Thank you, Monika, a brilliant melding of wide-ranging connections and personal experience. I remember Zero Mostel/Gene wilder flick well. Scripts, manuscripts and anything remotely like that today would be redlined by producers, “sensitivity readers” and other woke cultural commisars (though somehow JoJo Rabbit got through, which I have yet to see).
You are right. And people who laugh together are not likely to kill each other, either. Thanks for reading my posts, and I look forward to your thoughts on Laughter.
Thanks, Margaret. I've been spending the last few months watching all the spinning plates of my must-write articles come crashing down around me. I've been in a literary vacuum since then and still sweeping up. Creatively speaking, the tide has been out. But maybe your missing me is the nudge I need to begin again. Honestly, the barrage of New Normal has been overwhelming, especially since we entered the War Phase. Its absurdity knows no bounds. The people around me (everyone I know is vaxxed) carry on like nothing is wrong and plan for the future like there will be one. The overall level of denial here in everyday UK is shocking. They will not know what hit them when it does. Sooo... as Monika has so delightfully and clearly laid out, it is laughter that is our antidote. I'm all for that and I know you are too.
I understand, and I do hope this sparks you to start piecing those plates back together! Just pick one and start with that :-) I miss your popcorn satire.
Sorry to hear you’re surrounded by the menticided—perhaps you can perform an intervention and offer them my 12-step recovery program 😊
Thanks Margaret. I really appreciate your encouragement. Truly. I've got one that I'm mulling over... Maybe I should try your 12-step program myself!! Also, I've come across a new word - auctorphilia, the love of authority, in Jim Reagan's Substack here: https://jimreagen.substack.com/p/auctorphilia
And one more thing, Monika... Do you recall the late great Robin Williams on live German TV? The presenter asked him, "So, Robin, why do you think the Germans lack a sense of humour?" To which he replied, "Because you killed all the funny people!" Only Robin Williams could have gotten away with that.
I didn't know that one; brilliant comeback. Williams was so smart and twitchy that I found it difficult to watch him...he was really a tortured soul and I must have picked up on it. RIP Robin.
'The Fuehrer was good, the Fuehrer was kind......' You've got to hand it to genuine neurotic Jewish humour. And don't forget my quip to the wife of the US consul at that odd party in West Van all those years ago when she waxed poetic about Reagan: 'We all make mistakes, my grandmother voted for HItler'.
First of all, thank you, Monika!! I needed to read this (God, we all need to!!) as it's exactly what I've felt since this ridiculous farce of Covidiocy began. Two years with the majority of heads in a paper bag. No wonder they couldn't laugh! Myself included, although without the paper bag. It's been astonishing how humour left the building and the absurd wokeists took over. Well, they only thought they took over. They are in the minority, magnified like addled insects by the media. I have not seen The Producers and after the trailer you posted here, I'm all in. Utter genius!! Laughter is our weapon. These serious Covidiots, globalist elites and their tyrannical puppets cannot tolerate it! Can you imagine being fined or jailed for laughing? The thought of it makes me chuckle. Seriousness is the real virus.
Hey Navyo, I am glad to have hit the mark. If I can make just one person smile, it's a good day of writing. My brain seems to be fried these days, but maybe more laughter will fix that?
Thank you, Monika, a brilliant melding of wide-ranging connections and personal experience. I remember Zero Mostel/Gene wilder flick well. Scripts, manuscripts and anything remotely like that today would be redlined by producers, “sensitivity readers” and other woke cultural commisars (though somehow JoJo Rabbit got through, which I have yet to see).
Lovely piece, Monika, and this is a topic I am planning to explore in a future essay. Loss of humor is one of the first signs of totalitarianism.
I came across this quote in Joost Meerloo’s “Rape of the Mind” (which I referenced extensively in my “Letter to the Menticided” at https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-menticided-a-12-step) and found it appropriate and inspiring:
“love and laughter break through all rigid conditioning. The rigid automaton cannot exist without spontaneous self-expression.”
You are right. And people who laugh together are not likely to kill each other, either. Thanks for reading my posts, and I look forward to your thoughts on Laughter.
Great quote. So true, Margaret!
Thank you, Navyo, and good to see you! I’ve missed you :-)
Thanks, Margaret. I've been spending the last few months watching all the spinning plates of my must-write articles come crashing down around me. I've been in a literary vacuum since then and still sweeping up. Creatively speaking, the tide has been out. But maybe your missing me is the nudge I need to begin again. Honestly, the barrage of New Normal has been overwhelming, especially since we entered the War Phase. Its absurdity knows no bounds. The people around me (everyone I know is vaxxed) carry on like nothing is wrong and plan for the future like there will be one. The overall level of denial here in everyday UK is shocking. They will not know what hit them when it does. Sooo... as Monika has so delightfully and clearly laid out, it is laughter that is our antidote. I'm all for that and I know you are too.
I understand, and I do hope this sparks you to start piecing those plates back together! Just pick one and start with that :-) I miss your popcorn satire.
Sorry to hear you’re surrounded by the menticided—perhaps you can perform an intervention and offer them my 12-step recovery program 😊
• “Letter to the Menticided: A 12-Step Recovery Program” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-menticided-a-12-step)
Thanks Margaret. I really appreciate your encouragement. Truly. I've got one that I'm mulling over... Maybe I should try your 12-step program myself!! Also, I've come across a new word - auctorphilia, the love of authority, in Jim Reagan's Substack here: https://jimreagen.substack.com/p/auctorphilia
That is an incredibly helpful term—thank you for introducing me to that as well as Jim’s Stack!
And one more thing, Monika... Do you recall the late great Robin Williams on live German TV? The presenter asked him, "So, Robin, why do you think the Germans lack a sense of humour?" To which he replied, "Because you killed all the funny people!" Only Robin Williams could have gotten away with that.
I didn't know that one; brilliant comeback. Williams was so smart and twitchy that I found it difficult to watch him...he was really a tortured soul and I must have picked up on it. RIP Robin.
'The Fuehrer was good, the Fuehrer was kind......' You've got to hand it to genuine neurotic Jewish humour. And don't forget my quip to the wife of the US consul at that odd party in West Van all those years ago when she waxed poetic about Reagan: 'We all make mistakes, my grandmother voted for HItler'.
You're right...I should have included that story because it is very apt. Keep your quips coming, Vince, we need 'em..
First of all, thank you, Monika!! I needed to read this (God, we all need to!!) as it's exactly what I've felt since this ridiculous farce of Covidiocy began. Two years with the majority of heads in a paper bag. No wonder they couldn't laugh! Myself included, although without the paper bag. It's been astonishing how humour left the building and the absurd wokeists took over. Well, they only thought they took over. They are in the minority, magnified like addled insects by the media. I have not seen The Producers and after the trailer you posted here, I'm all in. Utter genius!! Laughter is our weapon. These serious Covidiots, globalist elites and their tyrannical puppets cannot tolerate it! Can you imagine being fined or jailed for laughing? The thought of it makes me chuckle. Seriousness is the real virus.
Hey Navyo, I am glad to have hit the mark. If I can make just one person smile, it's a good day of writing. My brain seems to be fried these days, but maybe more laughter will fix that?
Indeed it will!! Laughter is contagious, remember...
This is a very solid piece of work about humor no less. Well done, ... when do we get to see you at the comedy club?
Thank you! I'm working on a routine about an old bag who's lost her sense of humour...