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funnygirlszine · 10 months ago

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Funny Girls: Evolving female narratives in 21st century British stand-up comedy.

Now that it's all over, the Funny Girls critical rationale for your viewing pleasure...

Part I. Introduction

Funny Girls is a multimedia project discussing women in comedy, through a print zine, as well as an online platform. Eleanor Tomsett in her thesis states ‘Stand-up comedy as an art form has emerged from, and been developed within, male dominated spaces’. (2019). This project aims to challenge these patriarchal industry structures and platform female comics, who have continuously had to battle with the stereotype that women aren’t funny, perpetuated by attempts to investigate scientific or philosophical reasons for this as in Christopher Hitchens’ ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny,’ (2007). This project was inspired by the limited research on women in British comedy, and it hopes to prove that these women are worthy of further study and promotion as narratives around gender in comedy evolve in the 21st Century. Additionally, it aims to explore the zine as a vessel for both female liberation and fandom, justifying it as the perfect medium for the subject matter.

In this rationale I will discuss the contextual background of women in comedy, how narratives have shifted in light of the #metoo movement, the importance of intersectionality, and social media’s impact on stand-up comedy. I will explore riot grrrl and science fiction fanzines as notable comparisons to my project in zine history. Further, this rationale will cover the research methods, requirements, and practical output for this project. It will also reflect on the timeline originally set out in the project proposal, noting any changes.

Part II. Conceptual Framework

It is fairly recently that a larger number of academics have begun to delve into the study of contemporary performed comedy, with the first Comedy Studies journal published in 2010. However, the analysis of the place of humour in society, in such works as Taking Laughter Seriously (Morreall, 1983), has been prevalent. Stand-up comedy can be traced back as far as the Middle Ages, to court jesters and fools. In his 1985 article Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation, Lawrence Mintz describes the ‘undervalued genre’ of stand-up as ‘the purest public comic communication’ and as a ‘vitally important social and cultural phenomenon’ (1985, p.71) – one which has developed significantly since his time of writing, necessitating updated analyses. Mintz additionally observes that American female comics at the time, such as Joan Rivers or Phyllis Diller, were ‘voicing changing attitudes about gender roles […] as a result of the most recent wave of feminist agitation’ (1985, p.75). Indeed, as feminists have become more agitated over the years, it has become evident that the content performed by female comics is often a helpful social commentary on gender roles, whether direct or indirect. Much of the literature on comedy favours discussions about the American landscape, and Tomsett notes that women ‘have been considerably overlooked in existing literature on UK comedy in favour of male performers.’ (2019, p.11). Therefore, this project aims to bring female comics operating in the UK to the forefront.

In recent years, female comedians have become more prominent in the UK, which could be partially attributed to increased visibility on television and in particular comedy panel shows. Lawson & Lutsky’s linguistic study of Mock the Week season five, which aired in 2007 and of seasons 1-14 featured the most women, showed that the five female guests across the season contributed just 4% of the overall words spoken (2016, p.151). This statistic is indicative of the culture around female comics at the time, and industry veterans Victoria Wood and Sandi Toksvig had both criticised the ‘laddish’ nature of panel shows, with Wood commenting that “A lot of panel programmes are very male dominated, because they rely on men topping each other, or sparring with each other, which is not generally a very female thing,” (Khan, 2009). In 2014, BBC chief Danny Cohen announced that, following recommendations from the BBC Trust, the BBC would no longer produce any panel shows that featured an all-male cast (Cooke, 2014). The ‘UK Panel Show Gender Breakdown’ database, created by Stuart Lowe, monitors every appearance on a panel show and categorises them by gender, collating data from 1967 to present (2024). The data indicates a positive trend in the increasing presence of female guests, with significant improvement since Cohen’s 2014 announcement – In 2014 the ratio of male to female appearances was 71:29 and in 2023 this had increased to 62:38.

Another notable shift in the female comedic narrative has been changing attitudes in a post #metoo era. As the culture of women being silenced has evolved, both male and female comedians since 2020 have become much more vocal about issues in the industry. British comedy in particular has seen its own movement pushed forward with the release of Channel 4 Dispatches investigation on sexual assault allegations against Russell Brand. Comedian Lucy Beaumont explains that comedy is rife with predators, as where ‘in any workforce you would go to HR’ comedy doesn’t have a similar structure due to its freelance nature (Chrisp, 2023). Between Katherine Ryan and Sara Pascoe openly discussing these issues in Backstage with Katherine Ryan (2022), and the dramatization of Richard Gadd’s experience with an abuser in the industry in Baby Reindeer (2024) it is clear that this discussion is becoming less taboo. This is indicative of a changing narrative as in sharing their stories women can take control and ensure predatory behaviour is not normalised.

It is true that there has been significant progress for women in comedy, but arguably this success primarily extends to white women. Lucy Spoilar discusses how UK media has set up the idea of ‘the humourless Muslim woman’, essentially doubling down on the notion that Muslim women are oppressed and inexplicably reaching the conclusion that they would therefore not be able to engage in humour (2022, p.75-77). Jessyka Finley asks, in reference to black women in stand-up comedy, how marginalised communities can create art ‘when their aesthetic and rhetorical choices sometimes perpetuate stereotypes’ (2016, p.781). These are just short examples demonstrating that women of colour have to work twice as hard to succeed in comedy as they work against stereotypes and discrimination. Therefore, this project has taken an intersectional approach, prioritising platforming women from a variety of backgrounds.

One recent development for mobility in comedy has been the virality of social media clips. In my interview with Mary O’Connell, she commented on the impact that the pandemic had in this regard –

“We didn’t know what would happen with live so lots of people turned to online content […]. Stuff that works for live doesn’t always work for online and vice versa but I really admire the creativity of the comics who are able to do both.” (2024)

It’s an evolution that has allowed comics to expand their audiences, and in general has attracted more fans to stand-up comedy as a whole. Additionally, it has birthed a new genre in short form comedy, and comedians such as Mawaan Rizwan, Rosie Holt, and Munya Chawawa have actually started out online and later transitioned to live comedy, circumventing the traditional route of performing at smaller circuit gigs. However, some comedians have noted negative consequences of the viral video. As the popular videos on TikTok and Instagram often feature crowd work, new audience members go to shows with the expectation that they are supposed to interject throughout, leading to an increase in heckling (Stahil, 2023). I observed this during my primary research, when attending a work in progress show in which comedian Danny Scott was barely able to get halfway through his set during the allotted time due to the severity of audience interruptions – I spoke with him in the interval, and he expressed that he had noticed more heckling overall and was finding it difficult to deal with. Another issue with these viral clips is that the jokes can age quickly, audiences could be disappointed to hear a viral joke live a year after it was first circulating online. Social media can do wonders for a comedian’s career, helping shows sell out overnight, and massively boosting interest in a way that just cannot happen organically. However, the onus is on new audiences to make an effort to understand and respect etiquette at live events.

