Re: TAN: Cultural presuppositions

On Thu, 3 Jun 1999, Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:

>
> Let's have a show of hands: How many list members outside the US (and
> maybe Canada) found the joke less opaque after that explanation?
>
> (For myself, I happen to 'know' that the Lone Ranger is the hero (of
> European descent, presumably) of some sort of popular Western story
> (TV show? comics? juvenile novels?) in the US, and that Tonto is his
> American Indian sidekick. But that knowledge was initially only a
> guess based on then obscure references in US fiction and jokes, now
> confirmed in so many different instances that I don't doubt my
> inference anymore. I still haven't seen or read a Lone Ranger story).
>
Well, I didn't really get it, but I went to the same process
you describe, and as soon as I arrived at the 'western story' bit
I decided to skip. Even Lucky Luke can't really interest me
nowadays. Still, I like this kind of deductions.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt