Slashdot Mirror
Dead Parrot Sketch Is 1,600 Years Old
laejoh writes "Monty Python's 'Dead Parrot sketch' — which featured John Cleese — is some 1,600 years old.
A classic scholar has proved the point, by unearthing a Greek version of the world-famous piece.
A comedy duo called Hierocles and Philagrius told the original version, only rather than a parrot they used a slave.
It concerns a man who complains to his friend that he was sold a slave who dies in his service.
His companion replies: 'When he was with me, he never did any such thing!'
The joke was discovered in a collection of 265 jokes called Philogelos: The Laugh Addict, which dates from the fourth century AD.
Hierocles had gone to meet his maker, and Philagrius had certainly ceased to be, long before John Cleese and Michael Palin reinvented the yarn in 1969."
Old age.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Wow those plagiarists...what next are you going to tell me that the Holy Grail movie was based on ancient stories as well? Or Life of Brian? Are you telling me that Jesus wasn't an original character?
As a Classics major as an undergrad, I'm always happy to see these kind of stories. There was some wicked humour in the ancient world that is still hilarious today, from the political jibes in the plays of Aristophanes to the obscenities of Petronius' Satyricon. It's a pity that most people would never think about reading them, because one tends to assume that old literary works are dry and serious.
What's worse is that only only did they blatantly copy the Greeks parrot sketch, but they even copied (with some minor alterations) a humorous tale about a wandering preacher in The Life of Brian. Really, the Monty Python crew knew no shame.
That joke's not dead... It's pining for the fjords...
I'll have to check them out when I have time.
What I find really interesting is the graffiti from those times. Stuff about elections, dirty jokes (which you'd still find funny today), and so on.
You can read more of their jokes at Google Books.
Seriously, I saw these guys in their prime on the "Ranting from Rome to Apulia" tour. Fucking hilarious stuff. They really took a turn for the worse when that pussy Constanine brought in Christianity, though. It was just never the same for comedians in the Empire with those holier-than-thou types in charge.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218
THIS.... is an Ex-Parrot!!
What? They had humour prior to the 1960s? Seriously, deep inside me I believe that people hardly made or said anything funny back then. I'm sure lots of people feel the same way.
You just got troll'd!
joke predates you!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Umm, those aren't the same joke at all. Just because they both involve selling and dying doesn't mean that they're the same joke. The premise of the older joke is that the man who sold the slave is saying something in a surprised manner which is obviously true. The contrast is between his surprise and the understanding of the audience for the joke that he shouldn't be surprised (since obviously the slave hadn't died before he sold it).
The joke in the Monty Python sketch is that the parrot was dead when it was sold. The humor comes from the absurdness of the idea that someone could be sold a dead parrot without realizing it. The joke is furthered by the sales clerk's obviously futile attempts to claim that the parrot isn't dead and the colorful language used to attempt to convince the clerk that the parrot is dead. This is not at all the same joke. The premise is completely different, as is the type of humor involved. The Greek one is ironic humor. The Monty Python one is absurdist humor.
A 419-baiter got some Nigerian scam artists to record themselves doing the sketch as well. I actually like this one better!
The CB App. What's your 20?
It's the same sketch, only there is no parrot but a slave, the slave is not dead in the shop and consequently not nailed to the perch. But otherwise, really the same thing.
That's what I thought too, until I read Suetonius' Twelve Caesars... The amount of trash in it makes it particularly entertaining.
The Raven
So.....
what does this mean for copyright of the Parrot Sketch?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
But how do we read the content of the book, cocksucker?
Are they implying Monty Python stole the joke or that it has just been done before? It seems like a pretty strait forward joke and I can see it being reinvented. Either way it was a damn funny sketch.
Just for that:
Venn ist das nurnstuck git und slotermeyer? Ya! Beigerhund das oder die flipperwaldt gersput!
When I was much younger I was turned on to the classics after reading Lysistrata. Quick synopsis from Wikipedia:
Led by the title character, Lysistrata, the story's female characters barricade the public funds building and withhold sex from their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War and secure peace.
The euphemisms and innuendo are killer, especially to a young teen :)
With you eyes, of course.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
As a Classics major as an undergrad, I'm always happy to see these kind of stories. There was some wicked humour in the ancient world that is still hilarious today, from the political jibes in the plays of Aristophanes to the obscenities of Petronius' Satyricon. It's a pity that most people would never think about reading them, because one tends to assume that old literary works are dry and serious.