Funny Girls as a zine is intended to be reminiscent of the punk riot grrrl era, coming as ‘a direct response to the dominance of straight white men’ originally in the punk scene but here transposed to the British comedy landscape (Darms, 2013, p.7). In addition to being an homage to punk female liberation zines, it is also essentially a fanzine for stand-up comedy. The first British fanzine was a Novae Terrae released in 1936, a print for science fiction lovers. At first the content of these early science fiction zines was serious, or ‘sercon’, but around the 1950s that developed into ‘fannish’, which had more of a focus on fandom (Hansen, 2022, p.7). The traditions of fandom and feminism within zine culture solidified zines as the most appropriate vessel for Funny Girls as a project. Jeanne Scheper notes that whilst zines are an analogue form, the ‘qualities of self-making, self-publishing, and participatory community-building across time and space’ are reminiscent of digital social media platforms familiar to Gen Z and suggests that this may be the reason for their recent resurgence in popular culture (2023, p.22). Based on this, Funny Girls extends past solely a print endeavour, offering a digital extension in the form of a Tumblr blog.

Part III. Methods

My intention had been to conduct interviews with several female comedians, but after reaching out to the comedians featured in the zine, I did not have much success. Mary O’Connell was the only comedian who was able to engage with the interview questions. This lack of response meant that I needed to reconsider my approach to the articles in the zine. Reflecting on this, I should have cast a wider net and explored further avenues past simply messaging on social media. I was quite rigid in wanting to feature these exact comedians, but I should have just messaged a wider range and been more open to including further features. If I were to do it again, I would also contact agencies, promoters, or other industry specialists. It also might have helped to send an example or overview of the zine to show what the tangible product would be and possibly foster more interest or desire to participate.

Despite the setback in securing personal interviews, I was able to engage with the abundance of high-quality text, video, and audio interviews available online. These provided valuable insights and featured a lot of relevant information, giving me confidence that I would still be able to create solid profiles/features for each comedian.

Watching the documentaries ‘Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy’ (2023) and ‘Victoria Wood: The Secret List’ (2020) was very insightful in contextualising the evolution of female comedy and pre-2000s influence on contemporary comedians.

Visiting the Glasgow Zine Library was crucial for the development of this project, seeing a diverse collection of zines that followed no defined path was very inspiring. Exploring different styles and themes helped immensely with both the visual development of the zine and with narrowing down content decisions.

Tomsett’s thesis Reflections on UK Comedy’s Glass Ceiling: Stand-Up Comedy and Contemporary Feminisms, previously mentioned, informed much of my practice as one of the only comprehensive studies of women in the British comedy industry.

Part IV. Practical piece

I am really pleased with the final product as it has a strong identity. It is pink, both in reference to the riot grrrl zine ‘I (Heart) Amy Carter’, and as an unashamed embracing of a typical ‘girl colour’ (Dockertman, 2023). The Funny Girls logo is a deliberate feminisation of the iconic Comedy Store laughing mouth, serving as both a homage and an acknowledgement of the patriarchal nature of classic comedy institutions. Later, when deciding how many copies to print, I realised that it could potentially become a copyright issue if I were to distribute it on a wider scale.

Navigating the printing process was fairly challenging, as I wasn’t sure how to choose page weight and finish. Extensive research into publishing standards was undertaken to determine my desired print quality.

I chose to do a Tumblr blog as the extension of the zine, rather than a website as originally planned, because this felt more in line with the homemade spirit of zines. A website felt too corporate and polished and would be more appropriate for a magazine. Tumblr’s posting format offers the flexibility needed to link to external sites, accommodate long-form entries, and share visuals, making it ideal for the project’s needs over other social media platforms.

The relationship between the zine and its digital extension is what distinguishes Funny Girls from conventional zine projects. Where the print zine would be maybe a quarterly print, the blog would serve as a constantly updating real-time archive of supplementary content. I like the idea that some of the audience would find it online as relevant to their interests (zines or comedy) but that a physical copy could intrigue a potential reader who scans a code to find out more and is presented with a wealth of further information. In the future, I plan to review and reprint the zine with no time sensitive information so that it can be circulated without dating quickly.

The incorporation of QR codes modernise the traditional zine format and make it interactive, which I love and think works well – when I visited the Glasgow Zine Library there were many copies that I wished I could’ve engaged with further. I’d hoped to circulate the zines to analyse the data on QR code usage but due to time constraints this was not possible.

A digital version of the zine has also been published via Issuu, a site that allows readers to flick through the pages in the same way as they would if they had the paper copy. This means that double page spreads can be viewed as intended, and any online fans would be able to access the zine content without needing to track down a physical version.

Part V. Project requirements

The zine was created using a combination of Procreate and Canva. Initially, the intention was to preserve the homemade quality typical of zines, but Procreate’s lack of text functionality proved challenging. Handwriting was impractical as it required constant erasing and resizing for edits. Ultimately, I decided that it was worth sacrificing the handmade look and turned to Canva for its familiar interface and useful tools. As my visit to the Glasgow Zine Library exposed me to digitally produced zines with more polished aesthetics, I felt confident that the zine did not necessarily need to look ‘raw’. I created the zine using a magazine template, then ended up having to purchase Canva Pro to resize it down to A5 for printing. This cost could have been avoided if I had more thoroughly researched the printing requirements.

I had also experimented with a free downloadable programme called Electric Zine Maker that offered more artistic options as well as text, which originally felt like a great compromise. The features were excellent, but the programme was only available on laptop or PC, and I found it quite difficult using the art features on a mousepad rather than with a stylus, so did not go for this option in the end.

To complete my primary research, I had to buy a lot of tickets to various comedy shows, ranging from £1 to £20+, along with the associated travel costs. If funds had allowed, I would have liked to attend more shows to better inform my practice. As a lone woman attending often late-night events, I had to also factor in the locations of the gigs in consideration of my safety.

Part VI. Project timeline

The timeline originally set out was delayed a little more than I would have liked. I delayed things in hope that I might get more responses from those I’d reached out to for interviews, as their insights were crucial to the depth of my project. Despite this impact, I feel that I was able to effectively manage the project timeline.

I ended up actually creating the zine in a shorter timeframe than planned, having decided to separate the design process from the content creation. Rather than simultaneously designing and writing, I wrote the content in Word whilst experimenting with designs on the side, then assembled the entire thing at a later stage. This approach streamlined the process and allowed me to focus more deeply on each aspect.

It was actually quite useful that I didn’t design until later, as I ended up using Procreate in another module, the Transmedia Horror strand of Issues in Contemporary Media. This gave me time and space to build on those skills and familiarise myself with the features in the app. When it came to designing the zine, I felt more adept and confident in my abilities, enabling me to complete it quickly.

