Terms Which Have Disappeared

[GHT]

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Intelligence is like an underwear. It is important that you have it, but not necessary that you show it off.

And some with a more modern take:

eBay is so useless. I tried to look up lighters and all they had was 13,749 matches.

Maybe if we start telling people the brain is an app they will start using it.

 

[tonyb]

A Maine description of the dumb and clueless -- "Numb as a hake." "Yeah, not only does he not know nothin', he don't even suspect nothin'."

Similar to but not quite the same as "he doesn't know what he doesn't know," which is itself similar to but not quite the same as Abraham Lincoln's observation that it's "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

 

[ChiTownScion]

A Maine description of the dumb and clueless -- "Numb as a hake." "Yeah, not only does he not know nothin', he don't even suspect nothin'."

"If brains were dynamite, that poor soul couldn't blow his nose."

 

[Upgrade]

Funny how things in this thread stick with you for a couple of weeks.

I passed by a thrift shop the other day called "Frock You".

 

[GHT]

Funny how things in this thread stick with you for a couple of weeks.

I passed by a thrift shop the other day called "Frock You".

Similarities to a profanity always get more attention. When the outer highway around London, called the M25 was built, part of it skirted the edge of an area known as Epping Forest. Protesters against the route going through the forest displayed placards reading: Not Epping Likely. (It still went through.)

"If brains were dynamite, that poor soul couldn't blow his nose."

I remember getting detention at school when a master overheard me say: "If wit was sh*t, he would be constipated."

 

[EngProf]

A local saloon uses a variant of a WWII military acronym as its name:
"FooBar"
Considering the part of town it's in, and the nature of the locals, that name likely describes the bar's customers at the end of the evening.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Used to be a tavern in Seattle called the Tu-Hi. But that's been a long time ago now, when we were perhaps a bit more candid. In some ways, anyway.

Had a discussion just today about the Mel Brooks film "Blazing Saddles," and how it just wouldn't be made today. Richard Pryor was on the writing team, and it shows. He was in consideration to play the role that went to Cleavon Little.

 

[BlueTrain]

Blazing Saddles was a parody of old Westerns, or at least of the later adult westerns, but I still enjoyed it, up to the point when the actors ran out of the studio. I think it could be made today but probably wouldn't--it's been done. I also remember that John Wayne was asked to be in the movie. He said he couldn't be in anything like that but he'd be first in line to see it.

I sometimes wonder about actors and actresses going to the movies.

There was a Spike Jones number, "Behind those swinging doors," where some pass in and some pass out. The humor was almost too subtle.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Blazing Saddles was a parody of old Westerns, or at least of the later adult westerns, but I still enjoyed it, up to the point when the actors ran out of the studio. I think it could be made today but probably wouldn't--it's been done. I also remember that John Wayne was asked to be in the movie. He said he couldn't be in anything like that but he'd be first in line to see it.

They did a remake of Mel Brooks' The Producers, and it just didn't cut it. People forget how audacious, outrageous, and bold it was in 1968- a mere 23 years after the Second World War, to make a comedy that featured a Broadway musical entitled "Springtime for Hitler," and how that outrage played into the ironic comedy of the film itself. In my home, I had a father who had seen a lot of combat in Europe (including the Battle of the Bulge/ Ardennes Offensive of '44, in which Brooks himself had participated): the notion that World War II was not to be used as the subject for comedy was canon ("McHale's Navy" and "Hogan's Heroes" were not allowed on the TV when he was around). And yet, when that chorus line was kick lining and singing, "Springtime for Hitler, and Germany! Goosestep's the new step today!" that same father was laughing so hard that I thought he'd have a heart attack. And I think that was a fairly common experience.

Redo that same film plot 30-plus years later, and it is simply is not going to have the same zing, as, by that time, Hitler and the war had been further in the past than Kaiser Wilhelm had been in 1968 in terms of what was popularly deemed as ancient history. And, "Springtime for Hitler" was so common that you'd hear it in department store Muzak. Doomed to fail from the start, really.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I wonder if, in 2024, there'll be a wacky comedy about 9/11. Maybe not quite then, but eventually there will be.

