Dissociated Press n.
[play on `Associated Press'; perhaps inspired by a reference
in the 1950 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] An algorithm
for transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even
more efficiently than by passing it through a marketroid. The algorithm starts by
printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in the text. Then
at every step it searches for any random occurrence in the
original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed
and then prints the next word or letter. EMACS has a handy command for this. Here is a
short example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an
earlier version of this Jargon File:
wart: n. A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an array (C has no
checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to spot if
the phrase is bent so as to be not worth paying attention to the
medium in question.
Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press
applied to the same source:
window sysIWYG: n. A bit was named aften /bee't*/
prefer to use the other guy's re, especially in every cast a
chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech makes
removing a featuring a move or usage actual abstractionsidered
interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem!
A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Dissociated
Press to a random body of text and vgrep the output in hopes of finding an
interesting new word. (In the preceding example, `window sysIWYG'
and `informash' show some promise.) Iterated applications of
Dissociated Press usually yield better results. Similar
techniques called `travesty generators' have been employed with
considerable satirical effect to the utterances of Usenet
flamers; see pseudo.