Ben and Pete mused a little about the presence and absence of Frank Oz in the scenes involving John Cleese in this episode, considering that Cleese once said that he was friends with Oz but wasn’t especially close with Henson. Regardless of how it shook out with the filming of the episode with regard to schedules and availability, the only character that Cleese interacts with on his “Pigs in Space” episode is Captain Link Hogthrob, despite an introduction of all three regular cast members.

There was some initial chatter by the hosts about doing some sort of vocab quiz for the various over-the-top adjectives used to provide pulpy color for the Swinetrek’s crew. Because very few of the initial words seemed excessively obscure, this was mostly dropped. Link is variously described as intrepid, stout-hearted, salubrious, intangible, neandrathalic, fatuous, indomitable (twice!), acrophobic, and quixotic over the course of the second season, and the use of melodramatic Homeric epithets seems to have been dropped as a joke for season three.

But Ben picked up on a word used to describe Dr. Strangepork — despite, as mentioned, not actually appearing in the sketch — as perhaps being unusual enough to merit comment or confusion. The word is “sesquipedalian”, which translates literally to “a foot and a half long” and is perhaps most commonly associated with being used to describe polysyllabic vocabulary, in the tradition of a classic Horacian utterance. Ben claimed that the word was almost exclusively associated with a Conservative personality who was famous for his extensive vocabulary and for television appearances sparring genteelly with Liberal firebrands of the day. The name of this person then totally dripped out of Ben’s brain, making the reference considerably less than a propos.

Ben probably first encountered William F. Buckley through a combination of Nick at Nite re-runs of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, where the world enjoyed Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine squishing his middle initial into his last name in a manner that may have been designed to emphasize and echo the first sound of a common vulgar dismissal of his views. He had also been referenced in Bloom County, and its hard to establish a precise timeline of allusions to obscure larger politics. But for Ben, it wasn’t until seeing actual footage of his debates with James Baldwin in the film I Am Not Your Negro in 2016 that he really was able to establish a contextual tactility in Ben’s brain, solidifying impressions that had been established in the flush of NPR coverage upon his death in 2008, including comment by Geoff Nunberg on Fresh Air that focused on “sesquipendalian”, cementing the link.

Nunberg focuses on the apposite use of the word in the New York Times obituary headline, and mentions that it seems to have incurred some minor confusion in the readership. A copy-editor for the Baltimore Sun says that on a message board, he was the sole voice that said the word was appropriate both for the man, and for popular use in publications. He goes on to list a number of newspapers of various size and scope using it as color to evoke the spirit of precise erudition in educators, judges, and jus’ plain folk. And despite not being much of a fan of the National Review, I enjoyed their SAT list of some of his choice words.

Further Reading and Viewing:

+ For a succinct list of his hits, influence, and the major talking points of Buckley’s career, I quite enjoyed this barrage of bullets from the New England Historical Society.

+ Buckley actually appeared as a guest on Laugh-In — not quite as audacious of a get as Richard Nixon, but still fascinating. The hosts were very polite, but I can’t help but see the appearance through the lens of the Trump appearance on Fallon, of being the sort of thing that helps make dangerous thought seem congenial and defanged. I don’t know enough to be certain that Buckley’s thought processes were harmful, but I’m suspicious of anyone who’s viewed as the progenitor of modern Conservatism.

+ WBUR in Boston covers an appearance on Firing Line where Buckley drew the line between his brand of Conservatism and others — something that further exploration might help me and others understand Buckley’s seat in the spectrum of anti-progressive thought — specifically facing off against pro-segregationalist George Wallace.

+ The Atlantic comments on how the Buckley/Baldwin debates still resonate and stand as historically important, and Richard Brody weighs in on the cultural context of the debates between Buckley and Gore Vidal depicted in the 2015 film Best of Enemies.