Posted on 06/03/2023 9:51:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
An unprecedented record of medieval live comedy performance has been identified in a 15th-century manuscript. Raucous texts—mocking kings, priests and peasants; encouraging audiences to get drunk; and shocking them with slapstick—shed new light on Britain's famous sense of humor and the role played by minstrels in medieval society.
The texts contain the earliest recorded use of "red herring" in English, extremely rare forms of medieval literature, as well as a killer rabbit worthy of Monty Python. The discovery changes the way we should think about English comic culture between Chaucer and Shakespeare.
Throughout the Middle Ages, minstrels traveled between fairs, taverns and baronial halls to entertain people with songs and stories. Fictional minstrels are common in medieval literature but references to real-life performers are rare and fleeting. We have first names, payments, instruments played and occasionally locations, but until now virtually no evidence of their lives or work...
"The Hunting of the Hare" is a poem about peasants which is full of jokes and absurd high jinks. The poem features fictional peasants including Davé of the Dale and Jack Wade, who could be from any medieval village. One scene is reminiscent of Monty Python's "Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog":"Jack Wade was never so sad / As when the hare trod on his head / In case she would have ripped out his throat."Dr. Wade says, "Killer rabbit jokes have a long tradition in medieval literature. Chaucer did this a century earlier in the Canterbury Tales."
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
"Dave of the Dale is soooo dumb......"
AUDIENCE: "How dumb is he?"
LOL
:^D
The original meaning of burlesque included this kind of entertainment. Later, the term was used to cover for less savory (or maybe more savory, depending on who was talking) shows done indoors.
I think the old low comedy, Roger Royster Doyster (sp?) is in the first episode of Michael Wood’s “Shakespeare”.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5nu0oj
"Here we have a self-made entertainer with very little education creating really original, ironic material. To get an insight into someone like that from this period is incredibly rare and exciting."
>>>
Dr. Wade says, "Killer rabbit jokes have a long tradition in medieval literature.>>>
There could be more evidence to be found but Wade emphasizes that minstrel writing is unlikely to have survived and that we should look for other kinds of evidence...
It's the kind of humor that can really destroy a temple (I never know when this stuff will come in handy):
A Wild Hare is a 1940 American animated comedy short film directed by Tex Avery, produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Warner Bros. as part of the Merrie Melodies series. The film was released on July 27, 1940, and features Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, the latter making what is considered his first official appearance.[2][3]
>>>
The line, "What's up, Doc?", was added by director Tex Avery for this film. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas where he was from, and he did not think much of the phrase. But when this short was screened in theaters, the scene of Bugs calmly chewing a carrot, followed by the nonchalant "What's Up, Doc?", went against any 1940s audience's expectation of how a rabbit might react to a hunter and caused complete pandemonium in the audience, bringing down the house in every theater.
Bugs' Hebrew Wiki page (horrible place!) provides the Hebrew translation:
"?מה המצב, דוק"
What's the status [המצב], Doc?
מַצָב
situation, state, status, condition, position, occasion
Which is a short hop from:
מַצֵבָה
gravestone, monument, tombstone, stone, pillar, column
***
What's Up, Doc? What's the status?
Still Not Dead (Official Video)
Thanks, Willie, for providing evidence that anything in this mundane, corrupted physical world can be lifted right back Up. That really irritates the crypt keepers.
"Don't bury me I've got a show to play."
Tombstone (typography) (מצבה)Where have all the LEVites gone, anyway? They're the ones supposed to be in charge of the LEVity, and they don't even know where the hare it is...Q.E.D. It's a veritable mashal [מש"ל].
❤️❤️❤️
He pondered our world from every side and every angle, and he realized something must have gone wrong. Something at the very beginning. Something before Time had begun and there were moments to count; before the laws of nature had been established and matter had yet a chance to form. Something at the very core of reality, and if he could find it, all the cosmos could be healed.
❤️❤️❤️
Who invited *that* guy? There goes the neighborhood.
Worse yet, will be the realization that "What's up, Doc" is an extension of the "Who's on 1st" skit (out of the park, the PaRDeS). Someone obviously lost a vowel, just for starters.
"Observe my statues!"
Interesting; thanks for posting all of that!
"I warned you! I warned you, but did you listen to me? Oh no, you just *knew*, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it? Well, it's always the same. I always told them, but do they listen to me? Oooh, no..."
Oops, yeah, that’s the one.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21350/21350-h/21350-h.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ralph-Roister-Doister
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&q=RALPH%20ROISTER%20DOISTER
See your FRmail; I sent you a lot of info which, if you find worthy, you may post to this thread, as it adds some things that others might find interesting/useful.
Thanks!
That was my thought as well. Every time a major contemporary comedian dies, someone mentions their valuable estate's huge files of thousands of jokes. Bob Hope and Joan Rivers come to mind.
Hope and Milton Berle had a huge feud about this and Berle was known as an outrageous joke stealer.
Abbot & Costello and the Three Stooges did some of exactly the same skits.
Charlie Chaplin STOLE ( and claimed it as his own idea and is now well known for ) the forks in potatoes dance; however, Chaplin STOLE that from Stan Laurel, when they both were doing English Music Hall and Laurel was THE bigger one/a headliner and it was something that Laurel originated and was well known, all over the UK, for!
Then there is JOE MILLER'S JOKE BOOK ( a very old comedian, who did publish his jokes ) and whom many comedians, after him, stole from.
Even Flip Wilson stole his "HERE COME THE JUDGE", from an old Burlesque skit.
The Miller’s Tale from the Canterbury Tales is as bawdy as you can get.................
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