>From: "Thomas R. Wier" <artabanos@...>
>Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
>And as an aside: I respectfully disagree with your implication about the
show.
>The satire involved is very American-oriented, like the following lines
from the
>episode when Bart and Lisa's school have a history pageant:
>
>[ "|" represents a caesura]
>"We're the mediocre | Presidents /
>You won't find our faces | on dollars or on cents; /
>We're Taylor, we're Tyler, | we're Fillmore and we're Hayes -- /
>I'm William Henry Harrison, | I died in 30 days! -- /
>We're the adequate, | acceptable /
>Occasionally regretable /
>Care-taker Presidents of the USA!!"
>
>(imagine that to a can-can of children on stage)
>
>How can you understand that if you don't have a clue who William
>Henry Harrison is? I doubt one could entirely; it's like an inside-joke.
The line's its own key, isn't it? The dying in thirty days implies he
couldn't really be known for much else. In fact, isn't the whole idea that
these are supposedly important figures that everyday people don't have a
clue about?
I dunno, I busted out laughing the first time I heard that line sung.
(Which isn't to say that there *aren't* that kind of inside jokes on the
show. The episode "Mom and Pop Art" had references I never would have
gotten if I hadn't just taken a class in Contemporary Art. Claes Oldenberg?
Jasper Johns? One of my teachers spent practically a whole class period
talking about Christo who wrapped the Reichstag. "Not the Reichstag!"
"Yes!")
*Muke!