Not entirely sure if this is an original thought - loosely, it’s some sort of game in which the aim is to summarise the plot, or key aspect of a film, book, or play. I guess there’s no sense in which you can win the game, you just have to content yourself with a self-satisfied feeling when you think of a particularly amusing or clever summary.
You can be as pretentious and obscure as you like, with extra kudos awarded for the abstract, the pithy, or just the plain smug and irritating, in the style of Radio panel games such as I’m sorry I haven’t a clue. Clearly, the shorter the summary, the better, and it doesn’t get much shorter than “man chases whale” - pages of literature condensed into four syllables 
Sadly, I can’t remember any of the other highly smug and irritating examples I’ve thought of in the past, but I’m confident they’ll come flooding back soon.
Tags: Pretentious
2 Comments on Man chases whale
Ooooh, can I play? Is using iconic phrases cheating?
Courtroom can’t handle the truth. Man in nuclear can shouts at captain. Rescuing friend from hock requires oreos. Dead psych sees live boy. Short guys annoy big eye.
Can you improve on any of those?
http://ter.air0day.com/?script=revengeofthesith (not quite a one liner, but I think it’s funny)
You might be interested in http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html