ACT ONE
Salesman: Ha ha! You're... joking, right?
BrokenTV: Ha ha! Erm... what?
BrokenTV: Coo.
Salesman: Here you are. The Hewpaq SupeR 1460. This model actually gets a better internet than all the other PCs out there. Any website you look at will be 25% more entertaining than it would be when viewed on other, lesser, smellier computers. And best of all, it's completely future proof. Every single computer in this shop that costs less than £800 will be worthless in about three weeks. Now, it's - chuckle - difficult to predict the future in the world of computing...
BrokenTV: Ha ha, yes.
Salesman: ...but I should say if you buy this computer now, at the price of just £800, there's no reason why it won't be worth at least double that in three years from now.
BrokenTV: Gosh, really?
Salesman: Yes, that's possibly a true thing that I said just then. This computer is the best possible thing you could buy in this entire store, and I can guarantee that this will be a product that will never go wrong. If the UK Honours system wasn't restricted to humans only, there's every chance this computer would be given an OBE.
BrokenTV: Wow, great. We'll buy that one then. Where do we sign to irrevocably commit ourselves to this purchase?
Salesman: Just here. And here. Initial here.
BrokenTV (scribbles name excitedly): There!
END OF ACT ONE.
-
ACT TWO.
(The date: The present. The place: A Well-Known Computer Superstore. BrokenTV wanders up to the store's dedicated team of helpers, "Teh Tech Doodz", as designated by the large banner hanging over their special corner. Emboldened by two years of having to tinker with its PC every single bloody time it had bought a new peripheral, everybody's fifth favourite TV Blog is clutching what it's sure will be the best PC replacement part for its needs. The RRP of said item is £19.99.)
BrokenTV: Ah, hello. Our computer is having a lot of trouble with an overheating CPU, so we need a new CPU fan. Do you reckon this [waves moderately priced PC component at "Tech Dood"] will be the one we need? It's for a 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 HT CPU.
"Tech Dood" : [inhales through teeth] What socket is it, mate?
BrokenTV: Pfffff.... not sure.
"Tech Dood" : What motherboard you got?
BrokenTV: Don't know.
"Tech Dood" : Well, I can't really...
BrokenTV: We did buy it from here if it helps. The model is still listed on your website, it's a Hewpaq SupeR 1460. There's no further stock, but it was last listed at £249.99.
(BrokenTV visibly shudders as it remembers handing over a perfectly good sockful of money for that computer.)
"Tech Dood" : Tsk. Hang on a minute, mate.
("Teh Tech Dood" paws at his terminal for a moment whilst audiably tutting to himself.)
"Tech Dood" : Right, here we go. Oh dear.
BrokenTV: Oh dear?
"Tech Dood" : Oh. Dear. See that? [Points at screen.] It's a Prescott. Oh dear.
BrokenTV: Oh dear?
"Tech Dood" : Mmm. They're notorious for overheating. You're lucky it's lasted this long without exploding and taking out a three house radius, to be honest. How big's your case?
(BrokenTV makes a vague arm movement to try and disguise the fact it has no idea if there are actual names for the differing sizes of PC cases.)
"Tech Dood" : Mmm. We might still have one you can use, but you'll need a big case. Follow me.
(BrokenTV duly follows "Tech Dood" to a section of the store where enormous CPU fans are kept.)
"Tech Dood" : There. There's two of them that could work. See that one there?
BrokenTV: The one marked "£49.99"? Oh dear.
"Tech Dood" : Yeah. That one *might* work on yours. But if you want to make sure...
("Tech Dood" gestures at an even larger boxed item.)
"Tech Dood" : ...that's the one you need.
BrokenTV: The one marked "£59.99"? Crikey.
"Tech Dood" : Yes. If you can get it to fit in your case, you'll be sorted.
BrokenTV: Oh dear. Is all this really necessary? Because when I bought the PC, the nice man said...
"Tech Dood" (making concerned face) : Mmm.
END OF ACT TWO.
-
EPILOGUE.
(Now dressed in a dressing gown and towel combo in order to specify being 'out of character', BrokenTV stolls onto the stage in front of the closed curtain.)
BrokenTV: We really frigging hate PCs.
BrokenTV: Ah, hello. Our computer is having a lot of trouble with an overheating CPU, so we need a new CPU fan. Do you reckon this [waves moderately priced PC component at "Tech Dood"] will be the one we need? It's for a 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 HT CPU.
"Tech Dood" : [inhales through teeth] What socket is it, mate?
BrokenTV: Pfffff.... not sure.
"Tech Dood" : What motherboard you got?
