I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.

On Sat, 22 Apr 2023 08:17:25 -0700 (PDT), Lionel Edwards
<lioneledwards61@gmail.com> wrote:

>I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.

She's not playing possum now.

--

Tony Cooper - Orlando,Florida

On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 9:17:28 AM UTC-6, Lionel Edwards wrote:
> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
....

Some have, of course.
--

Jerry Friedman

On Sat, 22 Apr 2023 08:56:23 -0700 (PDT), Jerry Friedman
<jerry.friedman99@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 9:17:28?AM UTC-6, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
>...
>
>Some have, of course.

Ron DeSantis did not ask for her endorsement.

--

Tony Cooper - Orlando,Florida

On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:17:28 AM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards wrote:

> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.

Why bother? There was nothing funny about him, just pandering to the
bizarre need of Brits to laugh at cross-dressing. Taught from earliest
childhood to laugh at Pantomime.

On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 6:13:04 PM UTC+1, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:17:28 AM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>
> > I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.
> Why bother? There was nothing funny about him, just pandering to the
> bizarre need of Brits to laugh at cross-dressing. Taught from earliest
> childhood to laugh at Pantomime.

Maybe and I never liked him. How about this for being offensive but funny?

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFlTZzefD-c>

On 22-Apr-23 17:04, TonyCooper wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Apr 2023 08:56:23 -0700 (PDT), Jerry Friedman
> <jerry.friedman99@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 9:17:28?AM UTC-6, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
>> ...
>>
>> Some have, of course.
>
> Ron DeSantis did not ask for her endorsement.

But Sir Les Patterson would have right at home there.

--
Sam Plusnet

On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 1:25:20 PM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards wrote:
> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 6:13:04 PM UTC+1, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:17:28 AM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards wrote:
> >
> > > I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.
> > Why bother? There was nothing funny about him, just pandering to the
> > bizarre need of Brits to laugh at cross-dressing. Taught from earliest
> > childhood to laugh at Pantomime.
>
> Maybe and I never liked him. How about this for being offensive but funny?

He was ok as Envy in Bedazzled (1967).

News of the death (so Wikip) hasn't made the headlines Over Here.

> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFlTZzefD-c>

Whatever turns you on. Offensive, without doubt.

On Sat, 22 Apr 2023 12:17:44 -0700 (PDT), "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim@verizon.net> wrote:

>On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 1:25:20?PM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 6:13:04?PM UTC+1, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>> > On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:17:28?AM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>> >
>> > > I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.
>> > Why bother? There was nothing funny about him, just pandering to the
>> > bizarre need of Brits to laugh at cross-dressing. Taught from earliest
>> > childhood to laugh at Pantomime.
>>
>> Maybe and I never liked him. How about this for being offensive but funny?
>
>He was ok as Envy in Bedazzled (1967).
>
>News of the death (so Wikip) hasn't made the headlines Over Here.

Depends on what news source you follow. I subscribe to _The New York
Times_ online, and received a "BREAKING NEWS" message at 8:23 AM. It
was an extensive bio headed "Dead at 89" complete with several
photographs going back to the 1970s. Obviously, it was prepared in
anticipation of her death. Most major news sources have an article
ready for the famous who may depart at any time.

As to Dame Edna being "funny", that depends on what you - as an
individual - think to be "funny". I thought she was quite funny at
times.

I'm not sure how to treat the pronouns. If I write about "Dame Edna",
I'll use "she". If I refer to Barry Humphries, I'll use "he". I
think Dame Edna/Barry Humphries would have liked it that way.

Eddie Izzard is another "quite funny at times", but much of her stuff
falls flat with me. Izzard does prefer "her/she", though born Edward
John Izzard.

>
>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFlTZzefD-c>
>
>Whatever turns you on. Offensive, without doubt.
--

Tony Cooper - Orlando,Florida

TonyCooper hat am 22.04.2023 um 22:07 geschrieben:

> Most major news sources have an article
> ready for the famous who may depart at any time.

Correct. Your comment reminds me of what Stefan Heym, a German writer
who lived several years in the US and went back to Germany as a US
soldier during the Second World War, wrote about this custom at the end
of his autobiography with the title "Nachruf" (obituary).

Short summary: a New York Times journalist visits Stefan Heym at the
beginning of the Seventies. (What follows is my translation from the
German original. I'm sure Stefan Heym would have written it differently
and better. After all, he published his first books in English.) Long
preliminary talk until he got it: "Oh, you're _that_ Whitman, and you've
come here to write my obituary." "That's it, yes."
During the interview: "I just interviewed Charles Chaplin a few days
ago, but he's already _so_ senile."
At the end: "When can I read the proof? I'd really like to know how I'm
going to be remembered." "No way. Never. No matter how famous, no one
ever gets to read his own obituary for the NYT."
"Alden Whitman is dead. I don't know who wrote his obituary for the NYT,
if he did not write it himself. ... That's why you'll have to wait to
read his obituary about me until I'm dead. In the meantime,
well-disposed readers will have to make do with this book."

In article <t0d84i9vkg4k3pmtj6l12oogsqgfdpetnd@4ax.com>,
TonyCooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> wrote:

>I'm not sure how to treat the pronouns. If I write about "Dame Edna",
>I'll use "she". If I refer to Barry Humphries, I'll use "he". I
>think Dame Edna/Barry Humphries would have liked it that way.

I read a squib about how Humphries approached the role for filming.
He would show up early, spend quite some time in his dressing room
getting everything together, and then out would walk Dame Edna. After
the day's production was complete, Edna would enter the dressing room,
and some time later, Barry Humphries would walk out -- he would not
break character the whole day.

-GAWollman

--
Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can,
wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is
Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

On 23/04/23 01:17, Lionel Edwards wrote:

> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
> Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met
> him. A great word to be remembered by.

In my student days I often took the train from Melbourne (where I was a
student) and Seymour (where I grew up, and where my parents lived). I
was always reminded of Edna and Norm as the train passed Moonee Ponds.

One summer I had a vacation job in Highett, and that brought to mind
Dame Edna's "The Highett Waltz". (Although I don't think she was yet a
Dame at that time.) It's beautifully quiet in Highett.

--
Peter Moylan Newcastle, NSW http://www.pmoylan.org

On 23/04/23 03:13, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:17:28 AM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards
> wrote:
>
>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame
>> Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on
>> anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.
>
> Why bother? There was nothing funny about him, just pandering to the
> bizarre need of Brits to laugh at cross-dressing. Taught from
> earliest childhood to laugh at Pantomime.

The Dadaists, and their successors particularly in surrealist comedy,
did not have much of a following in the USA. A couple of Humphries shows
that were great successes in Britain and Australia flopped in the US.
There were other successful British comedians who were unknown in
America, probably because of the huge difference in national taste where
comedy was concerned.

I first saw "Life of Brian" in Berkeley, California, and I was amazed
that the mostly American audience laughed in all the right places. I
don't think that could have happened twenty years earlier.

If cross-dressing bothers you, try looking at a recording of Humphries
playing Sir Les Patterson.

--
Peter Moylan Newcastle, NSW http://www.pmoylan.org

On 23-Apr-23 1:24, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 23/04/23 01:17, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>
>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
>> Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met
>> him. A great word to be remembered by.
>
> In my student days I often took the train from Melbourne (where I was a
> student) and Seymour (where I grew up, and where my parents lived). I
> was always reminded of Edna and Norm as the train passed Moonee Ponds.
>
> One summer I had a vacation job in Highett, and that brought to mind
> Dame Edna's "The Highett Waltz". (Although I don't think she was yet a
> Dame at that time.) It's beautifully quiet in Highett.

Moonee Ponds _sounds_ like an invented place name - much like Ken Dodd's
Knotty Ash.