Nah. If this story has taught me anything, it's that if there's anything worth reading in those old sheepskins/tablets/papyrii, some modern comedian will steal it and repeat it, saving me the trouble of figuring out all the obscure cultural references from 3000 years ago.
I'm kidding. I think.
When compared to Monty Python, why are people complaining? I'm no literary expert but isn't there a finite amount of themes anyways? And every story is just a variation of those themes?
Interestingly enough, that's one of the ideas/themes in Watchmen, nothing ever ends and will continue to repeat.
My abilities are only limited by my imagination
That's because the only people you have known from that earlier time were all older and humorless by the time you met them. Comedy has been around since the the dawn of civilization, when Ugg the caveman first discovered comedy after eliciting laughs with an accidental fart joke.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
That is disappointing. It means the sketch where Eric brings Kenny back to the friend store to complain that he is dead is not even a original tribute. It is just a more direct rip off of the original work that the Pythons inadvertently ripped off from. Will the inhumanity never end!
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Yes, Euripides' Electra is one of the funniest plays in all existence simply for the recognition scene. Everyone should read the Oresteia and then read Euripides. Heck, that scene is hilarious even if you haven't read the Oresteia. Euripides mercilessly parodies a variety of literary conceits which are still used today. It is almost like Euripides had access to TVTropes.com
Nothing funny before 1960? Just read the Bible. "Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it." That's hilarious.
But, ahem, seriously, read some Georges Bataille for stilted stuffy stuff that is still hilarious.
http://www.greylodge.org/occultreview/glor_010/solar.htm (probably NSFW, but is just text).
He read the World's Funniest Joke of course!
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
One of the more interesting sermons I ever heard in church was around humor in the bible. Our preacher had a PhD in archeology, knew several dead languages, etc. So he was able to provide context for jokes that people people treat as dry and serious today. Apparently Jesus had a better sense of humor than people give him credit for.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
So does that mean Python was blatantly ripped off from an ancient programming language for some obscure mainframe which makes reference to ancient greek comedy in it's documentation?
I was just revisiting the 419eater website due to yesterday's news about a woman being scammed for $400k and came across this version of the sketch (scroll to near the bottom of the page)
http://www.419eater.com/html/bigman2.htm/
I know this a joke, but the 60's are typically considered the time when the current style of let's say impure humor began. Though I have never heard any of the albums, I hear Redd Foxx was quite the controversial figure. I often look back to the style of the time and think how could people tolerate that bubble gum pop, or was everyone on psychedelic drugs back them, but then I think of miles davis or Duke Ellington and realize that there were some people who wanted to push the envelope, not just make the money. And, of course, Richard Pryor started in the 60's.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Oh wait, wrong sketch.
You know... As a Norwegian, I feel insulted by your accusations!
So why has it taken sarcasm so long to catch on?
I could have sworn it was November...
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Any examples? Was Jesus a pervert?
Two words: Lenny Bruce
Also: 60s pop music was a lot more than the 50 or so songs that have been endlessly repeated on your local classic rock station and in movie soundtracks.
We think we have a memory of decades from before we were born, but we just have some editor's sleezy commercial take on the time. Really getting something approximating a feel for another time takes actual work and research.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
HUGE masochist.
The whole whipping, forced labour(carrying his cross), crown of thorns, getting stabbed with a spear, nailed to the cross and then being heaped with public ridicule was planned.
y'know the whole religious ecstasy thing? Self flagellants in ye olden times? Yes. You can come closer to Christ when you're whipping yourself. *cough*
Of course, they were supposed to come and take him down again after a while, not leave him there on the cross. Stupid careless tops =\ You don't leave your bottom unattended when they're in bondage. Just asking for trouble.
Do you have 101 ways to start a fight? By some Spartan fellow who's name eludes me for the moment...
I had a professor like that in college, he was a Lutheran Minister and an archeology PhD. He made the Bible hysterical.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
I think GP is trying to point out that your link doesn't actually contain the main text of the book.
Anyone can "stand up for what they believe", but it takes a very brave individual to change what they believe. - Loundry
Jesus had one joke in the bible..."Peter, you are the rock upon which my church will be built." Peter=petros=rock. HAHA Oh that Jesus always cracks me up!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Apparently even Jesus had a sense of humour. "Peter you are my rock" is probably the most famous pun in the world (Peter = rock).
http://slashdot.org/submission/1062723/Cheap-mobile-data-plan?art_pos=2
Everyone should read the Oresteia and then read Euripides.
