Posted on 06/30/2021 9:17:16 AM PDT by re_tail20
He was ill-mannered and ill-spoken—a boor, a braggart, a ruffian, a bigot, a hick, and a trickster. His name was Brother Jonathan.
Today he is all but forgotten—eclipsed by his upstanding uncle, Sam. But after the Revolutionary War, Brother Jonathan was the personification of the newly independent American people: clever, courageous, not all that sophisticated and proud of it. He was the everyman incarnate. It was the everyman who had led America to victory. And now America looked to the everyman to lead them out from the bloated shadow of Great Britain.
During the nation’s first hundred years, America tried on many characters in search of the perfect fit for its new independent status. There was the feminine Columbia, the indigenous bald eagle, the stoic Lady Liberty, and the bumbling Yankee Doodle. Out of this personification soup, only a few emerged that had some staying power.
Many of these national stereotypes were depicted in popular ballads and stage comedies before America had even achieved its independence; Yankee Doodle was among them. He was originally a British invention—a caricature of a naive, upstart American colonist who was created as a foil for John Bull: the imposing personification of England. Though he never completely faded out of existence, after the Revolutionary War Yankee Doodle was mostly assimilated into another stage character: Brother Jonathan.
Brother Jonathan was a rustic New Englander who was depicted at various times on stage as a peddler, a seaman, and a trader, but always as a sly and cunning figure. He began to show up in political cartoons in newspapers and magazines during the early part of the 19th century as new and cheaper printing methods developed. It was at this point that American cartoonists transformed Brother Jonathan from a figure of derision into one of...
(Excerpt) Read more at atlasobscura.com ...
It was the everyman who had led America to victory. …And here I thought it was God. George Washington certainly looked to God and told his men to do so; were they wrong?
Never heard of him.
Bookmark
Nor I.
Seems to have been a derogatory term used by loyalists to describe those who favored independence.
What a GREAT find.<p.I’m a native Bawstoniun, and I NEVAH he(h)rd this befo’h
I’ve heard of Brother Jukebox, is he related?
bkmk
Much like the first Yankee Doodle.
Nothing new here.
He's the personification of Jacob by Laban and Sons, the ones who didn't want him to have his independence.
Jacob, the devious trickster -- Projection 101. Now if Esau would turn aside from following the opinions of his Uncle Laban, he'd appreciate that
Jacob is clever as in having much ingenuity, Yankee ingenuity that is.
They'll make a great comedy team, those two. Double Trouble.
The upright man:
"The straight man is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce.[1] When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically, the straight man is expected to maintain composure.
Whatever direct contribution to the comedy a straight man provides usually comes in the form of a deadpan. A straight man with no direct comedic role has historically been known as a stooge. Typically he is expected to feed the funny man lines that he can respond to for laughs (and is hence sometimes known as a feed), while seeking no acclamation for himself. If a straight man unintentionally breaks composure and laughs, it is known in British English as corpsing. "
Some people just can't take a joke.
"Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour[1] is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blunt, ironic, laconic, or apparently unintentional."
Exodus 33
20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
plumber(wiktionary):
Borrowed from Old French plummier (French plombier); from Latin plumbārius, from plumbum (“lead or lead shot”).
Or how about
cheeky:
(informal) Impudent; impertinent; impertinently bold, often in a way that is regarded as endearing or amusing.
"We're busting outta here!" ~ Moses, paraphrased
***
Joseph's special coat (like the ones worn by the king's virgin daughters) was a "ketonet passim", lit. a striped tunic but often translated as a coat of (ketonet) many colors (passim, stripes, rails -- pl. of pas).
Many colors:
It's a simple observation that light is here, there, and everywhere.
In Latin, the word for that is "passim".
Anyone ever think to reverse-Babel the languages? I got through with no problem.
(Peanut Gallery: I got a map here someplace that says we haven't even captured that place yet!)
Yeah, so I heard. Everybody seems very friendly.
Come fly with US..
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