BrokenTV: Don't know.
"Tech Dood" : Well, I can't really...
BrokenTV: We did buy it from here if it helps. The model is still listed on your website, it's a Hewpaq SupeR 1460. There's no further stock, but it was last listed at £249.99.
(BrokenTV visibly shudders as it remembers handing over a perfectly good sockful of money for that computer.)
"Tech Dood" : Tsk. Hang on a minute, mate.
("Teh Tech Dood" paws at his terminal for a moment whilst audiably tutting to himself.)
"Tech Dood" : Right, here we go. Oh dear.
BrokenTV: Oh dear?
"Tech Dood" : Oh. Dear. See that? [Points at screen.] It's a Prescott. Oh dear.
BrokenTV: Oh dear?
"Tech Dood" : Mmm. They're notorious for overheating. You're lucky it's lasted this long without exploding and taking out a three house radius, to be honest. How big's your case?
(BrokenTV makes a vague arm movement to try and disguise the fact it has no idea if there are actual names for the differing sizes of PC cases.)
"Tech Dood" : Mmm. We might still have one you can use, but you'll need a big case. Follow me.
(BrokenTV duly follows "Tech Dood" to a section of the store where enormous CPU fans are kept.)
"Tech Dood" : There. There's two of them that could work. See that one there?
BrokenTV: The one marked "£49.99"? Oh dear.
"Tech Dood" : Yeah. That one *might* work on yours. But if you want to make sure...
("Tech Dood" gestures at an even larger boxed item.)
"Tech Dood" : ...that's the one you need.
BrokenTV: The one marked "£59.99"? Crikey.
"Tech Dood" : Yes. If you can get it to fit in your case, you'll be sorted.
BrokenTV: Oh dear. Is all this really necessary? Because when I bought the PC, the nice man said...
"Tech Dood" (making concerned face) : Mmm.
END OF ACT TWO.
-
EPILOGUE.
(Now dressed in a dressing gown and towel combo in order to specify being 'out of character', BrokenTV stolls onto the stage in front of the closed curtain.)
BrokenTV: We really frigging hate PCs.
4 .:
As a qualified PC technician, I hate people who know nothing about PCs.
But then, I don't work at PC World.
I love their new adverts, cunningly constructed to all contain women. They're clearly trying to give off the impression that they're nice, friendly blokes (and women!) who can sell computers in such simple language that even a woman wouldn't feel threatened by them. Oh, and the salespeople are all white, I can only imagine that this is because middle England feels threatened by anyone even slightly brown.
I think that they've become aware that IT salespeople, particularly those in PC World, are perceived as worse than plumbers. Cowboys who baffle, lie, and steal from customers. Though don't worry, they sell to women, so they're friendly, understandable, approachable, attractive! The real irony is, if they actually were, they wouldn't need to put so much effort into appearing so.
"Where in the world...PC World", that's where. And we're all living in it according to Liam, in a tenous link to your Big Brother article.
Yes, after years of suffering the minorities have upsticks and moved to "PC World", a place where discrimination is unheard of, so there.
Seemingly only me and my mate got this hilarious (to us anyway) exchange between the geordie housemate and a fellow contestant, either Gerry or Brian, I think.
Most probably it was the repetitive intonation of the phrase "PC World" by Liam, to describe the tolerance that abounds in today's modern society. Either that or it was his lack of a logical stance on the subject, coupled with that gormless face, or those bloody annoying adverts for the computer store working their way into my brain, who knows. Basically it was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Single handedly Liam managed to combine equal rights for all and subliminal advertising into one simple phrase, "In today's PC World".
So I'm off there, you can keep your sorry mixed-up society and all of its injustices. I'm going where the air is clean and the people are free...where in the world indeed.
On the other hand if you're actually after a computer you're better off going down your local computer shop. They'll no doubt build you one up for more or less the same price but it will be, like, better.
I keep telling people this but no-one seems to listen. They all end up going to bloody PC World and buying a laptop, poor fools.
Just to set the record straight (well, slightly wobbly) here:
We know a tad more than nothing about PCs. Probably a metric tonne less than NJ, but we can cope with fitting our own SIMM upgrade without paying PC World £29.99 to do it for us. You don't have to be any good at comedy to use comedic licence, you know. Luckily, in our case.
Yes, PC World are rubbish. But we had:
(a) An utterly knacked PC.
(b) No cash.
(c) A computers-4-home voucher (or whatever it was) that would come out of our pay before tax and without interest worth £800.
Our options were limited, an PC World was the only place to redeem such tokens.
We do still hate them, though.
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