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Demetri Martin's poster-making abilities suggest he might just be as witty in writing as he is on-camera. But his 224-word palindrome poem (that's right, the entire poem reads the same backwards and forwards) effectively proves it.
We're posting Martin's jaunt into light semantics amid his bourgeoning TV career. Over the last few years, he's made appearances in a few small movies, like Rainn Wilson's The Rocker, hosted the Trendspotting segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and landed the lead role in Ang Lee's upcoming film Taking Woodstock. On Feb. 11, he launched a new series on Comedy Central, Important Things with Demetri Martin (hence the brilliant posters).
Some of the important things Martin discusses in his new stand-up show: honey bears, the differences between guts and balls and religious-strife among rats. Rodents, religion and genital activity are also showcased in Martin's poem, below, for your viewing pleasure:
"Dammit I'm Mad"
Dammit I’m mad.
Evil is a deed as I live.
God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt.
To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss.
Alas, it is so late. Who stops to help?
Man, it is hot. I’m in it. I tell.
I am not a devil. I level “Mad Dog”.
Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp,
In my halo of a mired rum tin.
I erase many men. Oh, to be man, a sin.
Is evil in a clam? In a trap?
No. It is open. On it I was stuck.
Rats peed on hope. Elsewhere dips a web.
Be still if I fill its ebb.
Ew, a spider… eh?
We sleep. Oh no!
Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position.
Part animal, can I live? Sin is a name.
Both, one… my names are in it.
Murder? I’m a fool.
A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash,
A Goddam level I lived at.
On mail let it in. I’m it.
Oh, sit in ample hot spots. Oh wet!
A loss it is alas (sip). I’d assign it a name.
Name not one bottle minus an ode by me:
“Sir, I deliver. I’m a dog”
Evil is a deed as I live.
Dammit I’m mad.
Related links:.
DemetriMartin.com
YouTube: Demetri Martin Finds Clearification
YouTube: Demetri Martin: The Jokes with Guitar
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he released this YEARS ago.
i first read this MINUTES ago
Yeah, I think it first showed up here in 2004:
http://www.slate.com/id/2101150/entry/2101353/
Not so bad to have it on here when it's so old, but it does seem weird to have that headline as if it's news...
Also, I feel like I should point out that not one, but two celebrity names are misspelled. What happened here? :/
Thanks for the typo catch, xanae! Fixed now.
News to me
Is that really a palindrome? I don't think it is!? So much for genius har har. A palindrome (via dictionary) goes like this: "Able was i ere I saw Elba", same backwards and forwards, his poem is a poor mans version. In fact even if the words did that but he had to go sentences! Not very good at all. i didn't think it was that good as a poem anyway. Anything containing the line "i piss"..... BAH! I haven't watched the show but im already a hater :P
Yes, it's really a palindrome. Read the thing backwards and then forwards. Even though he repeated the last two sentences(for either poetic effect or laziness, it doesn't matter), the entire thing backwards and forwards makes the same poem. Read it again [and feel stupid].
"Burgeoning" is also misspelled in the second paragraph.
He repeats the last two sentences because they are palindromes in themselves
he still has to say "piss" so i am fine with my previous statement har har!
I'm not sure what's wrong with the word "piss". I find using "har har" in place of laughter far more problematic.
224 words later, and he's still not funny.
An admirer of palindromes. Wish I had the ability to do something like this. Alas, puzzles and poetry both elude me.
Made a blog entry using your palindrome.http://sinannblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/palindrome.html). Hope you do not mind.
Thanks for it.
Brilliant, as usual.
...and for more palindrome fun...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg
My one word palindrome review: wow.
"Is that really a palindrome? I don't think it is!? So much for genius har har. A palindrome (via dictionary) goes like this: "Able was i ere I saw Elba", same backwards and forwards, his poem is a poor mans version. In fact even if the words did that but he had to go sentences! Not very good at all. i didn't think it was that good as a poem anyway. Anything containing the line "i piss"..... BAH! I haven't watched the show but im already a hater :P"
clearly you are an ignorant hater. read it again backwards....it is the same poem. Thanks for clarifying that you fail
first of all, this is a palindrome. second of all this isn't supposed to be funny. third of all, the point of a palindrome is not to rhyme like a poem. Fourth, Piss is a word therefor he wins.
ssabmud a r u
The palindrome is very smart, good for DM. The problem is *Rachel Dovey,* who makes mistakes and lies. Neither is a good quality in a journalist, or even a "journalist" like RD. He did not write it "in the midst of a bourgeoning [sic] television career" but years before, and it is not news and cannot be fabricated as news.
The poem is fine. Its presentation as news is disgusting.