Throughout the project, I maintained active engagement by consistently updating the Tumblr page and immersing myself in relevant events such as gigs and exhibitions. Additionally, interacting with zine creators online and at the Glasgow Zine Library allowed me to visualise the format before creation. These activities ensured that the project remained at the front of my mind, ready to apply months of primary research when it came to putting the project together.

To keep myself organised and on track, I compiled a checklist covering every single task that needed to be completed, no matter how small. This approach ensured that even when the timeline deviated from the original plan, I could maintain realistic expectations and manage the progression smoothly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this project has successfully met its aims in creating a multimedia platform for the promotion of female comics operating within the British comedy scene. It has additionally highlighted the possibilities in modernising the zine format in a digital world.

Bibliography

Baby Reindeer (2024). Netflix, 11 April.

Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy (2023). BBC Two Television, 25 December.

Chrisp, K. (2023). ‘Lucy Beaumont warned of ’10 male predators’ on comedy circuit weeks before Russell Brand allegations’, Metro, 19 September. Available at https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/19/russell-brand-lucy-beaumont-comedy-predators-19519860/ (Accessed: 1 May 2024)

Cooke, R. (2014). ‘Danny Cohen: ‘TV panel shows without women are unacceptable’, The Guardian, 8 February. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/08/danny-cohen-bbc-director-television-tv-panel-shows (Accessed: 29 April 2024).

Darms, L. and Fateman, J. (2013). The Riot Grrrl Collection. New York: The Feminist Press.

Dockertman, E. (2023). ‘Is Pink Still a ‘Girl Color’? An Exploration’, TIME Magazine, 31 August. Available at https://time.com/6309632/is-pink-girl-color-barbie/ (Accessed: 27 April 2024)

Finley, J. (2016) ‘Raunch and Redress: Interrogating Pleasure in Black Women’s Stand-up Comedy’, Journal of popular culture, 49(4), pp. 780-798.

Hansen, R. (2022). Interview by Hamish Ironside. We Peaked at Paper: An Oral History of British Zines, pp. 1-36.

Hitchens, C (2007). ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny’, Vanity Fair, 1 January. Available at (https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2007/01/hitchens200701) (Accessed: 4 May 2024)

Khan, U. (2009). ‘TV Panel shows are too ‘male dominated’, claims Victoria Wood’, The Telegraph, 9 June. Available at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5478241/TV-panel-shows-are-too-male-dominated-claims-Victoria-Wood.html (Accessed: 29 April 2024).

Lawson, R. & Lutsky, U. (2016). ‘Not getting a word in edgeways? Language, gender, and identity in a British comedy panel show. Discourse, context & media. 13, pp.143-153.

Mintz, E. (1985). ‘Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation’, American Quarterly. 37 (1), pp.71-80.

Morreall, J. (1983). Taking Laughter Seriously. Albany: State University of New York.

O’Connell, M. (2024). Interviewed by Olivia Jones. 20 April, via Instagram.

‘Predatory Behaviour’ (2022). Backstage with Katherine Ryan, S01E02, Amazon Prime Video.

Scheper, J. (2023). ‘Zine Pedagogies: Students as Critical Makers’, Radical teacher (Cambridge), 125, pp. 20-32.

Spoilar, L. (2022) ‘Comedy, Inclusion, and the Paradox of Playing with Stereotypes: Representations and Self-Representations of Muslim Women in British TV Sitcoms and Stand-Up Comedy’, Dive In, 2(1), pp. 73-93).

Stahil, M. (2023). ‘Is Social Media Killing Stand-Up Comedy?’, Inside Hook, 12 December. Available athttps://www.insidehook.com/internet/social-media-killing-stand-comedy (Accessed: 5 May 2024)

Tomsett, E. (2019). Reflections on UK Comedy’s Glass Ceiling: Stand-Up Comedy and Contemporary Feminisms. PhD Thesis. Sheffield Hallam University. Available at: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/26442/2/Tomsett_2019_PhD_ReflectionsOnUK_edited.pdf (Accessed: 29 April 2024)

UK Panel Show Gender Breakdown (2024). Strudel. [Database]. Available at https://www.strudel.org.uk/panelshows/index.html (Accessed: 29 April 2024)

Victoria Wood: The Secret List (2020). BBC Two Television, 25/26 December.

#stand up comedy #comedy #women in comedy #dissertation #thesis

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tygerbug · 2 years ago

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It's interesting to include "The Thief and the Cobbler" in this list of 2D-animated Muslim heroes. The film was a major inspiration for Disney's "Aladdin." Aladdin was Chinese in prior versions of that story, but is here depicted as Persian, in a fictionalized kingdom inspired by Iran. Disney got this idea from "The Thief and the Cobbler."

It is difficult to talk about ethnic and religious identity in "The Thief," because the film is seen very much through a white British and Canadian lens, but also based on a sincere appreciation for traditional Persian and Indian art styles. "Aladdin" has the same basic problem. The depictions of some background characters are questionable or stereotypical, and characters are somewhat white-coded to appeal to UK and US audiences. It can be accused of Orientalism, although considering its origins in Richard Williams' 1960s illustrations for Idries Shah's Nasrudin books, we can consider the project well-intentioned for its time.

Anyway, here is what we know, or can infer, about these characters.

The film was originally developed in the 1960s in a very different form, as "The Amazing Nasruddin, or The Majestic Fool." While "The Thief and the Cobbler" is a fairytale set in the fictional "Golden City," the Nasruddin film takes a satirical look at a war between Persia and India. The invading army are nearly inhuman in "The Thief," while in Nasruddin both kingdoms have many similarities and are both satirized. This gives us a clearer sense of place. (The Miramax version states that The Golden City is Baghdad, in Iraq, which is incorrect.)

(The Majestic Fool screenplay exists, and is very overcomplicated compared to the final film, which is elegantly simplified.)

Princess Yum-Yum: Her father (King Nod) is a Persian King who presumably fought a war in India. Her late mother (seen only briefly in the non-canonical Calvert version) was Indian, and Yum-Yum clearly takes after her, as her appearance is a caricature of the Indian actress Rekha (Bhanurekha Ganesan) in the film Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978). Yum-Yum has a twin sister Mee-Mee who was mostly deleted from the film, appearing briefly in the Recobbled Cut. She is noticeably darker-skinned than her father. He has brown eyes, and she has unusual purple eyes. She is Muslim.

Tack the Cobbler: A Sufi-mystic Muslim originally from Turkey, living in the Golden City (originally in Persia, or modern-day Iran). Tack replaces the deleted character of Nasrudin, a well-known folk-hero Sufi mystic, and the original "wise fool." (For more on him, you can find Idries Shah's 1960s books illustrated by Richard Williams.) Tack is somewhat white-coded for the benefit of the film, as Tack has blue eyes and was inspired by silent film comedian Harry Langdon. He also has paper-white skin, but this is because he doesn't go outside; he tans quickly in the sun later in the film, and ends up with a skin tone similar to Yum Yum's. (It is possible that King Nod and Zigzag are also coded this way.)