How about a few links then? Learning ancient Greek so I can digging through historical liturature ain't on my bucket list.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
the 60's are typically considered the time when the current style of let's say impure humor began.
If you believe that, I have a humorous assortment of bridges to sell you.
Off color humor has always had a following, it's just that, from Victorian times until recently, the lettered public would never admit to such a thing, let alone allow it to be said in mixed company (e.g., when ladies were present). You can bet money that bawdy jokebooks were passed around behind closed doors at the private men's clubs, though. Also, you'd probably be able to find coarse language and crude humor wherever the "lower class" gathered as well - it's just that "those sorts of people" would never be let near something as dignified as literature, radio or television. (What if an impressionable young woman heard?)
That said, you don't have to dig very deep to find it, if you're looking. Heck, Shakespeare is a great source for double entendre, insults, and all manner of "impure humor". "The bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon", anyone? We recently had a story where they revealed that the world's oldest recorded joke was a fart-joke.
In related news, the RIAA is suing John Cleese for copyright infringement on behalf of the estates of Hierocles and Philagrius.
I read the title in the feed and thought we were talking about a drawing instead of a skit. (yes, I know there are multiple meanings for sketch... but in context it can be confusing.)
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Customer: I want my money back, this joke is old!
Salesman: Well, it wasn't when I have told you it.
Customer: It was, greeks were telling it 1600 years ago!
Salesman: I won't give your money back then, warranty has expired long ago!
Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
So why has it taken sarcasm so long to catch on?
Probably because sarcasm was never funny. ;)
More Twoson than Cupertino
There's nothing new under the sun.
60s pop is a lot better than 70s, 80s, 90s, or 00s pop.
"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
I am pretty sure that Ancient Greek Copyright Law is immortal!!
here's a painting from a pompeii brothel you might like: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/90/211691819_59a1c5345b.jpg
I'll see your hokum and raise you a boondoggle.
Like inhaling farts and sleeping with corpses, it is an acquired taste.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
They're not the same joke but they are more similar than you realize. Both versions have a buyer complaining to a seller about a defective purchase. In both cases, humor comes from the absurd argument the seller gives for why it's not his fault. The differences are mainly in the nature of that argument.
"It never died for me, so it must be something you did!"
versus
"It's not dead at all!"
They're different, but similar.
Blank Reg: This is a network linker. It's a bit out of your league, idn'it, Paula?
Paula: So, whatch'll you trade for it?
[Blank Reg offers her something]
Paula: What's that?
Blank Reg: It's a book!
Paula: Well, what's that?
Blank Reg: It's a non-volatile storage medium. It's very rare. You should 'ave one.
Paula: Stuff it!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I think the old joke should have been, "Hey, that slave you sold me is dead!" (not died in service; that's different, and less of a joke).
We might even get some money from those capitalist closed-joke pigs.
Ovid had a humorous poem about a dead parrot long before this play was ever written, complete with the long-winded and repetitive description of exactly how dead the parrot is which characterizes Monty Python's sketch.
This was itself a parody of a poem by Catullus, lamenting the death of his lover's "sparrow." The quotes are there for a reason; it's the term he used, but modern poets would probably have used a more, err, feline term to catch the nuance, if you know what I mean (wink and a nudge, say no more, say no more).
Monty Python was made up of some extremely erudite people; even Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film actually corresponds to someone from Arthurian legend (and bonus points if you can tell me who). No doubt they drew inspiration from the Ovid poem too, among others, and is there really any problem with that? It's friggin funny.
NA, and see if in old age it can say "I love you, be good":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14293868
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
And yet, is is still pop... another word for "the crap that the common retard likes". ;)
Maybe the 60s are the only time, when "pop" could be called "underground" music. Unfortunately, it did not stay that way.
Oh, and in my personal taste, the music of the 60s was just horrible. But that's my POV. ;)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
http://google.com/
http://amazon.com/
http://gutenberg.org/
these things are old enough there are lots of translations available. go nuts.
oh look. Project Gutenberg has Electra:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14322
They forgot the safe word to stop the session.
Thank you, Masked Man!
Wow.. arguing over a python sketch...
If there was EVER any doubt about slashdots denizens, this pretty much clarified the situation.
Picard or Kirk, anyone?
Politics will sooner or later make fools of everybody... - Dick Armey
Jesus, only somebody with complete lack of humour can find that funny.
You realize he was called Peter because he was 'like a rock', not because it was his name, right? His name was Simon.
