here's a west wing question for you, several years after the fact.

[fox]

Recall that in the early 3rd-season episode "Ways and Means", the following dialogue takes place:

DONNA
I had a plan! Each box was numbered. There is a piece of paper with a number and a corresponding description of the contents of each box.

JOSH
Well, where is the piece of paper? [Donna glares at him.] It's... in one of these boxes.

DONNA
I had a plan.

This is, of course, just a smidgen of a longer conversation about in one of these boxes is this stuff, and in one of these boxes is the other stuff, and then Donna says "I can't [sleep] yet. Because in one of these boxes are FedEx receipts and mailroom records for any gifts or packages sent to senior staff, and in one of these boxes is a piece of paper which SAYS WHICH BOX IT'S IN!"

My question is this: did Sorkin really think that plan was all that clever that he needed to have Donna and Josh spend all that time describing it? I'm not saying Donna was wrong to be as wigged out as she was, but surely everyone who's ever worked in an office will join me in wondering why on earth he made her say "a piece of paper with a number and a corresponding description of the contents of each box" when he could have had her say "an index".

Comments

[jgesteve.livejournal.com]

I always took it as kinda of a deliberate exaggeration of "the plan".

To me it wouldn't have been as funny if had gone:

DONNA: I had a plan. I had a numbered index of the boxes.

JOSH: Well, where's the index... it's in one of these boxes.

DONNA: I had a plan

I think he was trying to use comedic repetition of "box," "plan," and "paper" which is just cut short by using "index" I think.

As wiki, and my college professor stated, comedy "contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations." (Emphasis mine)

[emila-wan.livejournal.com]

Was it, perhaps, a way to characterize her? I don't know the character, but from the speech she strikes me as comically verbose. I have a friend like this -- why use one word when 20 will do?

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

Well, I wrote to Aaron Sorkin, teleplay writer of this particular episode, and asked him about the dialogue as you have outlined above. His reply was relatively succinct, and I think can clear this up once and for all:

"Who the hell are you, and why are you bothering me?"

Obviously, Mr. Sorkin thinks he made the right choice.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Nobody i know would call it an index.