Cobalt's jokes

Question

Hi, it's interesting to watch Stephen Cobalt's speech at the white house press conference (long ago in April), but most puns or jokes seem to be a password to me. I can understand if we take it word by word, but it's difficult when they 're combined. Please help.

Let me show it....
"Whoever parked 14 black bulletproof S.U.V.'s out front, could you please move them? " -- What's Out front?

"We're not brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We're not members of the factinista. "

" Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? " -- What does it mean?
”The president in this case is Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed is — everything else in the world. It's the tenth round. ”
”no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound — with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.” --- staged photo ops?

"He's a good Joe. " ---- a Joe..?

"She's a true lady and a wonderful woman. But I just have one beef, ma'am." -- Beef here means...?

Thanks a lot!

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

"Whoever parked 14 black bulletproof S.U.V.'s out front, could you please move them? " -- What's Out front? In the front of the building.

"We're not brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We're not members of the factinista. " "Brainiacs" are people who are really smart, but it's not said in a nice way. My nickname, geek, is like nerd - people who put too much time into studies or other specific interests.

" Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? " -- What does it mean? I don't know. I think we need a little more context on this one.

”The president in this case is Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed is — everything else in the world. It's the tenth round. ” Oh - this goes back to the movie Rocky, in which Rocky was the boxer that no one thought would win against Apollo Creed. In fact, in the first movie, he didn't. In the second he did. In the third, he beat Mr. T... in the fourth ... I can't believe they made a fourth!
”no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound — with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.” --- staged photo ops? A photo op is a situation set up specifically so that people in the news industry can take pictures. The president stepping off the airplane to receive flowers from the little girl in the wheelchair... etc. One that is "staged" is a situation that would not have taken place if the cameras were not going to be there.

"He's a good Joe. " ---- a Joe..? A "Joe" is just an average guy.

"She's a true lady and a wonderful woman. But I just have one beef, ma'am." -- Beef here means...? A "beef" is a complaint.

Anonymous · Answer

"Whoever parked 14 black bulletproof S.U.V.'s out front, could you please move them? " -- What's Out front?
Out front means in front of the building, the door, etc.. the general entrance.

”no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound — with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.” --- staged photo ops, means Planned Photo Opportunity, (for America to look good)

"She's a true lady and a wonderful woman. But I just have one beef, ma'am." -- Beef here means...?

It means complaint. She's a wonderful woman, but I have just one complaint,

Yau · Answer

After so many years in using English, i'm wondering why i didn't know so many words in American english. Thanks so much for Grammar Geek and "Anonymous" 's helps. It's so useful for me.

you mentioned that "We're not brainiacs on the nerd patrol" is not said in nice way, but it seemed that he praised Bush was a smart guy. what exactly is "nerd patrol"? I also tried to look up "factinista" in my dictionary , and still can't grab its meaning.

And there's also a difficult metaphor. "Jesse Jackson is here, the Reverend.........You can ask him anything, but he's going to say what he wants, at the pace that he wants. It's like boxing a glacier. Enjoy that metaphor, by the way, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is."

BarbaraPA · Answer

I'm not sure I can explain the factinista. Remember, he said "we are NOT brainiacs on the nerd patrol." He's saying "We're smart, but we're not so focused on being so smart that we get lost in the facts and forget their a real world."

A glacier is a huge piece of ice. If you were to box (sport fighting) with a glacier, it wouldn't matter what you do - the glacier will just sit there doing what it "wants" to do. The reference about grandchildren was his way of saying that due to global warming, the glaciers would melt and our grandkids won't live on a planet that has glaciers.

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