Reminds me of a short-story where all jokes were found to come from an extraterrestrial (alien) source that was using them to conduct psychological experiments on humans.
The Web is like Usenet, but
the elephants are untrained.
One Dr. to another: "Hey, this graduate student you sent me is an idiot!"
Reply: "No, no, he's an idiot savant."
O: "Idiot savant? He doesn't know any math, and he can barely tie his shoelaces!"
R: "Yes, but he's an expert an something."
O: "What would that be then?"
R: "Well, I dunno, but I'm sure he's a total genius at something.
You just need to find out what it is."
O: "He's not a genius, he's a flippin' loon! He thinks Europe has a President!
He thinks lites are lit by little golden fairies."
R: "Well, he's probably a musician then. Have you tried him in front of the keyboard?
Graduate students really love that."
O: "This is a molecular biology lab! Well, I guess I could get him to interpret A, C, G, and T as C, G, A, and b-flat. But look, the point is, I needed somebody with technical skills! This graduate student is a complete imbecile who knows nothing useful whatsoever!"
R: "Naw, he's just hungry. Give him a soda and some donuts and he'll be off proposing hypotheses all day long."
O: "You're a loony. Did you go to the same undergraduate school he did? Can you read? No wait, don't answer that, I don't care."
etc.
The punchline of the original joke was that the slave had never done that sort of thing before...likening the death of the slave to simple disobedience or other unpleasant but recurring behavior a slave might have.
In the monty python sketch....there was no punchline (as they had a distaste for punchlines). And further, the premise is that the bird was dead when it was sold, which should have been obvious at the time...though you also have the shopkeeper insisting that the parrot is still alive even though it is obviously dead.
These two sketches are not related at all, IMO, let alone "the same joke." They are just a bit similar in that one person owns something that is dead, and wants his money back.
If this story has taught me anything, it's that if there's anything worth reading in those old sheepskins/tablets/papyrii, some modern comedian will steal it and repeat it, saving me the trouble of figuring out all the obscure cultural references from 3000 years ago.
You'll be sorry when you hear Dane Cook's new routine on how the dudes at the BK Lounge always put too much garum in his meal of emmer loaves and saltpetered kale, brah. You'll be sorry!!!
His name was Simon, Jesus renamed him Peter because he would be metaphorical rock that the church would be built on.
Generally, browse the Project Gutenberg without any feelings of guilt or worries of lawlessness ;)
I speak England very best
Ditto. I've always been a big fan of CP. By which I mean Captain Picard, naturally. Yup.
Of course part of the absurd humour in the Monty Python sketch is that there are no parrots in Scandinavia. But Monty Python probably should have expected this story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1958285/Monty-Python's-dead-parrot-did-exist.html. Basicly, Norwegian parrots did exist 55 million years ago, even though it is not known if they were blue...
From the link: Michael Palin was amused when told about the discovery, saying: "All I can say is that it just shows that nothing is original."
--- guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people ---
I'm sure that somewhere, a lawyer is looking for the descendants of Hierocles and Philagrius to bring a copyright suit against the Pythons. And you just know that the Media companies are going to start lobbying Congress to extend copyright to at least 1600 years:
"See, just look at this blatant example of intellectual piracy. This cannot be allowed to happen to American artists..."
In case anyone was wondering.
There's humour in there, but no cracking jokes.
I speak England very best
I had a professor like that in college, he was a Lutheran Minister and an archeology PhD. He made the Bible hysterical.
I assume he was hard of hearing, because the Church ordered professors to "find a way to make the Bible historical".
I speak England very best
Ha ha, you go to church! ha ha ha! That is funny!
Google it. The second item listed when I googled Euripides' Electra was the complete text.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
You might be on to something. Whenever I hear Dane Cook, I'm sorry I heard him.
Care about privacy? Read this!
Or here http://gutenberg.net.au/ with some worries of lawlessness depending on which country you are in, but no feelings of guilt.
there has to be one.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Wow, you find that hilarious? In the same era I'd say the pinnacle of humour was P.G. Wodehouse, but other than that I find that there's little humour that has travelled intact through the ages. I feel the same about music, in popular music that is (classical music has travelled intact).
You just got troll'd!
I just had a little nap ok!
The punchline of the original joke was that the slave had never done that sort of thing before...likening the death of the slave to simple disobedience or other unpleasant but recurring behavior a slave might have.