Sufism (Arabic: الصُّوفِيَّة‎ aṣ-ṣūfiyya), also known as Tasawwuf (التَّصَوُّف‎ at-taṣawwuf), is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, asceticism, and esotericism.

The Thief: The Thief is nameless in the film, but his name on the Nasrudin-era model sheet is "Abdul Salaam," a name heavily coded as Arabic / Muslim. Richard Williams drew himself similarly to The Thief, and also believed the character resembled original lead Thief animator Ken Harris. Harris had been Chuck Jones' top animator, and the Thief has the persistence (and bad luck) of Wile E. Coyote, but is almost an unknowable force of nature like the Road Runner. He "existed" in The Golden City (originally in Persia, or modern-day Iran).

Chief Roofless and His Brigands: This band of thieves were originally the forty thieves of Ali Baba. (This is stated outright in a line of dialogue cut from the film but retained in the Recobbled Cut from Mk4 onward.) They are storybook characters, of myth and legend, who have gotten lost, wandering in the desert, and forgotten themselves. They are coded as drunken Irishmen, at least in their vocal performance. In deleted dialogue present in the "KA Reels," the Brigand Hoof dreams of the apocryphal Biblical temptress Salome. It is tempting to say that the Brigands are from "where stories come from," but we can also say that Salome is from New Testament-era Israel, and became a Queen of Armenia. "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is a folk tale in Arabic added to the One Thousand and One Nights in the 18th century by its French translator Antoine Galland, who heard it from Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab, in what is modern-day Aleppo.

A few 2D Muslim heroes

#the thief and the cobbler

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youngbloodbuzz · 3 years ago

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What are your fav YouTube channels in general? Do you have any recs for those?

oh yea for sure i definitely have some favourites. nuke's top 5 is already one of them I've watched every single video on there lmao but there's also

watched walker and wanderizm - both similar channels of the "walking city tour" genre that I put on to relax. both guys live in london and they go literally all over the place in the city, it's a wonderful way of seeing some place new and hearing life on the streets when you're stuck at home. there's so many channels like this in many cities that i def recommend

ur internet mom ash - reaction videos are also another favourite genre of mine, ash is hilarious and sweet with fantastic editing, I'll never forget her hill house and bly manor reactions

ZZAVID - another reactioner, except he's the gayest latino man on the planet with the dirtiest humour to ever exist. both him and ash truly have the best movies+sleepover vibes. i also frequently rewatch his videos

micarah tewers - how do i even begin to describe micarah...weird homeschool girl who makes "low budget costume/fashion tutorials" i say this in loose terms; she's incredibly talented and so fucking funny but her whole shtick is that her tutorials are very unusual and full of off topic rambling. she has a pet bird that she carries everywhere and once had her wisdom teeth removed and proceeded to film herself crying about the fact that she couldn't keep them and then pierced her own lip with a sewing needle while high as a kite on meds. i love her dearly

jenna marbles - self explanatory. god i miss her

julien - but also like i can't forget about best boi julen, jenna's fiance

unusual videos - unusual memes condescend into compilation videos every week. gr8 for a quick laugh to pass the time

taskmaster - british comedy panel show for free. the entire show. it's a comedic masterpiece of watching comedians perform insane demands

baumgartner restoration - both incredibly relaxing and also informative, long videos of a guy restoring damaged/old paintings

be kind rewind - incredibly fascinating documentaries about old hollywood actresses and films

drawfee - professional artists where they "take dumb ideas and turn them into dumber drawings" like drawing pokemon from memory or drawing disney characters as dark souls bosses

lindsay ellis - popular video essayist who reviewed, discussed, and broke down media to their essentials (unfortunately was run off the internet because the internet is terrible). her game of thrones essays are incredible but her duology of the omegaverse lawsuit is legendary

jenny nicholson - another popular video essayist who talks about and reviews garbage media in both a hilarious deadpan but also intelligent way. her takedown of the dear evan hansen movie is godly and yes i did spend 2.5 hours watching her explain the plot and lore of the vampire diaries

girlfriend reviews - wholesome couple makes videos about "what it's like to live with your boyfriend who plays video games." incredible editing, humour, and popular music with original lyrics, but also i respect them so much for their tlou2 video especially (which they unfortunately but predictably got a lot of hate for)

internet historian - what it says on the tin for the most part, a sorta satirical documentary channel but my god they way they do it is incredible. I've watched their "cost of concordia" video at least three times now and it's still not old at all. they've covered the disaster of fallout 76, no man's sky (which was very enlightening), kony, and a satirical covering of area 51 for april fools which was.....indescribable and a must watch

jacob geller - incredible video essays on various themes in video games like fear of depths and haunted houses, horror oriented

shiey - guy backpacks across europe including riding on top of trains and sleeping on roofs to explore abandoned places. he's gone to chernobyl and free climbs so many high structures and has delved into so many bunkers, it's wild

screened - video essays about movies and their themes, and listing them from specific genres, some movies I've never even heard of

lessons from the screenplay - more video essays breaking down themes and scenes from movies

ok i might of........gone a bit overboard lmao

#asks #anonymous #i hope you enjoy some or even one of these! i watch them all pretty frequently #resource

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uptoolateart · 3 years ago

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Miraculous Tarot – 0: The Fool

It’s been a long-time goal of mine to design my own tarot deck. Every time I get really into a story, I can’t help mapping it out to the tarot. I’ve long wanted to do one for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower saga, but it will have to wait – because I’ve decided to do one for Miraculous.

I intend to draw / paint the whole deck of 78 cards digitally, and share them with you, including a full explanation of how to interpret the card. It will take a lot of time – but I’m excited! When it’s done, I’m having it printed so I can use the deck.

I’ve tried to make this interesting and relevant to general tarot readers, as well as Miraculous fans. If you like what you read today, please give me a follow and I promise there will be lots more to come!

Without further ado, here’s my painting for the first card in my Miraculous deck!

My Approach to Tarot

I was first drawn to tarot because of the artwork. I love flipping through decks of 78 stunning paintings, rich in symbolism, conveyed in the artist’s individual style. I took up actual tarot practice / study in 2013, and I have been a free reader for the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI) since 2021.

I don’t use the cards to ‘tell the future’. I see them as a tool to tap into our intuition and help us understand things that go beyond the limits of language. The imagery helps draw out the answers we already hold within. Tarot is a highly creative exploratory process, where the same card means something different each time it’s drawn.

If you’re unfamiliar with how a tarot deck is laid out, there are 22 ‘major arcana’ cards, which are the archetypal energies of the deck. These are elements that show up in all major stories and can easily be mapped to Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey structure – because they feature, at some point, in all our lives (usually multiple times).

There are then 56 ‘minor arcana’ cards, which are broadly like a typical deck of playing cards. There are 4 suits (Swords, Wands, Cups and Pentacles) of 14 cards each, 10 numbered (1-10) and 4 referred to as ‘court cards’: pages, knights, queens and kings.

Below, I have discussed the meanings I have tried to embed into this first card. The Fool is one of my favourite cards in any tarot deck, because of the diversity of meanings we can read into it.

Foolishness

We’ll start with what I suspect is the first meaning you associate with the world ‘fool’ – someone who makes poor decisions because they don’t think things through. They get easily tricked and taken for a ride. Maybe you even think of ‘fool’ as synonymous with ‘idiot’, but it has a more complicated ancestry of meanings.

Interestingly, royal families used to keep ‘fools’ as members of their court. For example, in Britain Henry VIII had a succession of favourite ‘fools’, such as Will Somer. These were people born with learning disabilities and unable to care for themselves. Society regarded them as permanently innocent, totally honest, and incapable of betrayal. For this reason, they were seen as ‘divine’, or even messengers of God, and they became the king’s most trusted confidants. They could get away with saying things that would have got the average person executed.

These ‘fools’ were not all jokes and silliness. We can see them as a symbol of sincerity, directness, childlike humour and innocence. They were ‘unsocialised’ and behaved in ways outside the accepted norms. You could see them as the underdogs rising to the top.

Court ‘fools’ or ‘jesters’ could also be entertainers / performers. They might sing or dance, or be actors, or possibly comedians. Generally, they were people who were a little ‘outside’ and didn’t quite fit into society. They might be irreverent, witty, clever, or roguish. People might perceive them as confidant or counsellor, artist or madman – scapegoat or prophet. They didn’t ‘play the game’.

The Fool is like a child who does not yet know good or evil and cannot wholly be held responsible for the consequences of his actions. At the same time, he may be accumulating secret wisdom that others don’t suspect he has. We have this nasty way of regarding childlike wonder and eternal optimism as somehow weak or naïve. The Fool might be naïve – or he might simply choose to maintain a sunny attitude, no matter how difficult things get. He is the excited explorer, with a wanderlust for life, and he embraces everything with open arms and a smile on his face. For this reason, some might take advantage of him. But I say shame on them, not on the Fool, for it is an offence to hurt those who strive to put nothing but good out into the world.

Turning to the image I have chosen for my card, Adrien was home schooled and sheltered from knowledge of the outside world. He struggles to understand social norms and frequently feels ‘outside’. Often the confidant, he strives to apply kindness and compassion to all situations, and reaches deep within to draw out a smile no matter how hard things get. His sudden fits of temper are short-lived, like a child’s. In so many ways, he is an innocent only now awakening to the darkness of others. For this reason, he sometimes misplaces his trust – but he is privately wise in ways others around him don’t see or understand. He seems to understand people in ways others don’t. He is also musical and loves to joke around and play pranks, which sometimes backfire on him because he doesn’t quite fit in.

Tricksters

So, we have those who are fooled, and then there are those who do the fooling, i.e. who make fools of others – tricksters. Their tricks can be done in jest (such as Adrien posing as the statue in ‘Puppeteer 2.0’) or they could be maliciously deceptive, with dark intent.

Tricksters are very clever and cunning, and they use their wiles to subvert conventions and break rules. In stories, they are often depicted as shapeshifters, deceiving us with their dual (or multiple) identities. Even if they don’t change physical shape, they might wear other disguises, e.g. posing as something they are not. This makes them hard to know and pin down.

Because they are so adaptable and resourceful, they are survivors. They put themselves first. They are selfish, but in the way that small children are. Driven by pure instinct and the pleasure principal, they put their wants ahead of all else. Thinking of others is something we have to learn with age.

But we can’t pass them off as all bad – tricksters are catalysts for action. In just about all ancient creation stories, there is a trickster who causes things to happen. To give perhaps the most widely known example, think of the snake in the Garden of Eden, who urges Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Setting religious views aside here, the story suggests that had that never happened, life as we know it today would not exist, for Eve’s action was what led to things like childbirth.

If you are familiar at all with ancient Indian stories (I was raised with them), I always think of Narada Muni, the wanderer. In Greek, the word ‘planet’ means wanderer, and I have long thought Narada is probably a personification of a planet or perhaps a comet. He’s an omen, a force of change. Every time he shows up in a story, you know something big will happen. In paintings, he’s often depicted looking very like the traditional tarot Fool: legs poised as if he’s on a journey, arms open, eyes turned upward, flying through the cosmos.

Narada is a musician, as are other trickster figures such as Odin, who in Norse legend would pretend to be an old man to trick others into giving up secrets to someone they thought was weaker than he was. He could then use this knowledge for his own purposes.

The trickster archetype is both dangerous and necessary. He shakes things up and provides release, catharsis. He sets the wheels in motion when things stagnate, and he could be seen as the repressed aspects of the self coming to the surface and exploding from us.

I see this as Felix. Although technically Adrien’s cousin, he is essentially his ‘evil’ twin. He takes all the action the audience are waiting for Adrien to take. He knows things we wish Adrien knew. At the end of ‘Strike Back’, he used this wiliness to do a dark deed – but that deed will transpire to be the very thing that forces Adrien and Marinette to grow into the people they are destined to become. The story needs a Felix.

We could also say that Adrien is a bit of a trickster in that, like Felix, he wears disguises. While Felix changes his clothes, hair and demeanour to appear more innocent than he is, Adrien transforms into Cat Noir and becomes the joker – and, when akumatised, he becomes Cat Blanc, with darker intentions. In a sense, we can see both Cat Blanc and Felix as unexpressed aspects of Adrien, lying just under the surface of that glowing face of innocence.

New Beginnings / Blank Slates

The Fool is card number zero, meaning it comes before and after all other events. It is the state of pure potential, the chaos before the Word is spoken. It is the monad from which all else springs – the cosmic egg that gives birth to the universe.

Our symbol for zero (0) is a circle. It is wholeness and completion. At the same time, it symbolises eternity. It has no beginning and no end. The centre is everywhere. It is unmanifested and incomprehensible.

It makes me think of martial arts such as karate, where people boast about being a black belt but that’s not actually the highest rank. The highest rank is the white belt, because paradoxically, true karate masters understand that you can never truly master anything. You are always learning, and so you are always a beginner. You don the white belt once again, and you don’t correct others who think you have no experience, because you have learned humility and have no desire to show off. White is the absence of the ego, whilst containing the potential for all colour / the rainbow.

