Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language

3M views · 16 years ago · animation · evergreen

A kinetic typography animation set to Stephen Fry speaking about language. He argues that English has always changed, that pedantry about grammar misses the point, and that people should use language freely and with delight. It runs about six minutes.

HN returns to it for Fry's argument against pedantry and for the way the animated type carries the words.

“I have long been a fan of Stephen Fry's take, with kinetic typography as a fun backdrop”

23 comments from Hacker News

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@sethammons2021 · in “Write libraries instead of services, where possible”
Take ~6min to watch Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language. It is my favorite take on changes in English and addresses verbing of nouns directly. ▶ this video
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@sethammons2025 · in “What happens when an octopus engages with art?”
On incorrect language use, I have long been a fan of Stephen Fry's take, with kinetic typography as a fun backdrop: ▶ this video In short, context, convention, and circumstance are all. Long live the solitary octopi.
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@Arkhaine_kupo2022 · in “The Age of Distracti-Pression”
While I tend to whinge at that kind of writing, I at the same time remind myself that Stephen Fry had a beauitful essay about how to use language, and how we can be wildly innovative with it. At the end of the day Shakespeare was the first to table a meeting and that must have sounded novel and too out there back then. Not everything will age well, but I would rather we try new things. ▶ this video
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@sethammons2022 · in “Researchers home in on possible “day zero” for Antikythera mechanism”
> let them dumb down a language If you've not seen it, I highly encourage this 6 minute take by Stephen Fry on Language: ▶ this video And besides, while you may be honing a blade or skill, my Homing Pigeon is homing in on home.
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@inlined2019 · in “Flawed Algorithms Are Grading Millions of Students’ Essays”
> the engines also focus heavily on metrics like sentence length, vocabulary, spelling, and subject-verb agreement... The systems are also unable to judge more nuanced aspects of writing, like creativity. This reminds me of a wonderful essay/speech by Stephen Fry on the harm done by pedantry. I also feel that schools focus so much on a single structure of essay writing and similarly take the joy out of language. ▶ this video
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@skeuomorf2015 · in “How to Fold a Julia Fractal”
That was kinda my point, I was not nitpicking -relative OP's- grammatical usage, I just thought it was convenient to refer to the author in a more specific manner since his details were obvious. I had no idea whether their -relative OP- :) intention was to use "their" in a singular or plural manner. Heck, one of my favorite Stephen Fry videos [0] talks exactly about this! Also, the videos you referenced are great :) [0] ▶ this video
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@blaze332014 · in “Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear”
Stephen Fry has an interesting take on the less/fewer debate: ▶ this video
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@phaet0n2012 · in “New Microsoft Windows chief 'shocked' by Sinofsky defenestration”
You may find this speech by Stephen Fry of help.[1] [1] ▶ this video
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@prtk2011 · in “Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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@joelanman2011 · in “The iPhone Tab Bar”
I like Stephen Fry's take on grammar and 'correctness': ▶ this video
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@blhack2010 · in “Steven Fry on Language [video]”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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@Rexxar2025 · in “Software development topics I've changed my mind on”
I think you can apply what Stephen Fry say in the following video to programming : ▶ this video