Short of the outbreak of World War III, the ship sinking, or attack by a giant octupus, I'd like to spend the next thirty minutes undisturbed.

This is a dryly humorous list of escalating disasters, from world war to sea monsters, that would be the only acceptable reasons to interrupt the speaker. It's an exaggerated way of demanding thirty minutes of peace, poking fun at how trivial most interruptions actually are by comparison.

Context reviewed 23 September 2026