In the monty python sketch....there was no punchline (as they had a distaste for punchlines). And further, the premise is that the bird was dead when it was sold, which should have been obvious at the time...though you also have the shopkeeper insisting that the parrot is still alive even though it is obviously dead.
These two sketches are not related at all, IMO, let alone "the same joke." They are just a bit similar in that one person owns something that is dead, and wants his money back.
...now you are going to ruin the joke for me?
Hey democracy lovers, add Quorum as a c
Time's up.
If you post it, they will read.
What is the difference between a duck?
Comedy has been around since the the dawn of civilization, when Ugg the caveman first discovered comedy after eliciting laughs with an accidental fart joke.
He was eaten by a dinosaur. Come on, don't you know your world history?
The Dead parrot comedy was filmed in Britain.
Hierocles and Philagrius were ancient greeks
The parrot was a Norwegian blue
So whathas this got to do with the recording industry association of America?
Google it. The second item listed when I googled Euripides' Electra was the complete text.
So why didn't you post the link you found instead of just bragging about it? Sheesh! People are getting so flippin' lazy.
I remember reading a story (perhaps apocryphal) about some hieroglyphics being found that roughly translated to a father and son talking: "Where are you going?" "Out." "When will you be back?" "Later."
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
You need to read some Oscar Wilde and Mark Twaine!
I see links for "Download" (as PDF) and "View plain text" to the right. Otherwise the scanned page images don't appear to load for me either.
Ah, I also have scripting disabled for Google. If scripting is enabled, I find the on-page content inaccessible, though my client-side stylesheet might be partly to blame for that. (I have not downloaded the PDF.) Anyway, try disabling Javascript with the NoScript plug-in and try again.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
These two sketches are not related at all, IMO, let alone "the same joke."
To be fair, the BBC made the same mistake, and my reaction when I saw it on the Beeb's site was the same as yours. The big difference is that on slashdot, you can post a correction. It'll get buried in hundreds of weak attempts at humor, and nobody will ever see it, but at least it's there. The Beeb doesn't really have a place for this sort of bad-analogy-correction. Mistaken facts, they'll correct (which is one way they're superior to Slashdot--the fact that they actually have functioning editors is another), but I wouldn't expect to see any corrections for a more abstract error of this type.
the Pope/Michelangelo sketch is a mere 435 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Veronese#The_House_of_Levi
While working on the shop room floor in Silicon Valley, my Vietnamese co-workers not impressed by my 'original' riddle entry in a lunch room intercultural joke contest:
What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?
They all thought that answer was pretty lame. I just told them that it was a really old joke in the West and could probably use a little work. The answer (as any scholar of ancient Greek can tell you) is: A man. As a baby, he crawls on all fours, as an adult, he walks on two legs, and as a elder, he hobbles with a cane.
At least you aren't going to get ripped apart for not knowing the answer!
Looks like the book itself, as archived by Google, is from 1920, so this is really not news.
I once had a signature.
Just goes to show you that there is nothing new under the sun.
http://www.tstg.org
Most classicists wouldn't even consider reading some of this stuff either until about 70 years ago. When it comes to books like Suetonius and Petronius the reputation from stuffy is well deserved. I think there are still untranslated sections in the Loeb of De vita Caesarum. And Satyricon (and to an extent all the Ancient novels) was heavily sidestepped because of its strong homosexual content - and when it was studied, it was only through some bizarre Christian/Freudian moralising framework.
I can see why you post as AC...
Apparently even Jesus had a sense of humour. "Peter you are my rock" is probably the most famous pun in the world (Peter = rock).
Dude, he was called Peter (Petrus in Latin, Cephas in Greek, both meaning "rock") *because* the J-Man said he was his rock?
This is like saying that Snoop Dogg appearing in music videos with a canine companion is a clever pun.
intergalactic death joke.
"Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts." - Henry A
Well, I guess, then, that he needed Moses around to get him out of the bondage.
You are a party pooper, Sir. You don't happen to read Slashdot too, by the way?
Why is it the 'the most famous' or 'the oldest' thing is always credited to the Greeks or Babylonians? Is that also why American kids suck at Geography?
You missed a very good chance to tell me the names of a few good books there.
They did take him down after only a couple of hours.
Play Command HQ online
He forgot his safeword.
tvtropes.ORG -- the .com is run by a generic URL squatter arsehole.
PeterÂs name was Simon. He was nicknamed Peter by Jesus and the rest of the gang, and at the end Jesus asked him to be the founding rock of the Church.
