7 Comments
User's avatar
тна Return to thread
knowltok's avatar

"I thought I actually could do it."

Costanza defense.

"I can sleep easy tonight knowing eventually the people got what they wanted"

I understand that the Italian trains are very punctual these days too. ;)

Expand full comment
Douglas Peterson's avatar

I truly hope that the term "Costanza defense" is a meme that will survive through adaptation as cultural evolution proceeds. Thank you for giving it legs!

Expand full comment
Mary Brownell's avatar

Just looked up "the Costanza Defense" and one of the examples was when George Costanza said, "It's not a lie if you believe it." Another example was when his boss confronted him with a report that he had had sex on his desk with the cleaning woman, and he said, "I claim ignorance" because nobody told me when he started the job that that wasn't allowed.

Sounds like the sleazy attempts Trump's lawyers try to defend him

Expand full comment
KMD's avatar

My recollection of that scene of George's boss confronting George about his having sex with the cleaning lady was George's playing the innocent role, saying, "Was that wrong?" You had to laugh at George's audacity.

Expand full comment
knowltok's avatar

I was thinking of the first one, but the second one is pretty good too. Reminds me of Bill Maher's reference to Gus. I haven't watched in quite a while, but he used to liken some of the republican shenanigans to the movie Gus, in which some team got a donkey (or something) to kick field goals because nowhere in the rules did it explicitly state that you couldn't have a donkey on a team.

Expand full comment
zedsdead's avatar

lol... saw this in the movies as a kid. Gus was a Mule..

Expand full comment
Douglas Peterson's avatar

Exactly! It's a term that means the defense is so illogical, so inane, so well, "Trumpy," that the only response it deserves is our inordinate laughter!

Expand full comment
ErrorError