On the side
IT’S TRUE that fans do not buy tickets for a ballgame to watch those on the side like the coaching staff, the referees, and even the bench players. They just look at the game and how the players on the court are competing. And yet the seemingly peripheral characters influence how the game is played and what the outcome of the contest is likely to be.
Those on the side are not given much attention.
Inattentive participants at meetings ignore the speaker and quietly amuse themselves by offering comments, now usually by text messages, to other inattentive colleagues. (How many more slides does he have?)
More indiscreet are side conversations at a conference. Even whispered comments not meant to be overheard by the one presenting can still be distracting. (How many times has he said “at the end of the day”?)
Side comments are annoying to a presenter, and those trying to follow him. They are irrelevant and do not relate to the subject at hand. Calling attention to such inattentiveness (Can you please stop yapping there at the back?) only invites the rude chatterer to be even more pugnacious: “Why? Is your presentation worth listening to?”
Giving opinions on the side is a habit quelched from childhood — stop butting in, can’t you see that the grown-ups are having a heated debate here? In school, chatty classmates not called for recitation are quickly punished — write “I will not be a chatterbox” 50 times on the blackboard. (Ma’am, can you spell the last word?)
Still, side comments can be amusing in a social context. Is it related to freedom of expression? Digressions can provide comic relief and lessen tension when the discussion gets heated — let’s settle this outside.
Even in chat groups when political or religious beliefs cause clashes, the irrelevant comments of those on the side can diffuse tension — what’s the temperature in Baguio at this time?
In literature, parenthetical remarks are revered.
The open and close parentheses are paired to provide an enclosure for a humorous phrase or footnote to support or divert from a too-serious narrative. The etymology of “parenthesis” gives a clue to its function. In Greek, the original word pertains to “inserting.” Insertions may be part of an intimate act as well as a way to introduce pork in the legislative debates.
In theater, side comments (or “asides”) allow a character to step forward and share his thoughts with the audience. A character expresses his feelings aloud, as the other actors on stage pretend not to hear his comments about them — they’re clueless about the plot against them.
This theatrical convention is called a “stage whisper” to signal that it is intended only for the “fourth wall” of the audience. A conniving Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello recites his evil intent to be taken as a thought balloon as far as the intended victims beside him are concerned.
This invitation of the viewer as participant is employed by Alfred Hitchcock in his movies, like Psycho where the audience sees a killer about to plunge a knife into his heedless target seen through a translucent curtain taking a shower, just before she is repeatedly stabbed to jarring syncopated music. It is Hitchcock too who likes to make cameo appearances in all his movies, crossing a street or buying some cough drops from the drugstore. It’s a visual side comment.
Isn’t small talk before a formal meeting also a form of distraction on the side?
Just before the discussion on past due loans from a big bank client, there is chitchat about the volatile crypto market and how a known associate forgot his 20-digit password to access his account. Other topics intrude and set the mood for the main agenda to follow — okay, can we start now?
Side comments distract from the topic at hand. Is that its true value? The presenter, especially if he has no prepared slides, can digress from his assigned topic on why he did not meet his budget targets for the quarter. He makes comments on the change of management in other companies, then rambles along on how the new American tariffs can affect agricultural products, before going back to the subject at hand — where were we?
The penchant to change the topic with side remarks is a diversionary tactic.
Still, the one presiding over the meeting tries to maintain order when there are too many side comments going on loudly and distracting the official presentation — Wait, can we just have one conversation please? Someone on the side may well ask which one.
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda
