Now _that_ was funny.
Graham
At 16:14 08/06/00 +0000, you wrote:
>Parody is well embedded in humorous discourse in the West.
>However it is wrong and should be banned. A fully nuanced and
>historically referenced argument is presented in my million word
>webpage www.downwitheverything.co uk (updated daily) but the
>key points are:1) Parody fails when the subject is so bizarre as to
>defy ridicule--imagine trying to parody "Eurotrash" or the writings of
>neo-Marxists. 2) Parody fails when the parodist has a reputation for
>being humorless--to laugh or not to laugh at what may or may not
>be a parody performed by Pol Pot?. 3) Parody fails when through
>excess of subtlety or crudity it is mistaken for the real thing. It may
>then itself become the object of misplaced parody: a "double
>humour failure" with potentially catastrophic consequences. A
>spoof announcement of an unlikely but just plausible academic
>conference could suffer this fate. There is a remedy. All parody
>should be banned and defiant parodists imprisoned or shot,
>depending on how I feel on the day. Material and individuals
>deserving humorous sanction should be dealt with by what we
>theoreticians call "slapstick methods" i.e. custard down the
>trousers or boiling in oil. Simple and unlikely to fail.
>Roger Leigh
>
>
>Roger Leigh
>Geography
>Enfield Campus
>Middlesex University
>London EN3 4SF
>Tel:+44(0)20 8362 5513
>pmail: Roger10
>email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
Graham Gardner
Institute of Geography & Earth Sciences
University of Wales
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 3DB
Wales
UK
Tel: 0044 (0)1970 622606
Fax: 0044 (0)1970 622659
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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