i don’t think i’d like a shag with one of the smiley-smiley tax optimization people. they look cheerful and friendly but inside they are cold and robotic. it’d be more like a medical examination than a roll in the hay.

er, anyway, this was really funny and clever. well done!

Well, I suppose it’s all a case of ‘whatever floats your boat’ with these ludicrously passionate people… I can’t really see their intense love for sofas and tax optimization as anything more than just a bit odd, really. Still, it seems far better to be a bit over-enthusiastic over something than to look on at life with a sense of foreboding apathy. I have to say I’d agree with David when he says he’s envious of these passion-crazed guys and gals, because I’d think that anyone with that kind of lust over upholstery must be a riot to have around! =]

Great, as always xXx

This is the best soapbox yet! Of course, I thought that last week, too.

It just goes to show, you can’t be too careful with your hyperbole.

I’m lucky enough to work for a company that is also passionate. Luckily the passion is books, so it’s not as extreme as your examples. But nevertheless, that feeling of passion gets me through the day at work, or so I’m told to believe.

It’s plastered all over our staff room how passionate we are, but after viewing out quarterly DVD update, our regional manager proved how passionate he is by recommending to us his own favourite books, and how we should definitely check them out.

And of course, they were just next weeks offers. Employees are customers too, in this passionate world.

This was great! I hadn’t realized how many ads used “passion” this way. But have you ever talked to anyone who actually was passionate about something you struggle to care about? Of course you know they’re out there - they’re the people who don’t notice when your eyes glaze over.
I work with the elderly in a hospital, and have heard more about farming, horseshoeing, the price of corn, etc. than I can express in this space. I even had a patient who loved to talk about vending machines. Oof. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to meet a tax guy someday who WAS passionate about tax optimization.

Best one yet I reckon! (At least, from the ones I’ve seen. Which are most of em.) Adverts piss me off so much with their obviousness and tackiness.
I wish that on the odd occasions where I’m infuriated by something, I had someone there to film me while I rant

Funny stuff:)

I had to smile when I noticed that the most passionate of all the passionate companies was named “Vertical Response”. Also that they were self service. I guess their passion is unrequited then. Telling customers, “hey, baby, we’ve got your small business growth right here!”, it’s not effective is it?

Also, if you go anywhere where people feel passionate about, or concerning sofas…well-Bring a UV light with you. You don’t want to flop down at the end of the day with your face next to someone’s filth.

Brilliant soapbox. I’m now going through all my CV covering letters to make sure I haven’t claimed to be passionate about multi-media journalism or designing content management systems.

Spot on.

David, your job title should not be Comedian, it should be ‘Sayer of Facts’. That’s pretty much all you’re doing (I mean that as a compliment).

People only laugh because they are embarrassed at what the truth sounds like.

It’s one form of comedy I suppose. There are others though.

I think that my point is, is that maybe some people here think that David is being a bit quirky by picking up on this. A bit sensitive perhaps. Maybe they are in one of the adverts that he is mocking but they are laughing thinking ‘hahaha.. yeah.. that’s true man’ but then they’ll just go right back to doing the same sort of thing the next day.

I don’t want people to laugh at what David says, I would like it if everyone just said ‘Hmmm, yes he’s right’, then utterly condemned such silly behaviour. They won’t though, David will just continue going through life as some ‘quirky’ comedian and the people who dominate social discourses will continue to do things like call themselves ‘passionate’.

I know that sounds like I am going to finish writing this and then go and shoot a few people from a rooftop with a sniper rifle, but it’s not like that. It’s just the things that David points out, I feel should be common sense to everyone.

Anyway.. it’s his soapbox, not mine.

I think all the time, and I see absurdity everywhere. Am I alone in this..clearly not? For instance in the free sheet I get through the door, I read the job ads carefully. One this week is for a Junior Filing Clerk (note the word Junior, as though you can somehow, with application, study, and sheer drive and determination eventually arrive at the exalted position of Senior Filing Clerk) which carried the supporting legend “looking for a job with career opportunities”. Now forgive me but I dazzle in the joyous bollock nipping absurdity of that juxtaposition. I find it funny. And I suppose, because I find the modern world so difficult, I take pleasure in the small satirical wonderland of my imagination and the rixdh seam of absurdity that is all around us.

I am very passionate about ice cream. Ben, Jerry and I have a very fulfilling relationship…some might say too fulfilling.

It’s not that these people are passionate about ridiculous things - it’s they are not passionate, nor indeed remotely careful, about the way they define words.

They have inadvertently redefined ‘passionate’ to mean ‘knowledgeable about”. It’s similar to the way Americans have redefined ‘awesome’ to mean ‘good’.

It’s depressing really (or do I mean devastating?)