But considering that Simon was a rough, tough, bad tempered fisherman who was also not the sharpest tool in the shed (read his passages in the gospels, its all there), I think he was named "rock" as a joke.
No sig for the moment.
"Simon, you are a rock. No, I take that back, you are the rock. In fact, you are so much the rock that I'mma call you Rock from now on."
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
What? Sarcasm has caught on? Never...
One swallow does not a fellatrix make
The safe word was actually a phrase - "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?"
The problem was that Eli wasn't listening at the time.
One swallow does not a fellatrix make
In other news... John Cleese and the producers of the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch have been served with a copyright infringement notice from one Caesar Publius who claims that his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hierocles, was the copyright holder of the work and that the Hierocles estate is owed 400 Trillion dollars under the draconian copyright legislation passed by the Ancient Greek senate that calculates damages on an inflationally adjusted basis from the time the work was created, not when the infringement took place. The American copyright lobby has filed an amicus brief on behalf of Mr. Publius which states that the forward looking Greeks knew the importance of protecting intellectual property.
That's from Max Headroom, kiddies. Probably the most prophetic TV show ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_(TV_series)/
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
So, not stuffy at all, then.
Eric Baird
Okay, if you say it in a funny voice and pull faces and make hand gestures and grab your crotch on "rock" (or pronounce it "wok") then it might be funny, but that's down to the the delivery, not the material. With the right delivery and timing, reciting the Ten Commandments could probably have people crying with laughter, but that doesn't mean that the TC is an example of intentionally humorous writing.
Metaphor is not automatically funny. It's not necessarily meant to be funny. It's often simply meant to make a reference to something having properties normally associated with something else.
Hypothetical: ... [pause for effect] ... andyoustinkofshit!". The actor delivers it as a joke, the audience accepts the heavy theatrical cues that signal that it's supposed to be a joke, and they laugh.
Lets suppose that someone in 400BC had written a play in which a hard-bitten soldier snarls at someone, "You're an arsehole and you stink of shit". It might be written as a totally cold, venomous line. But put that same play on in 2008, with a director who is determined to prove that the Greeks knew how to write jokes, and the same line get delivered with a theatrical flourish and an arch pause in the middle that turns the ending into a punchline: "you sir are an arsehole
Frankly, if someone back in 400BC had written the screenplay for "The Godfather", and we dug up the text now, then university drama groups would be delivering the play with nudges and winks to get laughs, professors would be saying how the whole thing was full of obvious sexual allusions to kissing rings and sleeping with fishes, and the thing would end up being presented as a timeless example of bawdy comedy.
(sigh)
Eric Baird
He did that too. I learned more about the ancient world in that class than in any other two or three history classes. He treated the Old Testament as what it is from an archaeological/historical prospective. One source among many for the history of the Hebrews and surrounding cultures. A remarkable feat for a man who also regarded as a source of divine wisdom. He did all of this in a way that also showed some of the humor of the original authors; and how stuffed up (or plain wrong) some of the later translators were.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
I particularly like the bit in that episode where people are rioting in the streets because there's no television signal. Seems to me that it would be good for excerpting for the analog cutoff February 2009:
Formby: We're going to go critical if we don't act soon.
Edwards: We're going to have riots out there. We should distribute emergency video players immediately!
Janie Crane: Without regular picture transmissions, thousands are swarming the streets, desperately buying black-market tapes from video vendors.
Formby: My god, they could lobotomize the network. Without television, this city would be ungovernable!
Edwards: Chaos out there! People are in a panic, fighting for old video recordings!
Ashwell: Personally, I'd rather watch a smoke alarm.
Edison Carter: It's starting to happen. Their world's gone away. Without their TVs, what is there for them?
And those are just the quotes I can find on-line (also available as MP3s). This needs to have a DVD release tout de suite.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Sorry, no dirty jokes. And the jokes he told tend to fall flat today, which is why people misinterpret them. For example, there's the phrase something like "a rich man getting into heaven is like a camel going through the eye of the needle." The eye of the needle was an actual passageway in Jerusalem. Camels could go through, but only on their knees. So by analogy, that's the way for rich men to get into heaven.
Not very funny today, but he made his point a humorous way back then.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Did you give him any money?
When I was 16 our theatre group in school performed Lysistrata. You know, walking among the audience with a fake hard-on and pass close to your grandparents (I was the Atheniense(sp?) ambassador), really made me blush. But the text is priceless.
--- "When you gotta do something wrong. You gotta do it right. (Fighter)"