CSotD: Some Rather Dated Jokes
Skip to comments
Today being Ash Wednesday, Fat Tuesday cartoons are out of date, but it being our weekly Hump Day, you’ll see several cartoons that are slightly past their use-by dates. That’s the way it goes.
I had a friend who went to Mardi Gras in 1969 and told me all about it. It sounded like great fun, but I think it has since become like Comic Con and Grateful Dead concerts: You should have gone sooner because, in the words of the Yogi, “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”
Oh well. I got to Boulder before Colorado got too crowded, so I’m not going home with the home version of our game and a case of Rice-A-Roni.
Which reference is also dated, but I hope you’ve also been to something in time, because showing up consistently late leaves you with nothing but scraps.
This one dropped, as it should have, on Valentine’s Day. It’s funny on its own, but someone in the comments section got an extra, unintended laugh by pointing out that the shooters in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre were dressed as police officers, which is a wonderful example of missing the gag, and what made it even better was that, while the men who first went into the warehouse were, indeed, dressed as cops, the guys with the tommy guns who did the wet work were not.
So not only did our history whiz miss the gag, but he was only partially right. Back in Usenet days, this reaction to a joke would be followed by people posting “Whoosh!”
Dark Side hit the start of Chinese New Year correctly yesterday, though it’s a 15-day celebration, making timing less critical than with other holidays.
My best memory of Chinese New Year happened 40 years ago and involved complete serendipity. My GF and I went to a Chinese restaurant just figuring on a regular meal, but found that it was the New Year and they were offering a flat-rate feast. It wasn’t Eat Drink Man Woman, but it sure was above the usual.
I could watch the cooking segments in Eat Drink Man Woman all day. Ang Lee had real master chefs do the actual prep for his star, Sihung Lung, shooting close-ups of their hands, and it’s like a master class in Chinese cookery.
However, I sure can’t say the same for Facebook food shots, and, unfortunately I don’t think Whamond’s cartoon will stem the tide. Mockery got people to stop making duck lips, but food shots appear to be invulnerable.
We took our kids to a lot of restaurants but would be careful to time things to avoid the cranky bit before naptime, and, as soon as we sat down, we’d ask for breadsticks or something to provide a distraction and a blood-sugar boost. Only had to bail out on one dinner and they appreciated our quick exit.
Then-wife edited one of those magazines you find in your hotel room, which meant we’d go to some upscale places at least twice a month so she could write about them. For those, we’d leave our toddler with an equally broke couple.
The payoff came when a Denver chef hosted a national food show of major chefs and had a press opening the Saturday afternoon before, with a spread of duck and pate and roast beef and pastries etc etc etc.
But he scheduled it opposite the CU/Nebraska game and the only people who showed up were the two of us and Dusty Saunders, the entertainment critic for the Rocky Mountain News. Our exasperated host called for take-out boxes and instructed us to fill as many as we could carry.
We and our babysitting friends ate like royalty for over a week.
This one certainly got a laugh, but it’s a good thing it ran before Lent, when we all become spectators, right? Right?
Well, at least until we’ve proven it hasn’t got mastery over us. After that, Mr. Dooley said, you risk “the sin iv thinkin’ ye’re able to overcome th’ pride iv th’ flesh.”
And a hat tip to my old rec.arts.comics.strips pal Joseph Nebus for that link and his hat tip to me.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Matt Pritchett dropped his gag in the Telegram on Valentine’s Day, making it doubly timely.
Meanwhile Jennings’ piece (nice quote!) ran in the Guardian the fifteenth, the Andrew formerly known as Prince having been invited by US lawmakers and the family of Virginia Giuffre to testify about his Epstein-based activities and knowledge. His brother Charlie supports the idea.
I’ll admit that, while I wish the American side of this sorry tale were as frank and open as the British have been, I really don’t understand the status of the British royal family.
Not that the nobility hasn’t had their merry ways. All that jus primae noctis stuff is myth, but the prefix “Fitz” indicated an illegitimate son, and while they weren’t all kings’ sons, there was a Henry Fitzroy, whose father, also Henry, went through Boleyn sisters like popcorn, then snicked off Anne’s head for adultery.
King Edward VIII abdicated to marry an American divorcee, and everyone politely believed that, but Britain’s current king is married to a divorcee and is one himself and they were canoodling before either one of them was technically available, and that’s apparently fine, though Harry is largely despised for marrying the woman he loved.
However, the other story about Edward VIII was that they dumped him because he was sympathetic to nazis, and, if so, Andrew being out for his Epstein activities seems consistent.
Anyway, here’s my solution: Keep them around for the tourists, but make them always dress in royal togs and behave like the mascots at Disneyland, who dance around, shake hands and pose for photos with the tourists, but must always stay in character and are forbidden to speak.
That solves most of the problems but forces them back to the days when love was only a fairy tale, and real royalty wed for political and financial reasons and weren’t expected to be either in love or, certainly, faithful.
Lack of rank sure does have its privileges.
Comments 5
Comments are closed.