Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0453.  Wednesday, 7 June 1995.
 
(1)     From:   Anna Cole <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   TueSDAY, 06 Jun 1995 15:26:11 GMT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0447  Re: American and British Humor
 
(2)     From:   Pam Powell <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wed, 7 Jun 1995 10:01:27 GMT +2:00
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0450  Re: Humor
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Anna Cole <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           TueSDAY, 06 Jun 1995 15:26:11 GMT
Subject: 6.0447  Re: American and British Humor
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0447  Re: American and British Humor
 
To Stephanie Hughes,
 
Delighted to hear that you enjoy some British humour.  I think perhaps you
would not enjoy Absolutely Fabulous if you do not feel comfortable with Fawlty
Towers.  The humour is certainly black.  It reminds us of a vestigial savagery
that lurks in apparently civilised man - or women in the case of the appalling
Eddy and her side-kick.  This is balanced by the decency and good sense of
Saffy the daughter.  I believe both AF and FT are morality plays.   They are
intended to shock, just as Falstaff's speech in Henry1V part 1, at the end of
Act V,i, would shock a Shakespearean audience.   With their more clearly
defined notion of honour,  Elizabethans might very well have reacted as you
have - with discomfort - when Falstaff (False Staff?) declares at the end of
his speech: "Honour is a mere scutcheon - and so ends my catechism."
 
Anna Cole
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Pam Powell <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wed, 7 Jun 1995 10:01:27 GMT +2:00
Subject: 6.0450  Re: Humor
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0450  Re: Humor
 
Dear Robert Applebaum,
 
Here is one Brit who things Benny Hill is a load of rubbish, very unsubtle to
say the least!
 
Pam Powell
Univ. of the Witwatersrand
South Africa

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