In my card, you can see I chose one of the advertisements Adrien’s father forces him to model in. Adrien is always dressed in white in these ads, signifying both his innocence and the way he is controlled by outside forces. In this particular ad, he wears his normal black t-shirt, rather than the white he wears in some other ads seen on the show. I considered dressing him all in white but then kept the black because of the bands of colour across his chest, which are rainbow-like and show the potential within him, waiting to burst from his heart.

Our English word ‘zero’ comes from Arabic, which in turn was their translation of the older Sanskrit word sunya, meaning ‘void’ or ‘empty’. If that sounds bleak, it’s not. A blank slate is ready to be written on. Emptiness waits to be filled. It’s that moment before the story is told, and it’s exciting!

The Greeks took the Arabic word and transliterated it into zephyr, which is also their word for western winds. Western winds were to be a herald of the coming springtime, being the natural start of the new year. Interestingly, right around the start of spring we have April Fool’s Day, when we play tricks on each other. In English, the word ‘spring’ has another meaning: to jump or leap. It implies a swift, upward action – , again. And so the circle closes!

Love

Zephyrus (the Greek god of the western wind) was an attendant of Cupid and brought Psyche to him. Metaphorically, this can be seen as the spirit unifying heart with mind.

We hear the word ‘fool’ in a lot of love songs. The implication tends to be that we’ve been ‘foolish in love’. The lyrics speak of love and passion changing us and leading us to make unwise decisions. We see this all the time, on Miraculous – but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth following these passions!

Love is the start of something fresh, a grand new journey in life. It’s about opening your heart to someone and letting whatever happens happen. It’s about vulnerability and trust. Sometimes it pays off. Other times, people abuse that trust and they trick us.

The Traditional Image

Arguably the most famous image we have of the Fool comes from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, where we see our Fool with one foot down (grounded) and one in the air, arms open wide and gaze upward. He’s about to walk off a precipice, and we can’t see what lies beyond. It might be a huge drop, in which case the Fool is about to fall to his death; or there might be safe ground just a foot below. A little dog follows, loyal to the end. Presumably, it will follow its master off that cliff, unquestioningly.

The Fool wears flowers and a feather on his head. (You can see I brought the feathers into my card, as Adrien is often featured with them.) He holds a white rose, a symbol of purity and innocence. It also used to be the symbol of true (pure) love, used in weddings. The sun shines brightly down. Birds fly overhead, a symbol of freedom.

Everything about this image speaks of vulnerability, opening the heart to whatever comes, giving into passions, and taking the plunge, trusting that things will work out as they should. The Fool doesn’t worry about what’s coming; he lives in the moment.

There’s beauty in taking each moment as it comes – or we could see it as being out of control, unwise and thoughtless. Think of Plato’s Republic and the allegory of the ‘ship of fools’, where the crew argue instead of working together and don’t bother looking to the stars to guide their way. The ship is the mind – how are you driving your ship? How do you navigate through life? Are you simply taking steps without knowing where you’re going, or do you have a plan in mind?

Contrasts / Reading the Card in Reverse

This card is a strange contrast of trickster versus lack of guile. The Fool is a paradox and it’s hard to know who his true self is, because he’s such a skin-changer. He can be misleading. It’s about thinking versus not thinking – cunning versus trusting – fooling vs being fooled. In the context of Adrien, there is an element of uncertainty over his true identity.

In tarot, there is this idea about reading the card differently if it’s drawn upside down. In my mind, if you draw my card right-side-up, this signifies all the Adrien-ness of Adrien – if that makes sense. Drawn in reverse, it indicates wily Felix.

Both work together to form the whole. Under the surface of one lies the other face. Absolutely anything is possible, with this archetype. He stands at a precipice, and we have no way of knowing what the future holds for him – or indeed what future he is actively catalysing.

Only when viewed in isolation is either ‘bad’. When the two sides of this coin are joined together into one being, wholeness is achieved. We then have a strong character who is intelligent and resourceful, but who only his power for the good, for he sees goodness as the highest goal of life.

Hopefully, you can see how I wove these ideas into my card. Next up will be The Magician – stay tuned!

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wherearemyglassesbro · 5 years ago

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Would the axis/allies be good at standup comedy:

Matthew: I think Matt is a very funny guy, his type of humor is usually sarcasm and observational comedy so he can relate to his audience a lot. However, he has trouble woth public speaking and tends to stutter when he’s in fromt of crowds. Would he be good at the comedy part? Totally. Just...not too great in front of people 8/10

Yao: Yao would kill it!! He has centuries and centuries worth of funny stories to tell and hey, Yao is a master at exaggerating things lmao. He’s funny and great with people!!! He can relate to an older audience more for sure :) he complains about achy joints or young people driving too fast, all kinds of ‘old people’ humor, which would make him very likable!!! 10/10 I’d pay to hear him up on stage lmao

Arthur: Art is funny without even trying really. He’s sarcastic and blunt, which makes him even funnier. His comedy bits are usually observational humor based but there’s nothing wrong with that. He also has a lot of stories about traveling cause Brits are always a mess when traveling, he’s no different!! He always takes a minute to warm up onstage but once people start laughing, he feels more at ease! 9/10

Ivan: I don’t really even see Ivan getting up on stage lmao but if he did, it would have to be in front of small audiences. Ivan is a very blunt guy who also tells jokes about neighboring countries cause that’s funny to him. He doesn’t expect people to laugh and he’ll kinda hurry through his routine 5/10

Kiku: Kiku would NOT enjoy being on stage. He is a fan of comedy and watches a lot of comedians when he hangs with Alfred but he wouldn’t do it himself. Cant even give him a score really cause he...just wouldn’t do it -/10

Ludwig: We’ll get Lud out of the way too, I don’t think he would go up on stage either 😅 he is a funny guy!!! He really is!! He’s great at telling jokes and goofing around!!!! But he just wouldn’t do that for strangers, that’s very stressful. This dude doesn’t do press conferences unless he has a script because he’s so afraid of making a fool of himself!! He would never do stand up lmao. Gilbert is enough of a fool for the two of them -/10 cant really give him a fair score either cause he wouldn’t even step foot on the stage

Francis: Ok...we all knew what this was gonna be. Fran is made for the stage. He’s a total drama queen and is great at making things a bigger deal than they need to be :) he has such a way with words too which just makes it funnier cause here we have a very eloquent talker just...roasting the shit out of the English. He has other jokes than picking on the English but he’s been doing it for centuries, he’s mastered the art of annoying British people :) he also tells a lot of stories of how he’s gotten in trouble like falling off the Eiffel Tower, dumping wine in the river, calling the king a weiner, he’s done so much shit...and he can tell you all about it in a way that’ll never make it to the public tv stations cause it’s so indecent 8/10

