Questions on humorous expressions related to American culture

Question

Hello all,

I was listening to an Obama's speech on the Duke Blue Devils' winning 2015 Championship. It was funny in general, but when I tried to read its transcript line by line, I found more than a couple of lines I could not understand. I am thinking this difficulties may come from my unfamiliarity with American culture including basketball. Could you help me to get the meanings by explaining whether its background or lexical meaning? I have read about the Blue Devils team and so on. So,

1. I am not sure why the audience are shouting four more years, and to whom they are telling this.

THE PRESIDENT:	We’ve got some big Duke fans here today, including some members of Congress, our Transportation Secretary -- a native of North Carolina, Anthony Foxx. (Applause.) I’d like to recognize the Chairman of Duke’s Board of Trustees, David Rubenstein, who’s here. (Applause.) Duke President Richard Brodhead is here. (Applause.) Athletic Director Kevin White is here. (Applause.) And an up-and-coming coach named Mike Krzyzewski. (Applause.) Hey!
AUDIENCE MEMBER:	Four more years! Four more years! (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT:	We think he has a lot of potential. (Laughter.)
	Although he does look the same -- have you noticed?
	There’s like that Dorian Gray mirror thing going on somewhere.

My guess initially was to Coach K but he's been in his position for a very long time and it doesn't seem that that is renewed for every four years. My second guess was it might be to Obama since it is already his second tenure and he is not eligible to run the third. The third guess is the team won twice for the last four years so that the audience are asking the next successful four more years which is not at all easy. Which do you think is the most plausible?

2. It is about the relationship between Chicago and bling.

COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	We have loved being here. Last night, David Rubenstein made it available for us to have a dinner at the National Archives, so it was an unbelievable night. And in front of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, our guys were awarded their championship rings last night. So that was a cool night.
THE PRESIDENT:	That's great.
COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	They're pretty big, by the way.
THE PRESIDENT:	They are. (Laughter.)
	Show it again.
COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	I’m from Chicago. A little bit of bling is not -- (laughter) -- it’s not bad.

My guess in this line is Chicago may have a big population who are fond of bling..... Is it true?

3. This is about "bracket". My friend thinks it is a kind of American joke and I think "bracket" means Obama has to guess what the next present is. But I am not quite sure... as well as what happened last time.

COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	So we brought a few gifts. And I want to explain them, and I’m going to have Amile and Quinn, our co-captains, give them.
	But we have a jersey.
THE PRESIDENT:	I need a jersey.
COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	We have a ball, all right.
THE PRESIDENT:	You got a ball. I need a ball.
COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	And we have -- I know you --
THE PRESIDENT:	My bracket again? (Laughter.)
COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	No, no. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT:	He did this to me last time.
COACH KRZYZEWSKI:	No, no -- but any time you take a test and you put your answers there, you should always want the approved solution. (Laughter.)

Thank you for reading this long post, first of all. And I hope this posting can also be helpful to the people who are studying languages by demonstrating how cultural contextual knowledge influences in understanding meaning.

Please, talk with me what you think about above examples.

Cheers,
G

Dave_anon · Accepted Answer

Hi

I'm UK, but I'll try the 'bracket' question - it's interesting

Obama, like all politicians, has scripts for what he says.
So, if the other guy is hesitating, he can say {..that's great .}

However, Mr O is good, so he's just joking while the other
man is thinking what to say next

- I'll just do some {brackets} here

Dave

Englishe · Answer

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply. This is new to me, the usage of { } in a speech. I will use it someday.

I have thought of this expression of "filling out a bracket" after reading an article about Coach K and Obama. Back in 2009, Obama told "picked North Carolina to win the NCAA championship (they eventually did win)." and Coack K told "the media he wished Obama would spend more time fixing the economy and less time filling out a bracket."

If you are familiar with basketball, could you let me know what 'fill out a bracket' means?

After searching in Google a bit more, my guess is to fill a tournament bracket is kind of a bet that ordinary people guess who's going to win against whom. So, it means Obama was right or won in 2009 but there is more important things to do as a president of the USA. And not in 2015, Obama is kind of joking with a bit of sarcasm(?).

What do you reckon?

Cheers,
G

Dave_anon · Answer

Hi

That's interesting. I did warn you I'm not a native US speaker!

OK, I will revise my answer. What you say about brackets there refers, I think, to tournament diagrams like this:

(This may not come out well when it's posted ...)

(Team A )
vs > (...............)
(Team B) )
- vs > ............. The Winner
(Team C ) )
vs > (...............)
(??? )

In this context, to "fill a bracket" means that your team is entitled to be in one of the spaces marked by brackets. There may be quite complicated rules involving "wild cards" and the results of previous competitions

However, I don't think Obama and the coach exactly mean that (although they may have had it in mind). The other usage of brackets is in exam questions, like this ...

- Fred is my father's brother, so he is my (.............)

(... and the word to write in the brackets is uncle)

I think this is close to what Obama means - and it makes sense of the remark near the end about "taking a test"

Hope that may help

Dave

BarbaraPA · Answer

This is a lot of "cultural" stuff.
When a president is running for re-election, the crowd will shout "four more years." They are being funny about Coach K, who is a VERY long-serving, very successful coach. They are shouting at hims though he were running for re-election himself. It's just a joke. He is not elected.

There is also a well-observed phenomenon that presidents look a LOT older after only a few years in office. The president is making a joke that the same hasn't happened to Coach K. The portrait he refers to is a reference to the story "The Portrait of Dorian Gray."

I have no idea what the link between Chicago and "bling" is.

When the college basketball championships start, many people complete a "bracket." You have all the teams who are competing along the outer edges and you say who you think will win each match up. If you are good at it, and the teams you support do well, you might get three of the final four correct. Some people do it to gamble, some just for fun. I think the president (who is in general a big basketball fan) did very badly in his bracket the last couple years.

Questions on humorous expressions related to American culture

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