User:Neiljamescain

Neil James Cain (NJC) was born 16 January 1982 in Wembley, England. Although he rose to notoriety for arranging a famous milk drinking race between his two cats Mr Blue and Amber in 2001, he is however best known for his coining of the phrase 'rompcom' in 2006. In a historical sense; the phrase rompcom can be used to describe movies such as Carry On Camping; a 1969 film starring the well known and much loved Sid James and Barbara Windsor. This is a hilarious, playful story packed with chaos, full of energy and not exactly true to life. A contemporary example of typical rompcom territory would be the Charlies Angels and American Pie films. If you check the wiktionary (wikepedia's online dictionary) you'll find the word romp (plural romps) 1. A period of boisterous play, a frolic. This is where the first half of the phrase originates from and the meaning stands to reason. It is a play on the better known phrase 'romcom'. Theoretically you can describe any comedy based film by tagging the abbreviation of comedy; 'com' onto the end of any given noun. For example; take a film where many of the characters are homosexual and the humour is engineered to appeal to a predominantly gay audience, when marketing this film it might be wise to advertise it as "The best gaycom this year!!" or "Gaycoms don't get much better than this" and so on. In conclusion, the phrase was coined as an attempt to playfully liberate the way movies can be described but also offer a more specific edge to the description. Its more a way of thinking than anything else.


 * Content Updated by Laura Smith (PIGS) to Reflect Reality as of 20/08/2008*

Neil James Cain (NJC) went on to try and expose his 'truth' behind the term "rompcomp" however his global (internet) searches failed to bear anymore substance than the baked bean between his ears. Undeniably, at first, NJC wore the look of a man full of promise and courage, determined to see his synthetic terminology carved in the world's historic stone.

Scratching the surface however, revealed an obscure reality of 'bedroom-box' blueprints, sprawled around a dark Hackney room amongst 'cup and girl' pornography. Self-made shelving (with felt-tipped shadow surrounds) unsuccessfully hid paper trails of his friend's payslips; sprawled with phrases such as 'no laughs on me mate' and 'get back to work for mussels fly face.' in childish red crayon.

NJC finally realised he would never reach the dizzy heights of movie definition he so cranked for, when he took his final stand outside the Dalston Rio, one Halloween 2 weeks after he defined the concept in 2006. Armed with a cut up shreddies box and his sharpened red crayon, NJC stood in the rain with a sign that red 'You guys enjoyed the rompcom huh?'

NJC left that night, covered in a swathe of popcorn ends, penny chews and straw wrappers from innocent Scream XI cinema goers, remembering the good old days when life was just a couple of saucers and four feline eyes looking up at him, whilst lapping at full cream milk.

Bearing the lines of a long journey over, NJC returned to Hackney and flicked on the goggle box. Crossing through the 'p' of his homemade pillow stitched with the words 'romp com' NJC lay his head down and watched Four Weddings and a Funeral, safe in the knowledge that he was in fact a winner.