Social experiment: Next time someone sneezes, say "Shazaam!"

and see how they respond. I am guessing they will say "Thank you." I'm guessing this because a co-worker and I have started saying this whenever anyone sneezes(which they do a lot in this office for some reason), and that is precisely what people do here. They act as though "Shazaam!" is the most natural response to a sneeze in the world.

How this started: My co-worker sneezed, I said "Gesundheit" very quickly, and she said, "Did you say, 'Shazaam!'?" Ridiculous, but this could be useful for those of us who are not religious for whom "Gesundheit" does not roll off the tongue. Of course "salud" would work just as well, I suppose. But there's something *magical* about "Shazaam!"

:shrug:

http://www.answers.com/gesundheit&r=67

I thought it meant health.

;)

Gesundheit is the present non-religious response to a sneeze. I'm just saying it doesn't roll off the tongue the way Shazaam or even Bless you does. Or do. So I'm proposing Shazaam as a lightning fast, non-religious response to a sneeze.

That's what I always say when someone sneezes.

For the co-workers I want to be hit by lightning (hopefully they won't be changed into a super-powered member of the Captain Marvel family).

One year in college, we had this guy named, "Scoob," on our floor. If you've ever seen the video, "Pretty Fly for a White Guy," you've got a good idea of Scoob. We noticed that he would almost immediately adopt phrases into his vocabulary after hearing it if he thought the other person was "cool." Another guy and I decided to see how long it would take him to adopt a stupid phrase if some of our floormates and I started using it.

It just took a day for him to start saying, "Hey, you are somebody," as a parting phrase.

TlalocW

It's easy to say.

are most people still under the impression that good spirits are getting out or bad spirits are getting in when they sneeze ?

To the degree that this myth gets advancement here at the moof hut the
system is more of a rating thing, like Zowie for a really good one to wowser for a moderate one and so on.

For out in the public at large the old Sienfeld
" Your sooooo good lookin "
is still the fav.

I think it's to wish the person good health--that the sneeze, in other words, not be the sign of bad health.

Talking here about the more common " bless you " come back.

but I thought I read somewhere that people said "bless you" in case the sneeze was a sign that the person might die. It was kind of like saying, "If you're doomed, May you go to heaven."

your response did not compute here so in order to bring about a bit more understanding.

"Shazam" in response to a sneeze ,
cool idea and much better than " bless you ".

Given the fevor of religious people in America these days it seems you might be asking for conflict by appearing to reject the idea of blessing people that sneeze.

As for you making anything up, you are going to have to help there a little, while most anything is possible with this text on a screen deal, it was not the intent to infer anything negative about your idea.

The only problem is with the support of the need to say anything that would suggest a request to a supernatural being for intervention.

Not being well versed in what people expect or think their particular supernatural enity, it seems that the myth of one is being fostered in an indirect way.

Any attempt to distance people from myth and bring them back to reality is a good thing, but that opinion seems to be in the miniroty these days.

It's because I'm not religious that I can't bring myself to say "Bless you." I think that was the unstated idea behind Seinfeld's "You're sooooo good looking!" which someone mentioned below in this thread (while also confirming your theory that "bless you" was intended to ward off evil spirits literally contained in the sneeze, not just ill health).

I live in Blue-ville, also known as Gesundheit-ville, so I don't think I'd get many negative responses from people who believe "bless you" is the only appropriate thing to say when someone sneezes. It might be different in Red-ville, if you know what I mean.

By the way, I don't think we're so off the same page, as far as I can tell. It didn't seem to me you meant anything negative about what I wrote, and I hope you didn't read anything defensive in what I replied to you, because I certainly wasn't feeling defensive. As far as I could tell, we were just exchanging casual observations on the meaning of sneezes and how people respond to them. I certainly wasn't thinking we were debating. :hi:

But as you say, it appears we are on the same page.
Always enjoy your posts and as far as red state blue state,
the religion seems more an obstacle to reality than the politics.
Say this or that politician is a jerk, not usually a problem.
Say something that can construed as negative about a supernatural being,
now there's a problem, it seems for many people, politics aside.

I see now why you thought I took offense. No, that was just an enjambed second sentence, rather than part of a title. I didn't mean to imply I thought you thought I was making shit up. :crazy:

Glad we cleared that non-conflict up! :toast:

you do the same and anyone else that reads this thread and
see how long it takes before it is heard on national TV.

:thumbsup:

The world is ours whenever we're together
There ain't a place I'd like to be instead of

Movin' down a crowded avenue
Doing anything we like to do
There's always lots of things that we can see
You can be anyone we like to be
All those happy people we could meet
Just groovin' on a Friday afternoon
Really, couldn't get away too soon

We'll keep on spending sunny days this way
We're gonna talk and laugh our time away
ya feel it coming closer day by day
Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly

Groovin' on a Friday afternoon
Really couldn't get away to soon
No, No, No, No
Groovin'

Surprazz! Surprazz! Surprazz!

I have never been able to figure out why people respond to a sneeze with a phrase. After reading some of the responses, I think I understand a little more about this common human habit.

I have never said anything to anybody when they sneeze.... I guess it would be funny to say something like "Shazzam".... like whoa that was a doozy...

LOL

That when you sneeze your soul flies out of your body. This was seen as a way to prevent that.

Did you see the Seinfeld episode where they discuss sneezing and decide to say "You're so good-looking!" instead of "God bless you"? I started a minor trend of doing that in my office years ago.

It's a cross between gesundheit, bless you, and blunderbuss.

"You're so good looking!"

because I have respiratory allergies, and there are times in the year when I sneeze a lot, despite medication. So I may sneeze several times in a row, and there's always some total stranger there to say "bless you" or "gesundheit." Each time. It's like they're calling attention to it.

AAARRRGGGH!

Really, if you don't say anything when I sneeze, I'll thank you for it!

:hi:

Drawback: You could wind up being escorted out of the building by security.