Abbott and Costello
I am pretty excited that my Dee and Carleen conversation snark on Thursday is a nearly perfect lead-in to their last panel appearance in Friday’s strip. Of course, if it were completely perfect, Merrie would follow them in asking for coffee. But that would be too much to hope for. I have been building on the idea that there is a lot more to Carleen and Dee’s relationship than the strip has shown. Apparently Lynn Johnston agrees with me too, so I will continue in that direction. I fully expect Weed and Mike to do exactly what Dee and Carleen tell them to do. The only question is what will that be? Will it be (a) they tell them not to buy or (b) they tell them here’s a better way to buy or (c) something completely different? I think I will need to leave all venues open. We know that Dee and Mike are going to end up in the Patterson home in Milborough, but there is 2 years to get that done and anything can happen between now and then.
I have been listening to a recording of Abbott and Costello radio programs I borrowed from my local library. Almost all of their jokes are puns. Bud Abbott says some line and then Lou Costello comedically misinterprets the line, usually by mispronouncing one of the words so that it means a different word. It was with this in mind that I tried writing my Elly / John dinner conversation snark. It was harder to write than I thought it would be, and so I gained an appreciation for some of A&O’s better jokes.
The recording also has the original radio commercials that were aired with the program, which in their case was Camel cigarettes. It is fascinating stuff. The Camel advertisements in 1940 – 1946, keyed on some survey of 113,567 doctors done by 3 independent organizations, where the brand preferred by doctors was Camels. The other thing they did was to honor servicemen of the week. Their way of honoring servicemen was to provide 120,000 free Camels a week to the service. 40K for each of the 3 radio programs Camel sponsored weekly.
After WWII was over, they continued to do this, by providing free Camels to the military hospitals. That is just American capitalism at its best.
I played the radio program with the “Who’s on First” sketch for my boy, who got confused. In his school, they drill it into his head that smoking is bad. By the way, my boy laughed quite a bit during “Who’s on First”. That sketch is timeless and doesn’t involve any mispronounced words. The radio version is lightning fast. It is much faster than the movie version, where they do the same sketch.
It’s a busy day on Friday. Howard has to get tested by the Professor and go shopping for Becky, April and Gerald to prepare for the Brenda Starr party on Saturday. I suppose we could get a tux for Duncan, in case he has yet another canceled date and decides to show up too.
I have been listening to a recording of Abbott and Costello radio programs I borrowed from my local library. Almost all of their jokes are puns. Bud Abbott says some line and then Lou Costello comedically misinterprets the line, usually by mispronouncing one of the words so that it means a different word. It was with this in mind that I tried writing my Elly / John dinner conversation snark. It was harder to write than I thought it would be, and so I gained an appreciation for some of A&O’s better jokes.
The recording also has the original radio commercials that were aired with the program, which in their case was Camel cigarettes. It is fascinating stuff. The Camel advertisements in 1940 – 1946, keyed on some survey of 113,567 doctors done by 3 independent organizations, where the brand preferred by doctors was Camels. The other thing they did was to honor servicemen of the week. Their way of honoring servicemen was to provide 120,000 free Camels a week to the service. 40K for each of the 3 radio programs Camel sponsored weekly.
After WWII was over, they continued to do this, by providing free Camels to the military hospitals. That is just American capitalism at its best.
I played the radio program with the “Who’s on First” sketch for my boy, who got confused. In his school, they drill it into his head that smoking is bad. By the way, my boy laughed quite a bit during “Who’s on First”. That sketch is timeless and doesn’t involve any mispronounced words. The radio version is lightning fast. It is much faster than the movie version, where they do the same sketch.
It’s a busy day on Friday. Howard has to get tested by the Professor and go shopping for Becky, April and Gerald to prepare for the Brenda Starr party on Saturday. I suppose we could get a tux for Duncan, in case he has yet another canceled date and decides to show up too.
posted by howard at 10:24 PM
6 Comments:
Our imaginary fifth panel can have Merrie asking for coffee. :)
My son, who is 2 1/2, is in a phase where he wants a little bit of whatever we happen to be having. He'll come up to us and say, "twy" (try). Most recently, he wanted to "twy" my herb tea, which I figured was okay since it has no caffeine. But he's been disappointed when we've had to tell him he doesn't get to "twy" coffee. Or beer. :)
Did you ever see the Kids in the Hall sketch where two characters start the "Who's on First" routine, only to have one of them short circuit the whole thing by explaining the joke?
I am embarrased to admit that I have actually never watched Kids in the Hall. The kids and wife have long taken over the TV, and the only time I can wrestle it away from them is for certain sports programs (Olympics, NCAA basketball tournament, and the like). It was easier for my dad when I was growing up and there weren't cartoons on 24 hours a day.
Heh--well, don't feel bad. The episodes have been coming out on DVD, so you'll have your chance. :)
Is it clean enough for kids to watch?
Hm. I'd say it's comparable to Saturday Night Live as far as raciness goes. You have men in drag, portraying female characters, there are characters who are opening gay and making jokes about homophobia, alien anal probes ("all we've learned is that about 10% of the population doesn't mind"), that sort of thing. So it would depend on how old the children are, your comfort level with this sort of humor, etc.
Thanks for the information. It sounds like an adult rental to me.
Post a Comment
<< Home