posted
Yeah, there're a number of british-isms in there, in particular british in-jokes.
My bet is for most of these the person just couldn't think of anything good (already exhausted the obvious?) and decided to be funny instead.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
My sister in law should have made that list. For "Name something you see in the countyside," her answer was "Seashore." For "Name a prison occupation," she answered "Innkeeper," to which Richard Dawson said, "Innkeeper. We need more of those in prison." The funniest one was was the show where the question was, "Name a type of pill," my 17 year old brother in law (and this was about 25 years ago) answered, "Birth control pill," and my 27 year old sister in law, who had had 4 kids in four years said, "Vitamins."
Posts: 171 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
The funniest gameshow moment I ever saw was on Family Feud a couple years ago. This was on the actual show, not even on one of the bloopers specials. An obviously ill-educated black family won the game. They went into the bonus round, and the dimmest bulb of the lot went second. She gave a string of singularly bad answers, and finally got to the last question:
Host: Name a classical music composer.
Contestant: Ummm... Pass.
Host: It's the last question. You have 10 seconds. You might as well guess.
Contestant: Umm...
** 9... 8... 7... **
Contestant: Hemmm... Ummm....
** 6... 5... 4... **
Contestant: Errr.... Ummmm...
** 3... 2... 1... **
Contestant:JULIO IGLESIAS!!
I'm sure some people don't care to listen to classical music. But can you imagine going your whole life without ever learning the name of Bach, Beethoven or Mozart? It boggles the mind, and it nearly made me wizz my pants laughing to boot.
Ah, yes. The lovely baroque sounds of Julio Iglesias. Whenever I go to the symphony, I always hope they'll play a traditional arrangement of The Girl from Ipanima, with authentic instruments of the age. I loved it when Willie Nelson did To All the Girls I've Loved Before. I always forget, was that a duet with Franz Lizt or Felix Mendelssohn?
I love his son. You know, the one that's always on MTV, with the mole on his face. What's his name? Oh, yeah. Carl Philipp Emanuel Iglesias.
posted
***WARNING: semi-adult humor following, do not read if you are not of age, chronologically or in maturity***
Well, there is that infamous (and well before most of our times) Newlywed Game dialogue.
The show, if you do not know, was set up so that 3 recently-wed couples try to answer questions about their spouse to prove that they knew them better than the others knew their own. The winners got some nice prizes, or something.
So on one of the shows, the host, Bo Eubanks asked the couples: "Where is the strangest place you've ever made whoopie?" Remember we're talking the 60s and 70s folks. Also, realize the husband has an answer written on a card that he flips over after his wife answers.
Anyway, the wife looks and acts uncomfortable, like she's trying to phrase her answer correctly, and then says, "I don't think I can answer that, Bob."
Bob encourages her on, as sometimes contestants didn't like to mention certain things, even if it usually ended up as having a first date at a Ground Round, or something.
Finally, she gives her answer... "In the a--, Bob."
At that point the audience, contestants, and Bob all go into a fit of laughter. The poor woman is a bit confused at this response, not realizing she understood the question incorrectly.
posted
I knew I'd get crap about that. It was for descriptive purposes only. If it was a redneck family from Alabama, I'd have mentioned that. And I'm sure there would have been no comments on it. But I guess it's no longer okay to imply that any black people aren't Nobel Prize laureates.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Okay, I posted that last reply at work, and this is why I never do that. I was in way too much of a hurry, and so I just hit "reply" about half way through what may have been a more even-headed response. Sorry if it came off as rude or defensive.
Why I mentioned the contestants' race, mark 2:
As I said in my last post, it was for descriptive purposes. Specifically, I put in the bits that made the incident seem funny to me. I thought about leaving out the race issue, because I knew that describing a black person as uneducated would look awfully un-PC. But honestly, when I think about the incident, I remember the ebonics and the mannerisms, and it's part of what made it so amusing.
Granted, the statement could just as easily have been made by a Mississippi redneck, a California surfer, or an English cockney. And it probably would have been just as funny in those contexts. But it wasn't. It was made by a black person. When I considered whether to add the race issue to the story, I decided to put it in for two reasons. First, I think a description of the contestants culture adds a certain vividness to the story, which makes it funnier. Second, if the statement was made by a redneck, a surfer or a cockney, I would not have hesitated to add the racial/ cultural description. That being the case, if I omit a racial description simply because a person is black, that is racist.
The bottom line is that I know myself. I feel comfortable with the fact that I'm not a racist, and that I can tell the difference between the statement that there once was a stupid black person and that black people are stupid. That's why I saw nothing wrong with adding the race of the character to my story.
Does that make more sense? Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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