Gilbert: Like Fran, Gil is meant for the stage. He is funny without even trying and he’s LOUD! He doesn’t even really plan before getting on stage he just gets up there and tells stories and makes fun of the audience! Yup, he picks people out of the audience to pick on sometimes! Not in a mean way of course it’ll be stuff like ‘you!! Yeah you in the orange! You look like my dad! And boy oh boy do I have a story about my dad-‘ he also goes off on tangents in the middle of a joke too so you’ll get like three jokes in one! His stories always end in a way you never expect too so it’s like a punch in the balls every time 10/10

Alfred: Al is a total ham, he would love to give stand up a try!! But the problem is, he always laughs before he can get the joke out lmao. He has a very contagious laugh!! So that helps! Cause the audience will start laughing too :) he has all sorts of crazy stories cause he is the embodiment of ‘florida man’!! He’s seen it all. He’s been to Walmart at 3am. He’s driven on dirt roads during constriction. He’s seen southerners try to navigate .005 inches of snow on the road. He’s seen it and he has a way of telling it 7/10

Feliciano: Feli is a funny guy but he would have trouble on stage just cause he’d get distracted by all of the people out there! He would also totally laugh at his own jokes and get side tracked. He’s funnier when his jokes aren’t planned, the stand up format probably wouldn’t do him justice 4/10 If you got him on a live podcast, his funny side would really shine through! :)

Lovino: Ok I can actually compare him to a comedian I love omg Sebastian Maniscalco!! He has such Lovi vibes, I really think Lovi would bring up a lot of the same stuff this guy does. He’ll complain about people, how they dress, how they act, just...people. And he moves around a lot, especially his hands. Cause he’s...italian. 10/10

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mrbingley · 4 years ago

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my fancasting of the mice and murder pcs that no one asked for:

lars vandenchomp: dwayne johnson (he’s got the muscle and i think he’d sooo be up for wearing a pink suit and putting on a silly accent; his acting and personality would bring the angle of silly lightheartedness that ally captures)

sylvester cross: richard e grant (i think he would bring the right “pompous and dramatic yet still somehow charismatic” vibes that grant captures; you can just so easily see him nailing all the monologues grant goes off on)

buckster $ boyd: brendan fraser (he played the american who dresses like a cowboy and works for/with very rich ppl in the show trust and nailed it and i want to see him be a cosplaying cowboy again; he’d perfectly encompass all the smooth talking and wit with that tinge of absurdism (i.e. “this just went from bad bad bad to bad bad bad bad bad”) that sam does)

daisy d’umpstaire: melissa mccarthy (she’ll kill the comedic moments of course and honestly i want to see her take on a more serious role like this that isn’t just humor the whole time which is why i’m saying her)

vicar ian prescott: richard ayoade (need i elaborate? he’d crush it. he has the range for this. he can do wry, scathing wit and bumbling buffoon; raph gives us such a perfect balance of stumbling fool and then hard statements and richard could swing b/w these two effortlessly)

gangie green: romesh ranganathan (another british comedian yes i’m sorry; he’s so good at doing a blank menacing stare and delivering the right kind of frustrated and annoyed; katie stays quiet with a drooping, watching face and then delivers the most hilarious dark dry lines along with the perfect amount of exasperated frustration and banter and i know romesh could capture that so perfectly)

#mice and murder #jordy you ask why are half of these ppl just british comedians #and to that i say: the players are just comedians playing mostly british people so!!!#i feel this way about every season but this season is especially suited for it: i want this to be adapted into a movie!!!#J: text

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shut-up-posh-boy · 4 years ago

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hey fellow ND fan of the show here! I’m autistic and one of my special interests is basically any show with lee mack in so as you can imagine im a huge wilty fan. sadly I’m not the sort that can keep all the facts and figures to hand possibly as I also have a learning disability but I love looking at stats and so your blog is an amazing read! If I had the capacity I would love to do in depth analysis of not going out since it’s my favourite show so if you have any stats about people who’ve been on that show aside from lee like miranda etc then that would be fab thank you

Hi! So glad to make your acquaintance, it's nice to meet someone else whose brain is wired to accept british comedians as their new fuel source.

Excepting Lee, I've included the legacy statistics of Miranda Hart, Hugh Dennis, and Katy Wix under the cut!

CAVEATS and CONTEXT: a 40% fool rate is about average and a 60% guess rate is about average. Don't think too hard about my colour-coding because it doesn't make sense and I absolutely won't stick to the same criteria in future legacy stats. I haven't listed their appearances in the Unseen Bits however those cards/guesses are factored in.

Miranda Hart

(3x4, 4x6, 5x1, 6x3, 7x10)

Fool rate: 63%

Guess rate: 75%

Slightly better at selling convincing lies than making truths unbelievable (never forget the ear in the bath).

More gullible than cynical; better at spotting truths than seeing through lies.

She's definitely good at both aspects of the show. Hers are the most reliable because she appeared on more episodes than the other two. She was the MVP of episode 5x1, with a 40% fool rate and a 100% guess rate.

Hugh Dennis

(2x5, 4x4, 10x4)

Fool rate: 72%

Guess rate: 77%

Better at making truths unbelievable than selling convincing lies.

More cynical than gullible; better at seeing through lies than spotting truths.

Medically known as “really fucking good at this game”. No one has ever guessed ‘true’ on one of his true stories and he has an over 50% fool rate on lies. Entered the Hall of Fame for his performance in 10x4, in which he achieved a 100% guess rate and 100% fool rate.

Katy Wix

(5x2)

Fool rate: 66%

Guess rate: 75%

Statistics only reflect her selling a lie; she hasn't had a true card.

More cynical than gullible; better at seeing through lies than spotting truths.

Had the good fortune of appearing on Kevin Bridges's team after The Horse Incident. Statistics are heavily skewed as she only appeared in one episode.

#legacy stats #katy wix #hugh dennis #miranda hart #not going out #inbox #fresh from the doc #wilty stats

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angelsswirl · 4 years ago

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Dysfunctional

Chapter 2: Alright

Notes: y/s/n means your and lisa's ship name

Rating: T

"Hold up, let me get my mind right. Let me get my mind right. You know everything is alright. You know everything is all"

You had never hated anyone more than you hated Lalisa Manoban. Never. You swear.

You didn't even know it was possible to dislike someone as much as you disliked her.

Worst of all? She knew it. She knew you didn't like her. You think she found it amusing. You're absolutely sure she sees you as more of an obligation than a partner. And that just made you even more furious with her.

She was cocky and loud and an asshole and infuriatingly attractive.

...Where the hell did that last one come from?!

Nevertheless, you couldn't stand Lisa and you were going to have to spend a lot of time with her within the next coming months.

You must have killed someone very important in a past life to deserve this.

