Slang Word of the Day: Narm

Warning: mild/major spoilers ahead.  All credit for this entry goes to tvtropes.org; I am responsible only for the one about Eragon and the extended rant about Yu-Gi-Oh.

Narm

Part of speech: usually noun, occasionally tweaked to adjective

Narm is taken from the show Six Feet Under, where the main character Nate’s arm goes numb after a brain embolism (much like a stroke).  He clutches it, yelling “Numb Arm!”, which becomes shortened to “Narm!  Narm!”  This is supposedly the climax of the movie, but it instead becomes very amusing.  A Narm, therefore, is a moment that is supposedly dramatic or emotional but through overacting, excessive drama, or just plain sappiness becomes hilarious or absurd.  Occasionally caused by poor English (see Heroes example).  Sometimes is intentional as a form of lampshading.  Extremely subjective.  Can lead to Dis Continuity (refusing to accept that something has happened by simply ignoring its existence) if extremely distasteful.

Examples (my favorite part)

 Live Action TV

• Law and Order, “The Good Child”, where the criminal is dragged away while repeatedly screaming “Eggcup!”
• The West Wing season five, where Josh Lyman screams “You want a piece of me?!” at the Capitol Building.
• Any time in Battlestar Galactica, where a n00b hears them say “Frak!” during serious moments (guilty).
• Heroes, where Hiro is yelling “You not a hero!  You a bi-ran!  Bi-ran!” (villan… wonderful Engrish…)

Live Film

• The Star Wars prequel trilogy.  I dare you to contradict me on this.  Most involving Padme and Anakin’s cheesy romance.  A smattering of scnes:
  **The whole midichlorians thing in Episode 1.
  **Anikan’s creepy sand soliloquy in Episode 2.
  **Padme’s creepy “We can’t be lovers” speech in Episode 2.
  **The extremely creepy “I killed them like animals!/You’re not all-powerful-/WELL I SHOULD BE!!” in Episode 2.  Let’s just say “any moment with those two alone” and have done with it.
  **Anikan’s “I HATE YOU!!!” in Episode 3…
  **And then there’s Luke’s Big No in Episode 5, though the jury’s out on this one.  Big Nos are subject to Narminess if not done properly.
• For that matter, the Ewoks were pretty darn Narmy.
• Transformers, where Allspark turns a cellphone into a hyperactive killing machine.
• Eragon.  Are you really going to make me quote examples?  Ah well, more rant time.
  **The whole “magical grow-up sequence”, where Saphira gets struck by lightning and goes from poodle-sized to beyond-Clydesdale-sized in about ten seconds.  That’s ten literal screen seconds, not time-elapsed seconds.
  **The sequence with Angela (who was creepy in the movie but my favorite character in the book).  Completely lacking in Solemnbum (CURSE YOU!!!).
  **Where the Shade (Durza) makes a dragon out of what I can only assume is dark energy – and rides it during his battle with Eragon.
  **Saphira flinging Eragon with her tail so he can attack the Shade at close range.
  **As if this wasn’t enough, Eragon yells “Let’s finish this!” in the middle of the battle.  Sounds like a crappy anime show licensed by 4Kids *coughYugiohcough*
  **Eragon’s dramatic “Waaaaiiiise heeiiiiillll!” after the battle.
  **Note: some people think all of the Inheritance book series is pure Narm, though I personally don’t.  However, the sibling version of “Luke I am Your Father” at the end of Eldest comes pretty close…
• Star Trek II, where a red-faced Kirk yells “Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn!!” into the communicator.
• Spiderman 3, most involving Toby Macguire’s weird facial expressions.
• John Cusack in 1408, where he attacks his mini-fridge while screaming “What do you want from me?!”

Literature

• The aforementioned Inheritance series, though that’s up for debate.
• Some people consider the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to be a Narm-filled train wreck.  After J.K. Rowling’s revelation about Dumbledore, I have stopped reading the series entirely.
• Parodied as a play within a play in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  This is an example of Zeroth Law (“Shakespeare did it first”).

Western Animation

• GI Joe and its infamous “Cobra-la-la-la-la-la-la!”
• The animated version of The Lord of the Rings released in the late seventies.  Most of these moments were due to rotoscoping (tracing over and coloring in live action film):
  **Gandalf cannot go a single speech or scene without wildly flailing his arms.
  **The Orcs are very obviously men in monster masks.
  **The Balrog is distinguishable as a man in a bear suit wearing fairy wings and fuzzy slippers.  I Am Not Making This Up.

Anime/Manga

• Yu-Gi-Oh.  Don’t even get me started.  The first season was mildly interesting (although my first viewing of it put me off anime entirely for a good two years), but it immediately took a nose dive after the Duelist Kingdom arc.  The biggest Narmy parts: Mai, Yugi’s hair, and those incessant friendship rants.  As far as I’m concerned, the sequel series does not exist.  (See above definition of Dis Continuity.)
• The Big O, in which a protagonist shouts “I’m one of the tomatoes!”
• Sailor Moon, where half the show is taken up by their transformation sequences.
• Digimon: a pipsqueak voice yelling “I will see that justice is SERRRRRRRRVED!!”, Venom’s crotch-shooting beast, and said Venom being killed by a hardball to the groin.  Ouch.
• General Septem from Gundam Wing, who gets ejected from a plane and then shot (just in case he survived falling from a plane).
• Dragonaut.  Enough said.
• Any anime where the dub is in the same monotone as the original Japanese.

Video Games

• Final Fantasy IV, where Tellah cries, “You spoony bard!”
• The first Final Fantasy, where Garland states, “I Garland shall knock you down!”
• Devil May Cry, where Dante sorrowfully cries, “I wanted to be the one who filled your dark soul… with LIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!”
• Zero Wing: ”All your base are belong to us.”  My brother has the first three words as a revolving screensaver.
• Whenever someone says “La-li-lu-le-lo” in Metal Gear Solid 2.
• “I’ll kill you, AND THE NIGHT!!” from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.

My new favorite word.  More to come, along with more Tales from the Lunchroom and a 2,000 hits picture.