--
Sam Plusnet

On 23/04/23 11:44, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> On 23-Apr-23 1:24, Peter Moylan wrote:
>> On 23/04/23 01:17, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>>
>>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
>>> Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met
>>> him. A great word to be remembered by.
>>
>> In my student days I often took the train from Melbourne (where I was a
>> student) and Seymour (where I grew up, and where my parents lived). I
>> was always reminded of Edna and Norm as the train passed Moonee Ponds.
>>
>> One summer I had a vacation job in Highett, and that brought to mind
>> Dame Edna's "The Highett Waltz". (Although I don't think she was yet a
>> Dame at that time.) It's beautifully quiet in Highett.
>
> Moonee Ponds _sounds_ like an invented place name - much like Ken Dodd's
> Knotty Ash.

It was (and perhaps still is) an average suburb of Melbourne. An average
place where average people lived. And that is exactly what Edna Everidge
and Norm Everidge were satirising.

--
Peter Moylan Newcastle, NSW http://www.pmoylan.org

On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 8:26:28 PM UTC-6, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 23/04/23 11:44, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> > On 23-Apr-23 1:24, Peter Moylan wrote:
> >> On 23/04/23 01:17, Lionel Edwards wrote:
> >>
> >>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
> >>> Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met
> >>> him. A great word to be remembered by.
> >>
> >> In my student days I often took the train from Melbourne (where I was a
> >> student) and Seymour (where I grew up, and where my parents lived). I
> >> was always reminded of Edna and Norm as the train passed Moonee Ponds.
> >>
> >> One summer I had a vacation job in Highett, and that brought to mind
> >> Dame Edna's "The Highett Waltz". (Although I don't think she was yet a
> >> Dame at that time.) It's beautifully quiet in Highett.
> >
> > Moonee Ponds _sounds_ like an invented place name - much like Ken Dodd's
> > Knotty Ash.
> It was (and perhaps still is) an average suburb of Melbourne. An average
> place where average people lived. And that is exactly what Edna Everidge
> and Norm Everidge were satirising.

Norm is a good name there. When I was in college, playing more or less
friendly games of volleyball, my friend Norman called me Mean Jerry
because I liked to spike. I said we were the Mean and the Norm.

--
Jerry Friedman

On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 6:06:16 PM UTC-6, Garrett Wollman wrote:
> In article <t0d84i9vkg4k3pmtj...@4ax.com>,
> TonyCooper <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >I'm not sure how to treat the pronouns. If I write about "Dame Edna",
> >I'll use "she". If I refer to Barry Humphries, I'll use "he". I
> >think Dame Edna/Barry Humphries would have liked it that way.

> I read a squib about how Humphries approached the role for filming.
> He would show up early, spend quite some time in his dressing room
> getting everything together, and then out would walk Dame Edna. After
> the day's production was complete, Edna would enter the dressing room,
> and some time later, Barry Humphries would walk out -- he would not
> break character the whole day.

Compare how Daniel Day-Lewis approached his character in /My Left
Foot/, never walking. The stagehands had to carry him around.

--
Jerry Friedman

On 23/04/2023 03:44, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> On 23-Apr-23 1:24, Peter Moylan wrote:
>> On 23/04/23 01:17, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>>
>>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
>>> Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met
>>> him. A great word to be remembered by.
>>
>> In my student days I often took the train from Melbourne (where I was a
>> student) and Seymour (where I grew up, and where my parents lived). I
>> was always reminded of Edna and Norm as the train passed Moonee Ponds.
>>
>> One summer I had a vacation job in Highett, and that brought to mind
>> Dame Edna's "The Highett Waltz". (Although I don't think she was yet a
>> Dame at that time.) It's beautifully quiet in Highett.
>
> Moonee Ponds _sounds_ like an invented place name - much like Ken Dodd's
> Knotty Ash.
>

So do many a place in Australia. "Waga Waga" (AUS) is a town where
someone I met in London came from. Come to think of it, 'Soggy Bottom'
(UK) is no better. Laughing at place names is a bit like sniggering in
biology class whenever the teacher mentions a sexual organ.

