Posted on 02/23/2003 4:03:29 PM PST by weegee
We all know the medicinal value of laughter. A good chuckle clears the air, draws song from silence.
In my book, a sense of humor is one of the prime qualities I would look for in a mate. After all, how can we get through life, through this valley of tears, without a healthy bit of hysterics?
Sometimes the best satire is the one aimed squarely between our eyes. The one that elicits an ouch. The one that, between hiccups, makes us nod in recognition.
The ability to laugh at ourselves is a blessing. A blessing and an affirmation. Nothing like a joke to wring hope from despair, don't you think?
So I thought.
I've been musing about the purpose -- and the caustic sting -- of humor since one of my sisters forwarded me an e-mail about Dame Edna. Yes, possums, that Dame Edna, the one with the out-there glasses and the what's-that-awful-color tresses.
Those who have followed the Australian dame's meteoric rise in the humor factory know she skewers whatever and whomever she wants, and with lacerating delight.
This month, though, the self-described housewife, social anthropologist, swami, megastar and (for the uninitiated) alter ego of comedian Barry Humphries has gotten herself into trouble. A very American kind of trouble.
In her February column in the chi-chi magazine Vanity Fair, Edna dear Edna answers a letter from a fictional reader who wonders if Spanish is worth learning: "Forget Spanish. There's nothing in that language worth reading except Don Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care of that."
After dismissing poet Garcia Lorca to the intellectual back burner, she goes on to opine: "Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help? Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are at least a few books worth reading, or, if you're American, try English."
A firestorm of outrage followed, including a letter from the president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, calling Dame Edna's column "an appalling display of bigotry."
In its regret, Vanity Fair officially responded that the comments "were offered in the spirit of outrageous comedy and were never intended to be taken to heart." In other words: What you so uptight about, man? Don't you get it?
Which brings me back to my original musings about humor. See, I do get it. I do, I do. Just hold the laughter until I get a tissue for my tears.
I get it because I -- and all those who bear my kind of surname -- have been the butt of so many demeaning jokes and such debasing stereotypes that we have a trigger-quick sensitivity to these things. It's not funny anymore.
On one level, I know that by its very nature humor is bound to stomp on some toes. But on another, on that level that has had doors slammed, backs turned, hopes dashed, I also understand that too often satire masks prejudice and a joke can be just another word for discrimination.
I wonder what kind of reaction the Dame might have garnered had she written about the dearth of African-American lit other than Toni Morrison's.
The sad part about Dame Edna's advice is not her words but Vanity Fair's decision to run them, thinking that the "patently absurd comments" -- the magazine's phrase -- wouldn't offend.
Are we so removed from each other, so ignorant of others' thinking, that we don't know when a swipe goes far too far?
Now, here's a real joke for you, if you like irony.
Guess who's on the cover of the magazine? Salma Hayek. Mexican.
Veciana-Suarez is a family columnist for the Miami Herald. She welcomes readers' responses at aveciana@herald.com
That's so true. Well, if Dame Edna ever shows her bum here in Texas, she won't have a chinaman's chance!
Ay caramba!
Your victimized attitude is why all the tried and true cliches were created. 1)a different story when your ox is gored. 2)'you can dish it out, but sure can't take it." 3)'Not in my backyard', etc.
You explain why you shouldn't be upset, yet don't take your own advice. Makes me wonder what kind of friggin' idiots the Miami Herald hires. Sheesh!
I thought she was Clark Griswold's [deceased] aunt.
Studying French actually WAS valuable to me, I learned a lot about English (because it shows massive French influence) and I have indeed been impressed with the 18th and 19th century French novels I've read. (Modern day French people aren't fit to wipe my spike-heeled thigh high boots, but that's another topic.) Maybe I'm just an elitist snob, but... well... I'm afraid Dame Edna is right.
This isn't about people's race. It's about what the societies have contributed.
I am unaware that Toni Morrison wrote novels in something other than English either. I would raise up George Herriman, the author/artist of Jazz Age comic strip Krazy Kat as an African-American over the Clinton loving Toni "America's First Black President" Morrison.
Taking Education classes at SIU so I can teach high school English and French. Et toi?
I would agree with you that the article was about that if it weren't for the following quotes from the article:
the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, calling Dame Edna's column "an appalling display of bigotry." and all those who bear my kind of surname -- have been the butt of so many demeaning jokes and such debasing stereotypes
But on another, on that level that has had doors slammed, backs turned, hopes dashed, I also understand that too often satire masks prejudice and a joke can be just another word for discrimination.
I wonder what kind of reaction the Dame might have garnered had she written about the dearth of African-American lit other than Toni Morrison's.
Had the author argued that Edna's joke was not funny by giving examples of lit in Spanish that were great works and made the argument on Edna's taste in lit and debated that, rather than writing an article stating that Edna found lit in Spanish lacking because of the race of the people writing it, you would have a point.
The author is the one stating that Edna's comments were based on prejudice and bigotry, not content. The author is not arguing Edna's taste, she's calling Edna a racist. She should have taken the high road and couched the argument in your terms, rather than slinging racial accusations. In doing that, she would have made Edna look like an idiot, well, even more like an idiot.
The controversy was that there wasn't any Spanish language literature worth the effort since Don Quixote.
Name one place in the article where she rebuts Edna's contention that "There's nothing in that language worth reading except Don Quixote."
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