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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] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%