On 23/04/2023 02:52, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 23/04/23 03:13, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:17:28 AM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame
>>> Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on
>>> anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.
>>
>> Why bother? There was nothing funny about him, just pandering to the
>>  bizarre need of Brits to laugh at cross-dressing. Taught from
>> earliest childhood to laugh at Pantomime.
>
> The Dadaists, and their successors particularly in surrealist comedy,
> did not have much of a following in the USA. A couple of Humphries shows
> that were great successes in Britain and Australia flopped in the US.
> There were other successful British comedians who were unknown in
> America, probably because of the huge difference in national taste where
> comedy was concerned.
>
> I first saw "Life of Brian" in Berkeley, California, and I was amazed
> that the mostly American audience laughed in all the right places. I
> don't think that could have happened twenty years earlier.

Are you sure all of that was real laughter, or just learned laughter
(like the Pan Am smile)? Many a US student I came across in London would
make a point of telling me how they 'loved Monty Pythaan'. I think they
were told it was a surreal form of funny that needed intelligence to
appreciate.

>
> If cross-dressing bothers you, try looking at a recording of Humphries
> playing Sir Les Patterson.
>

occam hat am 23.04.2023 um 09:04 geschrieben:
> So do many a place in Australia. "Waga Waga" (AUS) is a town where
> someone I met in London came from. Come to think of it, 'Soggy Bottom'
> (UK) is no better. Laughing at place names is a bit like sniggering in
> biology class whenever the teacher mentions a sexual organ.

Do you know the Austrian village Fugging? You can read here how it got
its present name.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugging,_Upper_Austria#Popularity_and_notoriety>

On 23/04/23 17:04, occam wrote:
> On 23/04/2023 03:44, Sam Plusnet wrote:

>> Moonee Ponds _sounds_ like an invented place name - much like Ken
>> Dodd's Knotty Ash.
>
> So do many a place in Australia. "Waga Waga" (AUS) is a town where
> someone I met in London came from. Come to think of it, 'Soggy
> Bottom' (UK) is no better. Laughing at place names is a bit like
> sniggering in biology class whenever the teacher mentions a sexual
> organ.

Our sniggering in class came when the teacher mentioned the Kanakas who
worked in the cane fields.

Duplicated place names are not uncommon in Australia. There's a Kurri
Kurri close to Newcastle. (A lot of Indians live there.) One of my
cousins is a farmer living just outside of Wagga Wagga. An old school
friend came from Wallan Wallan.

Well, actually my friend Maggot wasn't from Wallan. He just got on the
school bus there. He was actually from a farm near a little town called
Darraweit Guim. Another interesting place name. Apparently Darraweit
Guim now has a population of about 300, but back then it was just two
dogs and a pub.

--
Peter Moylan Newcastle, NSW http://www.pmoylan.org

Peter Moylan wrote:

> Our sniggering in class came when the teacher mentioned the Kanakas who
> worked in the cane fields.

Where does the word "Kanakas" come from? I went hitch-hiking through
Germany around 1968, and at a work site where we were allowed to stay
overnight, they used the word "Kanakken" derogatively about southern
Europeans.

We were in fact at first told to go, but on our way out the owner asked
us where we came from, and when we answered Denmark, we were suddenly
extremely welcome. He had thought that we were "Kanakken".

We went to a bar with the son, and he turned out to be a racist like his
father. But they were nice to us.

--
Bertel, Denmark

On 24/04/23 00:02, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:
> Peter Moylan wrote:
>
>> Our sniggering in class came when the teacher mentioned the Kanakas
>> who worked in the cane fields.
>
> Where does the word "Kanakas" come from? I went hitch-hiking through
> Germany around 1968, and at a work site where we were allowed to
> stay overnight, they used the word "Kanakken" derogatively about
> southern Europeans.
>
> We were in fact at first told to go, but on our way out the owner
> asked us where we came from, and when we answered Denmark, we were
> suddenly extremely welcome. He had thought that we were "Kanakken".
>
> We went to a bar with the son, and he turned out to be a racist like
> his father. But they were nice to us.

