Editing 2470: Next Slide Please

{{comic
| number    = 2470
| date      = June 1, 2021
| title     = Next Slide Please
| image     = next_slide_please.png
| titletext = "I have nothing to offer but blood--next slide, please--toil--next slide, please--tears, and--next slide, please--sweat."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SLIDESHOW WITH -- NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE -- FAMOUS QUOTES ON IT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic presumes that many famous quotes are actually excerpts from slideshow presentations, and the text they were reading was split across multiple slides. The person making the speech wasn't operating the slide projector, so they had to ask the operator to go to the next slide. The common way to ask this is to say "next slide, please", but these have been edited out of the historical transcripts. The comic imagines the places where the slide breaks might have been, and inserts that request.

Most of these quotes are drawn from speeches, which could conceivably have been accompanied by slides or other stage directions ("pause for laughter"), but the list grows more ridiculous as it continues by including works of literature, where the reader is the one who turns pages as necessary, and then speeches from periods of history which predated slide projectors.

The phrase "Next slide, please" is perhaps in a sweet-spot of utility and performance. A rehearsed presentation, with speaker and 'slide handler' working with a tight script, could probably do without off-stage prompting at all, or the better lecturers with an oft-repeated talk could set it all on timings knowing they can keep the changes synchronised with their speech, or vice-versa. But when a cue is necessary, an unambiguous signal should be used, and an audible 'clicker' (or a small and briefly flashed light) has been used historically, especially with pre-electronic slide-shows where the slide-operator at the back of an auditorium needed to clearly discern the intent of the person at the lectern.

Single words might be more efficient, such as "Next", "Slide" or "Please" on their own, but occasionally could crop up in the rest of their patter, unrelated to a desired change. (It is a comedy staple that a person who was without an expected 'clicker' would actually resort to ''saying'' "Click", with or without later confusion when they say something that sounds like they intended an advance.)

Two word signals (e.g. "Next slide", "Next, please" or "Slide, please") might suffice to be clear but sound a bit sharp, or even rude and condescending to the 'floor staff', devaluing the tacked on politeness. Overly long phrases, such as "Thank you, Mr Hargreaves, could you put the next image, if you would be so kind", are not unknown but indicative of an inexperienced yet amicable (or else supercilious) presenter, and would present greater distractions to the audience if used consistently for many instances of prompting.

While still suffering from repetition, and the apparent sincerity of politeness may have worn thinner through overuse, it seems that these three words have been honed in on (at least in the anglosphere) as a commonly expected phrasing.

The further test of the orator's character is now when a change is missed, accidentally doubled, the prepared sequence is subtly digressed from the talk or an audience comment requires reversal to prior material. At this point communications between the podium and off-stage become vastly more improvisational, dependent upon the situation encountered. If the audience is 'lucky', the exchange necessitates a full dialogue, with different joys depending upon how much of the non-presenter's half of the discussion can be heard as resolution or resignment is attained. None of the comic's examples go this far but the possibilities of what they might have entailed, in each case, is easily imagined. 
  
{| class="wikitable"
!Quote
!Attribution
!Context
|-
| "Give me liberty or give me—Next slide, please—death!"
| {{w|Patrick Henry}}, at the {{w|Second Virginia Convention}} on March 23, 1775, as part of the revolutionary war against {{w|Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain}}.
|
|-
| "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down—Next slide, please—this wall."
| {{w|Ronald Reagan}}, {{w|Berlin Wall Speech}} (1987).
|
|-
| "It was the best of times—Next slide, please—It was the worst of times."
| {{w|A Tale of Two Cities}}, novel by {{w|Charles Dickens}}. 
|
|-
| "We have nothing to fear but—Next slide, please—fear itself."
| Inauguration of {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt}} in 1933. 
|
|-
| "To be or—Next slide, please—not to be, that is the question."
| From the play ''Hamlet'' by {{w|William Shakespeare}}, Act III, Scene i. 
|
|-
| "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art—Next slide, please—more lovely and—Next slide, please—more temperate."
| Shakespeare's {{w|Sonnet 18}}.  
| A sonnet is a type of love poem, and it requires rhyming and pacing. The inclusion of "Next slide, please" would break said poetic flow. 
|-
| "We shall fight—Next slide, please—on the beaches, we shall fight on—Next slide, please—the landing grounds..."
| {{w|Winston Churchill}}, ''{{w|We shall fight on the beaches}}'' speech.
| 4 June 1940, after the disastrous first weeks of the {{w|battle of France}} Churchill had to acknowledge a military disaster but to convene confidence in victory and will to fight.
|-
| "Read my lips—Next slide, please—no new taxes."
| {{w|George H. W. Bush}}, spoken at 1988 Republican National Convention
| 
|-
| "That's one small step for man—Next slide, please—one giant leap for mankind."
| {{w|Neil Armstrong}}, when he stepped off the {{w|Apollo 11}} lunar module and onto the surface of the Moon.
|
|-
| "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears! Next slide, please. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."
| From the play ''{{w|Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar}}'' by Shakespeare, Act III, Scene ii. 
| Takes place after Julius Caesar suffered a few stab wounds.
|-
| "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of—Next slide, please—a good fortune, must be in want of—Next slide, please—a wife."
| Intro to ''{{w|Pride and Prejudice}}'', written by {{w|Jane Austen}}.
|
|-
| "Veni, vidi—Velim, pictura proxima—vici."
| {{w|Julius Caesar}}, in a letter after defeating Pharnaces II (47 BC). Literally, "I came, I saw—Please, next picture—I conquered." - it seems to fit nicely into the alliteration.
| Caesar used this phrase to refer to a swift, conclusive victory at the Battle of Zela.
|-
| "I have nothing to offer but blood--next slide, please--toil--next slide, please--tears, and--next slide, please--sweat." (title text)
| Winston Churchill, '''{{w|Blood, toil, tears and sweat}}'' speech.
| From 1940, shortly after he became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when asking for a vote of confidence in the new all-party (unity) cabinet.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
: [Text at the center:]
: ''Did you know?''
: ''Transcripts of famous quotes often''
: ''leave out the slideshow instructions.''
: ''Here’s the line actually sounded:''
: [Below showing a list of quotations, with Ronald Reagan standing next to a slide showing the Berlin Wall to the right of the text.]
: "Give me liberty or give me—Next slide, please—death!"
: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down—Next slide, please—this wall."
: "It was the best of times—Next slide, please—It was the worst of times."
: "We have nothing to fear but—Next slide, please—fear itself."
: "To be or—Next slide, please—not to be, that is the question."
: "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art—Next slide, please—more lovely and—Next slide, please—more temperate."
: [Below showing another list of quotations, with Winston Churchill standing next to a slide showing a beach to the left of the text.]
: "We shall fight—Next slide, please—on the beaches, we shall fight on—Next slide, please—the landing grounds..."
: "Read my lips—Next slide, please—no new taxes."
: "That's one small step for man—Next slide, please—one giant leap for mankind."
: "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears! Next slide, please. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."
: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of—Next slide, please—a good fortune, must be in want of—Next slide, please—a wife."
: "Veni, vidi—Velim, pictura proxima—vici."

==Trivia==
* The Blood, toil, tears and sweat speach was already the topic of [[1148: Nothing to Offer]]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ronald Reagan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Winston Churchill]]