People forget just how much comedy there was about World War II *while it was still going on.* A skinny little actor named Bobby Watson made a whole series of B comedy features in which he played Hitler -- not "Hynkel," not "Hinker," not some other obvious pseudonym, but the actual Hitler -- as a ridiculous prancing buffoon, and these were extremely popular.

And then there was Spike Jones and "Der Fuehrer's Face," one of the most popular songs of the war. Or Bugs Bunny sending Hitler into a screaming fit of terror by disguising himself as Stalin. In the Era, laughing in the face of evil was considered one of the most effective weapons against it.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Remember, just 27 years ago:

 

[Fading Fast]

I wonder if, in 2024, there'll be a wacky comedy about 9/11. Maybe not quite then, but eventually there will be.

People forget just how much comedy there was about World War II *while it was still going on.* A skinny little actor named Bobby Watson made a whole series of B comedy features in which he played Hitler -- not "Hynkel," not "Hinker," not some other obvious pseudonym, but the actual Hitler -- as a ridiculous prancing buffoon, and these were extremely popular.

And then there was Spike Jones and "Der Fuehrer's Face," one of the most popular songs of the war. Or Bugs Bunny sending Hitler into a screaming fit of terror by disguising himself as Stalin. In the Era, laughing in the face of evil was considered one of the most effective weapons against it.

It was also acceptable to stereotype, demonize and, as you note, laugh at the enemy in WWII. Some of the American WWII propaganda about the Japanese is brutally racist. Today, thankfully, at a public level anyway, that is not acceptable. But that might also make it harder to do humor as things like Spike Jones' recording would probably be viewed as offensive if something similar was done today about a leader of one of the major terrorist organizations.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best Hitler cartoon poop of the war --

(All the "gremlins" are caricatures of the Schlesinger studio cartoon staff.)

 

[Fading Fast]

The best Hitler cartoon poop of the war --

(All the "gremlins" are caricatures of the Schlesinger studio cartoon staff.)

Wonderful cartoon. Love when Hitler is "jolted" into the shape of a swastika. But if you substitute current leaders of terrorist organizations for Hitler and made that cartoon today it would be viewed as racists / encouraging racisms.

 

[Zombie_61]

They did a remake of Mel Brooks' The Producers...

In a shining example of Hollywood feeding off of it's own, the 2005 movie version of The Producers is actually based on the stage production that ran on Broadway from April, 2001, to April, 2007, which also starred Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. That production was, of course, based on the original 1967 movie, which Mel Brooks wrote with the intent of it becoming a Broadway musical titled *Springtime for Hitler. So the remake is a movie about a play, that's based on a play about a play, that's based on a movie about a play.


*The 1967 movie was supposed to be titled Springtime for Hitler as well. After viewing the finished movie, Executive Producer Joseph E. Levine called Brooks and told him it wouldn't be released because he (Levine) thought it was in poor taste and not funny. However, Peter Sellers held a private screening of the unreleased movie and loved it. When Sellers learned it wouldn't be released he called Levine and convinced him to release it; Levine agreed only under the condition that the title be changed, and the movie become The Producers.

 

[Upgrade]

They said that 9/11 had moments like the Titanic especially with the boats trying to get in and leave the harbor.

I can't recall if there's been a comedy about the Titanic in recent years.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I can't recall if there's been a comedy about the Titanic in recent years.

Has there ever been a comedy about the Titanic? Raise the Titanic doesn't count, as it was unintentionally laughable.

 

[ChrisB]

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

I fear that we are approaching the day when our machines are more inteligent than we are, and it's not because the machines are getting smarter.

 

[GHT]

You are right, my phone has a spell check/correction facility. Time was, when I would look up a word in the dictionary. Using the phone is convenient but it does make me lazy.

 

[BlueTrain]

Oh, I don't know. This computer sometimes insists on words, word order, spelling, everything, that I don't want to use. This computer isn't smarter; it's just contrary (a word not used very much).

Already robotic machines make other robotic machines. But somewhere along the way, a customer is still necessary.