Asks literally no one! But I’ll tell you anyway. It was hard to find a short catchy name that wasn’t already taken. I wanted the reference to knitting to be oblique rather than explicit – so including the word ‘loop’ seemed a good idea.
One of my favourite films is the Coen brothers’ Hudsucker Proxy, where at one point a stereotypical Viennese psychoanalyst, Dr Bronfenbrenner, describes the mental state of the main character, Norville Barnes (played by Tim Robbins):
Patient dizplayed liztlessness, apathy, gloomy indifference und vas blue und mopey. Ven asked vut four Rhorschach stains reprezented, patient replied, ‘Nussink much,’ ‘I don’t know,’ ‘Chust a blotch,’ und ‘Sure beats me.’ Patient shows no ambition, no get-up-und-go, no vim. He is riding ze grand loopen-ze-loop zat goes from ze peak of delusional gaiety to ze trrrroff of dezbair. Patient is now near – but not yet at! – ze lowest point; ven he reachensies bottom he may errrrrupt und pose danger to himself und uzzers.
I can’t find a link online to this very funny scene (it is copyright, after all!), but I did find this gif. Another hilarious scene is where a German scientist describes how a hula hoop works.
It’s brilliant stuff. I can’t ever hope to have the genius of a Coen brother, but I can dream …
Loopenzeloop 