3MF

Verbs is a noun

I caught a River City Improv show this weekend. They played mime debate where they divide into two teams and try to get one of the other of the members of the team to say a noun, adjective, and verb which have been suggested by the audience by miming out the words. So when Michele solicited suggestions for an adjective, i offered up "transitive." I didn't think it would be all that hard but they always seem to get a bit freaked out by big words. Michele questioned wether it was actually an adjective. Russ was on stage and was familiar with "transitive verbs" so he pointed out that example as proof of its grammatical categorization. That got Michelle even more confused because she know that adjectives had to modify nouns and in the example it was modifying "verbs." Finally Russ had to explain that "verbs is a noun." That was one of my favorite parts of the show.

I should add that after all of that hemming and hawing, they finally accepted the word and played the game. The new girl, Mel, cleverly put together "train," "sit," and "hive" to get the word out. After they got it, the audience gave them some of the biggest applause of the night.