|
by Zseni 02/24/2007, 6:57pm PST |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Mischief Maker wrote:
Happily, the show is also completely unnecessary There is already a conservative alternative on the air on Sunday nights: HBO's Rome - a series that has probably done more to stimulate classical studies than anything since Gibbon's decision to leave his dirtiest footnotes in the original Latin.
What???
Edward Gibbon's Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire was one of the most historiographically advanced works of its time: Gibbon was obsessed with original sources and read extensively all the first-hand accounts available to him. He footnoted copiously and, if you are of that particular toffy bent, hilariously. In fact he left most of the jokes made throughout the many volumes of TD&FOTRE in the footnotes. And a lot of quoted jokes made by dead Romans were left in Latin. This is not as stimulating as Mr. Frum thinks because:
1. The original audience for the books - and the audience that would follow for at least the next 100 years - studied Latin and Greek as a matter of course. Nothing was stimulated by any filthy excerpt from this or that play, or letter, or speech, except the todger on a stodgy Tory peer.
2. Even the filthiest and nasty Latin paled in comparison to works available at the time; whether your pleasure was the filthy nasty whoring of Moll Flanders or the filthy nasty politics of the many and several treasonous pamphlets - yesteryear's Daily Show and Little Green Footballs - available on every street corner in London, Paris, or Philadelphia. My god, the Marquis de Sade had appealed his first death sentence before Gibbons was halfway through Volume III.
Anyway, Frum is fucking stitch because he had to so elaborately explain his own joke while looking like he expected everyone to get it right away. Anyone comfortable with Gibbon's footnotes would have just said "...a series that has probably done more to stimulate classical studies than anything since Gibbon's footnotes." Anyone who didn't trust his audience to know about Gibbon's footnotes would have used another joke. It's the arresting combination of presumption and grovelling that I love. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
"The 1/2 Hour News Hour" by Fussbett 02/20/2007, 3:38am PST 
more self-parodying by Flavio 02/20/2007, 4:20am PST
Re: "The 1/2 Hour News Hour" by Mischief Maker 02/20/2007, 8:54am PST
So was the entire first episode just jokes about Ted Kennedy driving into a lake by Rafiki 02/20/2007, 9:49am PST
Looks like the "Mallard Filmore" of TV by Mischief Maker 02/20/2007, 11:10am PST
Re: Looks like the "Mallard Filmore" of TV by Arbit 02/20/2007, 3:44pm PST
Don't know. Let's check a review. by Fussbett 02/20/2007, 1:22pm PST
This show isn't an appropriate response to TDS or Colbert. by Jhoh Cable o_O 02/20/2007, 12:22pm PST
Great synopsis of The Daily Show. NT by fellow shit eating conservative 02/20/2007, 12:40pm PST
WUUUUUUU? NT by Jon Stewart 02/20/2007, 12:44pm PST
This guy hates Jon Stewart too. by Fussbett 02/20/2007, 1:12pm PST
So I forgot the word "mincing." NT by Jhoh Cable o_O 02/21/2007, 6:34am PST
Looks like SOMEONE ripped off this show for their troll police guest comic. by Jhoh Cable o_O 02/21/2007, 6:36am PST
Doh! NT by Mischief Maker 02/21/2007, 8:18am PST
Re: This show isn't an appropriate response to TDS or Colbert. by Mischief Maker 02/22/2007, 9:35am PST
One Conservative humorist is funnier than all the Liberals combined by Reichsminister Doktor Goebbels 02/20/2007, 4:01pm PST
Parliament of Whores is a deathless classic by laudablepuss 02/20/2007, 4:47pm PST
Not precisely, as far as I know by Reichsminister Doktor Goebbels 02/20/2007, 6:41pm PST
He's a relic. His is a brandy-sniftering leering National Lampoon artifact. by Zseni 02/20/2007, 7:25pm PST
No one cares what you think, you fat slampig. NT by Reichsminister Doktor Goebbels 02/20/2007, 8:23pm PST
^ All that was ever funny about PJ O'Rourke NT by Zseni 02/20/2007, 9:26pm PST
True, true. But she's pretty much correct. by mark 02/20/2007, 11:04pm PST
Re: Not precisely, as far as I know by Mischief Maker 02/20/2007, 8:17pm PST
Re: Not precisely, as far as I know by Reichsminister Doktor Goebbels 02/20/2007, 9:09pm PST
Re: Not precisely, as far as I know by Flavio 02/20/2007, 10:43pm PST
Re: Not precisely, as far as I know by Reichsminister Doktor Goebbels 02/20/2007, 11:52pm PST
Retards ahoy! by bink 02/21/2007, 7:15am PST
Re: Retards ahoy! by Jhoh Cable o_O 02/21/2007, 8:24am PST
Re: Not precisely, as far as I know by Jhoh Cable o_O 02/21/2007, 6:44am PST
Re: Not precisely, as far as I know by Jhoh Cable o_O 02/21/2007, 6:38am PST
parody by Flavio 02/22/2007, 3:10am PST
Sean Hannity gives us more by Flavio 02/22/2007, 5:25pm PST
I like how Global Warming guy is stupid, even though he's never proven wrong. NT by Mischief Maker 02/22/2007, 6:17pm PST
It's about time I was taken down a peg. NT by Ed Begley Jr. 02/22/2007, 6:34pm PST
"Boing" :( NT by Bunyip 02/26/2007, 4:15pm PST
Snooped by Bunyip 02/26/2007, 5:37pm PST
David Frum from National Review weighs in by Mischief Maker 02/24/2007, 4:23pm PST
Re: David Frum from National Review weighs in by Zseni 02/24/2007, 6:57pm PST
Zseni: cannot decide whether it's Gibbon or Gibbons. NT by Zseni 02/24/2007, 6:58pm PST
So how does that make "Rome" the not-retarded Daily Show for Neocons? NT by Mischief Maker 02/24/2007, 10:55pm PST
It doesn't. But neocons are very stupid - stupid enough to think that they by Zseni 02/25/2007, 9:59am PST
conservatives feel fall of Rome was brought on by societal acceptance of gays by co 02/26/2007, 11:25am PST
But it was actually the lack of communist values and proper animal care. NT by Jhoh Cable o_O 02/26/2007, 2:30pm PST
Re: conservatives feel fall of Rome was brought on by societal acceptance of gay by motherfuckerfoodeater 02/26/2007, 4:32pm PST
It's so cute when right-wingers pretend that they know how to read. by motherfuckerfoodeater 02/25/2007, 3:27am PST
date=dave NT by motherfuckerfoodeater 02/25/2007, 3:27am PST
|
|
