip inventors? Who reads that?

THREE: He does.

ONE: No one does, that’s why they’re in the book thing.

TWO: The book thing.

ONE: The book depository.

TWO: Are they all planning to assassinate John Kennedy?

THREE: That’s repository.

ONE: What?

THREE: Texas Book Repository. The word’s repository, not depository.

ONE: No, I think it’s depository.

THREE: No.

ONE: No, it’s depository. It’s where you deposit books.

THREE: No, it’s where you reposit… Well okay that doesn’t make sense, but that’s still the word.

TWO: Actually, it’s both.

ONE: What?

TWO: I just looked it up. Depository and repository are synonyms.

THREE: Who thought that was a good idea?

TWO: Probably somebody got it wrong once and was too embarrassed to correct it.

THREE: So he declared the other word a synonym?

TWO: Yup.

THREE: I didn’t know you can do that.

TWO: You can’t. This guy had enough books that he needed a freaking deposit-reposit-thing, though, so he was probably pretty important.

THREE: You know what I’d like?

TWO: What?

THREE: A book suppository.

ONE: …ew.

TWO: Well, you could more literally tell someone to shove a book up their ass.

THREE: And it would certainly make it easier to cram for a literature exam.

ONE: Frankly I prefer the old-fashioned method.

TWO: Studying?

ONE: Osmosis. Now excuse me – I need to go take a nap on top of my copy of Pygmies Of The Pacific Northwest.

THREE: Okay, but if you try my way? Don’t return it to the library.