Friday, September 22, 2006

A Sure Cure for Paranoid Hysteria and Stuffed Shirts: Ridicule

First, Hot Air has a short take on Jay Leno’s warm-up patter. H.A. didn’t find the jokes very funny, but Gates of Vienna doesn’t get out much; we are easily amused. Be sure to take a look at the video and let us know your considered opinion. Want your own fatwa?

Meanwhile, TownHall has an amusing cartoon about the pope’s miter — i.e., that “funny hat” he wears.
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H.Payne at Townhall News

The cartoonist, H. Payne, has unwittingly stepped on an ants’ nest here: Benedict XVI’s coat of arms has an image of a miter instead of the usual papal tiara, much to the disgust of traditional heraldists. And he also has a picture of a Moor (a Muslim), whose identity is in question. If icons are your bag — they fascinate me — Wikipedia has a wonderfully detailed description of Benedict’s choices for his coat of arms.

Benedict XVIMakes me think ‘twould be fun to invent my own. Everybody ought to have a coat of arms. The coming generation seems to be regressing to an earlier stage of history — illiteracy — so having a coat of arms would allow one to be identified. Much better than a national I.D. card, don’t you think?

(Hey, Baron, are you busy right now? I have an idea for an image… I promise, it won’t take you long. Yes, I know I’ve said that before, but honest, this one is easy as pie. See, all you have to do is…)

What would appear on your coat of arms?

As I was putting up the larger image of the Pope joke, I noticed another Jay Leno quote on the sidebar of the same page:

Jay Leno: “President Clinton is still very upset that ABC did not pull the movie. He wanted the movie pulled. If fact, he told them that he was thinking about changing his mind about appearing op the show ‘Wife Swap.’”

Notice that (as befits ex-presidents) Mr. Clinton is no longer center stage. For a man of his egotistical proportions (he can lift well over his size), being relegated to the sidebar must be akin to having entered Dante’s Purgatorio.

Meanwhile, laugh! It’s Friday after all… time to rejoice (because it’s not Monday — that’s why).

10 comments:

Fausta said...

Another good joke from the late evening shows, Letterman said, "Chavez has been making so many outrageous remarks, he's been invited to join the cast of The View"

El Jefe Maximo said...

I like the coat of arms idea...Wish I was somewhat artistic, and could do such a thing myself.

Profitsbeard said...

fausta-

I'd prefer to see Hugo on "C.S.I. -Titicaca".

(I know that's Peru, not Venezuela, but it sounds funnier than "Caracas">)

Dymphna-

A useful coat of arms for Mr. Chavez would be a gilt Red-Golden Triangle, flanked by black bat wings, and showing A Jar of Cheez-Whiz, with the international red circle with angled 'cross-out' line through it, and the Motto below:

"Magni Numinis Umbra" (literally: "the shadow of a great name", or, "an unworthy descendant of a great family").

(Because only a true Satan could have come up with this processed 'cheese-like' product, and only a patent-pending lunatic mentions sulfur at the U.N. in any context other than at a conference on mining regulations.)

Dymphna said...

goober--

Maybe someday they'll have a Madonna show in which she is depicted with duct tape across her trivial mouth.

Nice to dream, anyway.

And good joke. We need to keep up the ridicule. It's the only antidote besides simply ignoring the hysteria, and the LSM won't do that. So ridicule it is...these guys are providing more material for stand-up routines than Bill did for his shenanigans with Monica.

James Higham said...

...Everybody ought to have a coat of arms...

Very much so. In fact, I did devise one some time back. By the way, what do you think of the representation of the Pope's face? A good likeness or not?

X said...

I have a coat of arms somewhere, unfortunately it's not official and it's a load of rubbish. :) However the old Ryans had at least one branch of the family with an official crest in the books...

Incidentally I've managed to snag a job, finally, so if anyone was wondering why I hadn't graced GoV with my oh-so-essential presence, that's why.

Dymphna said...

James higham --

No, I didn't hink it was a good caricature--just a standard middle-aged man's face. I don't think he even tried for versimilitude, since the punch line depended on the mitre on his head...

What amused me was the sitting slouched position. I doubt Ratzinger ever let his spine do that. Ever. It's an adolescent pose, but for the sake of the mood in the joke, it worked.

Dymphna said...

Archonix--

Congratulations on the job. When the Baron is finally gainfully employed again, he'll be less present here, too. It's a shame how work interferes with real life.

Dymphna said...

BTW, I found out why there's a bear on the coat of arms, but the Moor is a mystery. Benedict has modified his old coat of arms from Freising, which was the See when he was elevated to Cardinal.

Anyhow, the image is eons old, and the bear was a naughty guy. Most bears are.

Banshee said...

The Moors are Africans from a specific area, and they were not always Muslims. In fact, their last queen fought a mighty campaign of resistance against the Muslim invasion of her land and the forced conversion and enslavement of her people.