In Australia, Kanakas were people of the South Pacific. These days we
call them Pacific Islanders or just Islanders, but they were Kanakas
when they were in near-slavery on the sugar plantations.

The word is Hawaiian, and in Hawaii Kanaka just means "person".

I have no idea how it got to Germany.

--
Peter Moylan Newcastle, NSW http://www.pmoylan.org

On Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 3:22:09 PM UTC+1, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> On Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 1:13:00 AM UTC-6, occam wrote:
> > On 23/04/2023 02:52, Peter Moylan wrote:
> > > On 23/04/23 03:13, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > >> On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:17:28 AM UTC-4, Lionel Edwards
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame
> > >>> Edna. Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on
> > >>> anyone who met him. A great word to be remembered by.
> > >>
> > >> Why bother? There was nothing funny about him, just pandering to the
> > >> bizarre need of Brits to laugh at cross-dressing. Taught from
> > >> earliest childhood to laugh at Pantomime.
> > >
> > > The Dadaists, and their successors particularly in surrealist comedy,
> > > did not have much of a following in the USA. A couple of Humphries shows
> > > that were great successes in Britain and Australia flopped in the US.
> > > There were other successful British comedians who were unknown in
> > > America, probably because of the huge difference in national taste where
> > > comedy was concerned.
> > >
> > > I first saw "Life of Brian" in Berkeley, California, and I was amazed
> > > that the mostly American audience laughed in all the right places. I
> > > don't think that could have happened twenty years earlier.
>
> > Are you sure all of that was real laughter, or just learned laughter
> > (like the Pan Am smile)? Many a US student I came across in London would
> > make a point of telling me how they 'loved Monty Pythaan'. I think they
> > were told it was a surreal form of funny that needed intelligence to
> > appreciate.
> ...
>
> I've known lots of American Python fans, and am something of a fan
> myself, but I never heard anyone say or imply anything like that.
>
> It's easy to oversimplify. Surrealist, non sequitur humor was more popular
> in Britain than the U.S., but that doesn't mean it didn't exist here. And by
> the time /Life of Brian/ came out, many American young people, especially
> college students, had been exposed to Python and to American shows
> influenced by Python.

I had my "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" LP stolen from me when I was in
college in America - the other students loved it, even though there were
no pictures.

That LP had a very unusual surprise - more surprising than Crunchy Frog.

On 23-Apr-23 8:04, occam wrote:
> On 23/04/2023 03:44, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>> On 23-Apr-23 1:24, Peter Moylan wrote:
>>> On 23/04/23 01:17, Lionel Edwards wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm surprised the Wokes haven't managed to find fault with Dame Edna.
>>>> Barry Humphreys is accused of inflicting "quiplash" on anyone who met
>>>> him. A great word to be remembered by.
>>>
>>> In my student days I often took the train from Melbourne (where I was a
>>> student) and Seymour (where I grew up, and where my parents lived). I
>>> was always reminded of Edna and Norm as the train passed Moonee Ponds.
>>>
>>> One summer I had a vacation job in Highett, and that brought to mind
>>> Dame Edna's "The Highett Waltz". (Although I don't think she was yet a
>>> Dame at that time.) It's beautifully quiet in Highett.
>>
>> Moonee Ponds _sounds_ like an invented place name - much like Ken Dodd's
>> Knotty Ash.
>>
>
> So do many a place in Australia. "Waga Waga" (AUS) is a town where
> someone I met in London came from. Come to think of it, 'Soggy Bottom'
> (UK) is no better. Laughing at place names is a bit like sniggering in
> biology class whenever the teacher mentions a sexual organ.

I know Foggy Bottom (not _too_ far from here) but not your place.

Re sniggering:

A long-time friend came from Idle.

I knew lots of people who went to Clowne school.

--
Sam Plusnet