Off topic humor / history

Lest topic go astray:::
For those that have forgotten,,,, Some of this was required reading back then,,,We did a G-S play every year,,haha
Guilbert - Sullivan were a echo of Benjiman Thompson [Boston area] corresponding with General Gauge during the revolution,,[[,NOT,,,NOT everyone was a colonialist,,!!! There were Loyalists,,,!!! went to N-B and stayed,still there,,]]
Signed someone else signature,,and a doctor was hung,,while Thompson traveld to NB,,and NovaScotia,,safely escaping the colonials to England,
In short order blackmailed his way to be FIRST lord of the admirlty,,!!! couldn't row a boat,,or,,swim,,
He polished up the handle so carefully,,that now hes ruler of the Queens n'avee,,,[G-S]
When things got hot he went to Germany,,
He will be rememberd for the fireplace smoke throat,,and in Germany for the count Rumford stove,,
There were no plays written in English from Shakespere's time un til /during/ after the revolution,,!!!!
That is til the plays of Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Sheridan,,generally referd to as the 3 English comadies,,,
She stoops to conquer,,
The Rivals
The school for Scandel,,
In one of these Mrs Malaprop is ALWAYS inventing loooong impressiv words totaly out of contex,,,
Hence,,,""my great aunt on my father in laws side would disageee humoungously""haha,,,
The plays are boring by todays standards,,,but they should be preserved as the rest of our culture,,,,
I had not realized the grand void in our language or arts til I re read some of this 40 years later,,,
Doily Carte Co owned the rights to Guilbert -Sullivan,,,and performed the plays of G-S from 1850 til about 15 years ago
Longer running than anything on Broadway,,,
Dates/spell'n from lack of memory,,and distress,,If annyone cares,,,Thompsons life is interesting to say the least,,
It ranks better than Watergateopsis and Iraqistananesq,,,,
Congrats,,,You have finnished my most boring post ever,,,
Thompsons doings may be banned in some parts of this country,,and other parts of other countries,,,,,haha,,Ben

Hi Ben,

This thread could be titled "Culture Corner; Or, Obscure Historical Humor". Perhaps we should hire Ernie Kovacs' "Percy Dovetonsils" as our host and moderator... or perhaps frustrated highbrow (kiddy TV show sidekick) Sideshow Bob from "The Simpsons"... another Gilbert & Sullivan fan... chuckle... savage satire politely disguised as silly entertainment -- and often going over the audience's head -- is far from new, or a lost art...

Speaking of "over the audience's head", Wikipedia mentions that D'Oyly-Carte himself arranged Oscar Wilde's hit American tour _before_ the tour of a G&S show lampooning the "purple poets" of the era, so that purple-poet-deprived Americans would understand the humor in the show. How's that for ingenious marketing!

Thanks for the information on Thompson; now I know who G&S were skewering in "HMS Pinafore". They probably had other shining exemplars of counter-meritocracy [kakistocracy?] in mind too... The "model modern major general" in "Pirates Of Penzance" was well versed in everything... except military matters...

D'Oyly-Carte Co. folded in 1982 according to Wikipedia. Amazingly long run.

I forget which pro-independence/patriot figure estimated that during the late unpleasantness between the King & colonies, about 1/3 of the American population were Loyalists, 1/3 were Patriots, and 1/3 didn't care. The percentage which actively fought on either side was far smaller. Modern media hand-wringing to the contrary, apathy, inaction, and political "polarization" are not recent developments.

I have heard of a fort in southern Canada whose bronze historical plaque states that the fort was built in the 1770s/1780s to defend Canada against "terrorists from the south". There is a dividing line between history and humor, but I am not sure of its location...

Webster's traces "Malapropism" to R.B. Sheridan's 1775 comedy "The Rivals". Aha! The expression came into use in 1849. "Malaprop" (noun) in 1823. No mention of malaprops is complete without a tip of the hat to "Yogi" Berra -- not the cartoon character of similar name -- and some recent prominent political figures, whose names will be politely withheld, have also delivered remarkable performances. Humorist Will Rogers once commented that if it weren't for the government, he'd be out of work.

Boring stuff? Well, Mrs. Malaprop might call it "unsteamly".

Peter

Frankly I'm waiting for Hal Holbrook to update his routine,,,Theres more stuff now than in 1850
to poke fun at,,
Now to see if that playhouse still is running ""A funney thing happend on the way to the Forum"""";,,
I'll let you play on that for a bit,,, [[unless you need a Bump-Start,,,]]]
I cant recall who wrote it just remember the language it was first printed in,,,haha,,,
AND its theme is still currant,,,live on forever,,what ever??,,almost ever,,,
Puritan age restricted of course,,
I wonder if I can learn a new language fast enough to enjoy the humor,,,,Cheers,,''',,'',',,''[ragtime]],,Ben

I realize that this is an aging thread, but....
Benjamin Thompson was my g-g-g-g-great uncle and cousin 5 and 7 times removed was. Don't forget he invented the drip coffeepot. You wouldn't believe what he did on Long Island where phrase "add insult to injury" perfectly applies and may have been coined there. For the heat engineer, his studies proved the correlation between mechanical work energy and heat energy. His photometer and color studies were original and significant. He offered to start and pay for what became West Point but was refused since he was such a creep. He was a hero in his own mind and a social climber with always a kick for the underdog.
I appeared in a number of G-S plays without knowing that Thompson was the source for the Ruler of the Queens Nayvee. Amazing. Only one of my relatives ever mentioned him and then whispered behind the hand.
Regarding Will Shakespeare, his plays were usually Italian comedies or English kings in tragedies but his single play on current events followed Stephen Hopkins into shipwreck in the West Indies, called The Tempest. This is a direct ancestor of mine. He was no great historic figure either, but did go on to Jamestown where he left thinking the colony doomed by stupidity, and later shipped off from Plymouth, England, with a bunch of Puritans on the Mayflower to land in Massachusetts in 1620, another famous event.

Karl Petersen