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Subject: 
Re: e-commerce (was Technic shuttle etc)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 3 Dec 1999 06:44:19 GMT
Viewed: 
1462 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Franks writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Peter Callaway writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Franks writes:

Ahh... subtle British humour... (1)

One minor fault I have is that I can be a bit precious about the spelling of
my surname,

Nah, it's not a fault - stick with it! It's a common courtesy to get someones
name right. Just now the web seems to be filled with affluent 'westerners',
but when it becomes a more truely global medium, we'll be grateful for all the
practice we had with Callaways and Pieniazeks :)

True, but one doesn't want to appear like a prude, although I do have long
time friends who insist on sending Christmas cards addressed to "Peter
Calloway". Arggggg!!!

(1) WHERE HAS IT GONE???!?!?!??!?!

It went away with the Monty Python crew. Now *that* was humour at it's best.
Rowan Atkinson is keeping it going, but he's just one (but still great) man.

Ahh, I dunno.. do you get much recent British comedy down under? It's either
going to be mostly British or American I guess! I'd like to think that there
isn't a distinction between American and British comedy, but there *does* seem
to be a difference in atmosphere.

I think there is a very real distinction. Whilst British humour tends to be
more toilet orientated, it still makes you think a bit and appreciate the
cleaverness of the gag, which in turn makes it funnier. American sitcoms
(which flood our airwaves) are usually the same old recepe over and over
again. I call it the three phase gag. For every three lines of dialogue there
is one inserted gag (spoken or acted) and the appropriate canned laughter.
Even "Friends" which is a great show falls into this rut at times. And most of
the gags are usually in-your-face types or so predictable you've laughed and
moved on before the gag's upon you.

While visiting Canada - Canadians get mostly American TV, poor things, I saw
several "truely" dreadful comedy programs. The worst of which called itself
"Mad TV", _the_name_wasn't_ironic_ - urgh!

I still think the Americans have alot to lean about producing good comedy,
with a few obvious exceptions. Slap-stick can only keep you amused for so
long. So too can nasally New York accents.

Speaking of bad TV - I can't believe that the stations over there broadcast
911 messages, "argh, help.. my family are being burned alive..", cuts to
fake-sincerity-woman, "The tragic house-fire downtown today". And I was
genuinely appalled when they started playing the tape of William Shatner
reporting his wife being drowned in their pool - it took a few seconds for
the vulgarity of it to kick in, but the television went straight off.

The more dramatic/violent/controvertial/etc the program is, the more people
will watch it. We had an American series here recently called "World's Wildest
Police Videos" (I'm always dubious about these "World's Wildest" or "World's
Whackiest" or "World's Worst/Best" type shows, particularly when your up to
number 28 or so). It was a really annoying bloke narating (and dropping heaps
of bad puns) a series of different police chases where cars got smashed,
people got shot/run over/arrested, and you saw some spectacular crashes. It
rated through the roof. We're all vouyers (sp?) when it comes to that sort of
thing.

It's just such a horrible concept - and there is no news-value in it at all,
ratings value perhaps. Bah! Long live the BBC!

Aunty's not too bad, I often catch her on the net. ABC over here is going down
hill fast, and unless you want the world according to Murdoch and Packer,
there's not much else to watch. Thank goodness we have a large video
collection, and well, there's always LEGO!!

Sorry for the off-topic rant!

Nah, go for it!


Pete Callaway



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: e-commerce (was Technic shuttle etc)
 
(...) Nah, it's not a fault - stick with it! It's a common courtesy to get someones name right. Just now the web seems to be filled with affluent 'westerners', but when it becomes a more truely global medium, we'll be grateful for all the practice (...) (25 years ago, 3-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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