Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Greatest Title Ever . . . TITLED!

The choosing of a title for a show is tricky business. The way RvD usually does it is very scientific--via email. Once we have an idea for a theme, we more or less just start blurting out random titles via email lists that go back and forth between us, until we get a few that stick. At a certain point, someone (usually the director) narrows the list down and sends out the finalists and we vote, then we find out which title we chose, then we send some more insulting emails, then we all learn to love our new title.

Our first show, “The Greatest Stories Never Told . . . TOLD!” got it’s name two ways. One was the fact that we were doing a show about myths, legends, stories and such, hence the title “The Greatest Stories Never Told” which was also a play on the phrase a lot of people use when referring to the Bible. The “TOLD!” part was stolen from one of the sketches I wrote “The Most Glorious Battle Ever!” One of the running jokes in that sketch was a group of soldiers kept yelling back the last word of every sentence. All in all we thought the title captured the playfullness of the show, as well as the theme. And it never hurts to have an exclamation point in your title. That probably sold at least ten tickets on its own.

Anyway, for your reading pleasure, below is the list of random titles that got tossed around for “The Greatest Stories Never Told . . . TOLD!" Some of these are pretty funny and a few are inside jokes (I’m pretty sure we never considered naming the show “Nat Topping - World Fucker Extraordinaire”). I highlighted my favorites.

Robot vs. Dinosaur vs. History
Tales Tall and Wide
Yarns Yet Spun
Indiana Jones is a Pansy
I'd Like Too See You Do Better!
No Campfire Required
While You Were Learning Real History…
Rambling Rambles
Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories"
Like Basket Weaving, But With Stories
Weaving Stories
Two In The Pink, One In The History
Historical Shocker
Truth Be Told?
Nat Topping – World Fucker Extraordinaire
Your History Sucks
Adventures in History
Shit Biscuits and Butter Turds
Forgettable Moments in History
Enya Has a Harp-on
RvD's World-Wide Story Book
Chris Othic presents: "Chris Othic Sucks a Donkey Deuce" or A True Story
Robot Vs. Dinosaur Eats Your History Teacher
Robot Vs. Dinosaur Offends History
Journey to the Top of the World - The Greatest Title Ever
Nat Topping: "I'm Wasting Your Time"
Historic Lies
The Best We Have to Offer - A Tragedy
Inspirational Stories of Hope - or - Shut up and Quit Whining
History Retreats Itself
History Reheats Itself
The Penis Mightier
Myth and Friction
History Is Good, But Our Story Is Better
Tall Tales and Wide
Two Polar Bears Fucking
The Most Glorious Stories Ever Told . . . TOLD!
An Adventurer Walks Into A Bar . . .
History = Or Shity
Don’t Know Much About History
Remember This, Asshole?
That Didn’t Happen
Going to the Picaresque Show
The Last (and First) Picaresque Show
Old Male Tales
Great Balls of History
Historical Friction
Before There Were Electric Shavers
Bartles & James Present...More Yarns than a Cat Hole
Before the Trombone Rusted
A Corncob Pipe and a Butthole Nose
The Fake Adventures of White Men

1 comment:

Unknown said...

For the record, I'm pretty sure we WERE going to Nat Topping - World Fucker Extraordinaire but that we were worried it would intimidate the world.