This week: more clauses, the legal kind this time! Also, footnotes and a book recommendation to get us out. Here we go.
In 1994, Tim Allen's The Santa Clause debuted to some acclaim. Which is to say, it was well received by viewers - it made $189 million dollars - but critics didn't much care for it. And, when I saw the movie, in 1994, I thought the title was better than the movie itself. I still think that. Because it is a great title; when you see the marketing that was done pre-release it shows just how much of a punchline it was and is. Every bit of the pre-release posters scream the joke at you. From Tim Allen in various stages of becoming Santa to the words The Santa Claus written in a normal, black font and a final E added to Claus, we understand - this is about legalities.
In the movie, Tim Allen inadvertently kills Santa, who, in his dying act, produces a card that says that whomever kills Santa, then becomes the next Santa, i.e., the Santa Clause. That’s it. That’s the entire movie. Sure, there are some funny bits about how Tim Allen starts to immediately put on weight he can’t take off because Santa has to be fat, it’s in the contract, but there’s really not much else there. But the title…the title is such a good joke it has been made into at least two sequels, not to mention the countless snarky Twitter threads making plays off of it. But why? What makes it such a good joke? (1)
For me it’s the immediate knowledge that the lawyers are going to get involved. Whatever the situation, no matter the players, once someone brings out the legal clause, we, the audience, know that all kinds of hijinks are about to ensue. Or, if not hijinks, then melodrama, art, or story of some kind. Because a clause being invoked means that conflict has been created and conflict drives all stories. Here’s an example. One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite songwriters, Soft Serve by Mike Doughty (released as a Soul Coughing song in 1996) has the line, “talkin’ like the clause in the lease about the late rent.” (2) It’s such a great line. It contains all the drama of the song in just a few words because of the implied argument. Someone needs the rent money and someone else, the singer, presumably, is late with it. Conflict.
So. Now that I’ve ruined a good joke and introduced a great song, here are some brief facts about the legal clause:
We’re not entirely sure which came first, the grammatical usage or the legal usage. We have recorded instances of the grammatical use of clause in the late 1200s and the legal use from the 1300s. However, we have earlier uses of the legal sense from Latin and French documents, which then made their way into English.
We're not sure of the exact origin of clause; some linguists speculate that it came from the PIE word klau-, meaning hook or crooked. This possible origin would make it related to words like claustrophobia, closet, conclude, enclose, and occlude among many others.
Clause originally meant ending, although it lost that meaning in the centuries leading from old English through to modern English.
Its adjective form, clausal, comes much, much later, in the 1800s. One can only assume that before that, there were many grammatical clauses structured in overly complex ways so as to accurately reference any necessary legal clauses.
Clause, like phrase, has also been adapted into other fields, most notably computer programming. Programming, which already borrows its entire idiom from language, used clause to define logic sequences in some programming languages like SQL (pronounced sequel).
One of the most common idiom using the word clause is “grandfather clause,” meaning, of course, to fold an existing idea (or thing) into a new set of rubrics so that it can be considered current and modern although it may pre-date other items in the set. We see it used most often to grant an exemption to a new rule. Interestingly enough, clause itself is being dropped from the idiom in its verb form as we now often just “grandfather it in.”
And that’s that. So far, we’ve discussed the word, the phrase, and the clause. What’s next you ask? I sentence you to find out next week!
Footnotes
Rule number 1 of comedy is never explain the joke. This entire article is in direct violation of that rule and for that I can only apologize.
For anyone who is still unaware, this entire blog and newsletter is really just an excuse for me to quote songs that I love to quote thereby exposing people to the music I love, thereby creating a tiny margin of chance that they'll know what the hell I'm talking about when I quote a song that I love to quote.
Ex Libris
If you’re of a certain age, you might remember mid-90s college radio playing either Super Bon Bon or Circles 47 times a day. Both songs were written by Mike Doughty and recorded as part of his group Soul Coughing. Unfortunately, Soul Coughing did not long survive mainstream success and the Book of Drugs tells the story in all its glorious malady. For a real treat, pick up the audio version, written by Doughty himself, and then get yourself an extra treat by picking up a copy of Circles, Super Bon Bon and The Very Best of Soul Coughing, to hear the songs as Doughty originally intended them.
Stay curious,
J