Re: Dry Humor and Obvious Lampooning
jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Wed, 12 May 1999 13:42:56 -0400 (EDT)
> >For one of Australia's most popular shows (and the particularly dry and
> >uncharacterisitically non-American irony that show displays suits us
> >Aussies to the ground (: ) that one sure went down like a lead balloon over
> >here. It was like, well, shall we try and say something, or shall we just
> >go with the cliches? Let's just go with the cliches. It's a shame because
> >they possibly could have said something a lot more profound if they had
> >have tried to show the truth about it, too. Yet as I've abundantly realised
> >it's a lot easier for the Yanks just to laugh at us than to understand
us
> >(:
Actually Camille, I don't think the show had anything to do with you or
your culture. The irony was, once again, lampooning Americans. The
reason Marge's comment about watching your camera is so funny is because
that's how an American might interpret the Aussie history. The show is
not taking the simple lowbrow tact of, "heh, the Aussies are criminals."
Instead it's poking fun at the ignorat people who say that.
Similarly, how funny is it that someone would bother to make the water
go around the "right" way? It's perposterous. It's murderously funny.
The joke really isn't that Aussie water goes around the wrong way.
I think you really expected too much out of Goering and clan. The man
knows one thing, American People. He doesn't know Aussies and he's wise
not to try to lampoon a culture he has no intimate knowledge of.
In short the Simpsons is so successful simply because it causes
Americans to laugh at themselves. I'm really not sure why any other
culture would enjoy the show.
-j
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Jason Varsoke jvarsoke@bigfoot.com
For good mental hygiene, shave with Occam's Razor twice daily