Support Terms #891: Frisbee Moment

The Frisbee Moment

This phrase is coined from the episode of the Simpsons where Bart is going to lose his disobedient dog, Santa's Little Helper.

There's a touching scene in which Bart plays a last game of frisbee with him. Bart throws a large plastic frisbee at SLH. It sails through the air and bounces hard directly off the dog's open eyeballs. Santa's Little Helper doesn't even blink.

Frisbee moments happen when a person doesn't actually register that they've been hit in the eye with a hard, unforgiving frisbee. They look a lot like this:

Consultant: Users are finding that authentication performance is slow.

SP: Let's look at the event logs... oh my, there are tons of events saying they can't reach a Domain Controller. (frisbee thrown)

Consultant: Yes, we removed all the DCs last week, because they had errors in their event logs. (frisbee bouncing off open eyeballs)

SP: ... (shock)

Consultant: ... (waiting)

Recovery from a frisbee moment: Tricky. Often, you need to explain that frisbees are hard plastic objects that hurt when they connect with your eyeball, and a little bit about basic physics and the nervous system, then hit them in the eye with the frisbee again so that they get the idea. You may need to strike the subject in the eyes repeatedly with slightly different frisbees from varying angles to induce the appropriate response.

Last-ditch recovery from a frisbee moment: If all else fails, try using a larger object: hit the hapless victim with a (metaphorical!) car/bus/train, and some well-placed histrionics.