Semantic Web in This Is: Spinal Tap (1984)

From this deleted scene in This Is: Spinal Tap (1984) we are given an audio-visual gag in which musical sound is providing added value to the text for humor. Nigel starts the joke by explaining that he is writing music in the style of an “Indonesian folk tune” and presents a rather poor grasp of cross-cultural musical connections/styles. He demonstrates what people “normally” (?) play by plucking a major third, supposedly contrasted to Indonesia where they play tritones instead. So far you might be thinking that Nigel is going to make a point, but he then goes on tangent about how he is also writing in the style of “Western country music of the United States”, and demonstrates how it is actually very similar to Indonesian folk music by simply playing the same interval he played before. Part of the joke works because the viewer thinks Nigel is going to go somewhere with his connection but doesn’t really, but a key part of the joke is the semantic connection the viewer creates between that single interval and “Indonesian folk music”. By reusing the same interval for the Western folk music the semantic web by connecting the two contexts with the same musical idea is so painfully obvious (at least, based on Nigel’s demonstration) it invokes a comedic response.