•°•°•

"Lisa and Y/N were seen leaving a sophisticated coffee shop in downtown L.A. Saturday. This is the first time they have been spotted together. Has pop's newest darling finally tamed our ever allusive hip hop stallion? We certainly hope so. #y/s/n"

And so it begins, Lisa thought as she flipped the channel on her flatscreen. This entire situation was rather annoying but it wasultimately just another hurdle she had to jump over in the path to success. She supposed it could be worse.

"Right? So, what's all this then?"

Lisa looked over to her friend with a raised eyebrow, "Since when are you british?"

Jennie frowned, "You know that avoiding the question thing you do won't work on me. Answer the question."

Lisa rolled her eyes and sighed, "Well. Apparently, I have a girlfriend now."

"You? A girlfriend? That's the funniest thing I've heard all month."

"Interesting. I didn't know I was a comedian." Lisa spoke sarcastically.

"Neither did I."

Lisa glared at Jennie harshly.

"Well! What am I supposed to think?! You don't date. You specifically make it a point not to date anyone and suddenly you have a girlfriend? Sorry if I had to laugh!"

Lisa eyed Jennie oddly, "Calm down. We're not actually dating. It's just PR."

"And you agreed?"

"Didn't have much of a choice. Just another job." Lisa shrugged noncommittally.

"What about the chick? She got a twin sister?"

"She's cool. She hates me. It's cute."

"Ugh. I just love it when my fake girlfriend hates me. It really makes everything so believable! We fool absolutely everyone!"

"Are you implying that she shouldn't hate me and I should fix that?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"And why does it matter? At least this way I don't have to worry about her getting attached. Or being the subject of my songs for the next three albums." Lisa rolled her eyes again, crossing her arms over her chest in a deliberately dramatic fashion.

Jennie sighed. She patted Lisa's jean-clad thigh somewhat placatingly. She had never been one to be particularly adept to her friend's feelings. That was more Jisoo's and Rosé's forte. But they, pointedly weren't here at the moment.

"It matters because, like you said, it's a job. And you don't do your jobs half-assed. So why start now?"

Lisa supposed Jennie possessed some semblance of a point.

"So now what? You want me to make her fall in love with me?"

Jennie chuckled, "Well, I was thinking more like fall in like with you. And find out if she has a twin sister!"

Lisa hummed, "I'll see what I can do. No promises, though. She seems pretty dead set on hating me."

"You never know until you try."

"Come on. She's not that bad. You're just mad that you didn't get a say in any of this." Lucas said to you with a frown marring his generally attractive features.

His boyfriend, Ten, nodded along in agreement. His shaggy black hair falling into his eyes and causing him to blink rapidly.

"No. Those are mutually exclusive. She is that bad and I am mad about this being sprung on me, but those two facts have nothing to do with each other." You insisted with a matter-of-fact head nod.

Lucas rubbed the non-existent wrinkles between his brows. His sigh reverberated throughout his entire body. He then turned his head toward his boyfriend for help.

Ten shrugged before speaking, his lips pursed to keep his frown off his face. He knew you wouldn't respond well to scolding so he attempted not to do it to the best if his ability.

"Y/N. You knew when your career started that you weren't always going to have control over everything. That's not how being a celebrity works. Especially, this early on in your career. Take Lucas and I for example. In a perfect world we would be out of the closet and letting the world know that we love each other. But we can't. Yet. It's not safe for us personally and business-wise."

Your arms slowly fell from their crossed position over your chest. They landed at your sides defeatedly. You understood Ten's point. You really did, but it was still a hard pill to swallow that you didn't exactly have the control over your life that you wanted.

"Fine. I'll be less hostile. Get to know her or whatever. But that doesn't mean that I'm okay with this situation now. Because, I'm not. I think it's stupid and invasive quite frankly."

"You think that now, but wait until you see the results. Your fan count will start to grow, hers will too. I wouldn't go as far as to say your success is riding on this, but it definitely is a very important factor."

You squeezed your eyes shut as forcefully as you could. You continued to learn the hard way that giving up control was never easy but always inevitable for your chosen career path.

But then again, you'd argue that you didn't choose this career, but it chose you.

"Alright. Let's see where this goes."

"Also. I still hate her."

"We were so close."

#jesssica's fanfic #blackpink fanfic #blackpink #lisa x reader #lisa fanfic #Dysfunctional

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usermoreid · 4 years ago

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I bet he also watches Bake Off when he’s sad- I know it’s the most obvious British show but he would- or maybe the SU2C version for the comedians-

ohh you're so right he would and he'd get penelope so into it. they'd spend hours watching it and they'd manage to get derek invested, who refuses to admit he likes it but he's not fooling anybody with how he's shouting at the tv more than when he's watching a football game

#finn answers #anon!!

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beyondstupidityblog · 4 years ago

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On March 13th 2021, two friends and I did what never could have imagined possible, I watched Freddy Got Fingered for the ninth time, and it will by no means be the last. I’m explaining this to you, dear reader, so you and I have an important understanding between us. You will be reading the ramblings of one whose brain has curdled like milk left out in the hot afternoon sun. Now that introductions are out of the way, let us begin.

Freddy Got Fingered is a 2001 Comedy starring and directed by Tom Green as the Non-Titular Gordon Brody; an aspiring animator who goes to California to realize his dream, only to be constantly crushed under the weight of his father’s expectations. Sounds tame at first, but what lies beneath the veneer of mediocrity is truly impressive. Completely bombed, audiences hated it, and critics loathed it. Roger Ebert got angry, saying “it isn’t even below the bottom of the barrel” and “Green should be flipping burgers somewhere.”. “Tasteless”, “appalling”, “offensive”, “gross”, and “poo poo,” are just some of the things people have had to say about this film. Animal genitalia can be seen on screen for much longer than anyone could have expected, Tom Green swinging a baby akin to a morning-star with its umbilical cord, said umbilical cord being stolen and taped onto his stomach, gratuitous caning of a nymphomaniac paraplegic, and the dissection of a deer carcass. It is an abrasive experience that leaves a terrible taste in the mouths of those who mention it. Nonetheless, I love this movie.

You ever see a contemporary art exhibit that has a piece that just looks like garbage somebody left out but in actuality is a tongue-and-cheek allusion to the pitiful state of modern art? That garbage is Freddy Got Fingered, and that exhibit is Hollywood. At face value it just seems like a poorly done film by a comedian trying to use his name to get a few butts in the seats before his irrelevancy arrives, but when scrutinized as a commentary of comedy films do the pieces start to fall into place. Tropes like the Protagonist being an unremarkable honkey, gross-out designed to get some cheap quick chuckles, side-characters who occupy the space solely for comedic relief, a shoe-horned romantic side-plot, and an equally as shoehorned in happy ending are all present in a mocking fashion. So many of these Hollywood schlockfests that this movie is paying homage to abuse tropes in some vain attempt to trick the audience into thinking they’re having a good time, when in reality it just reminds viewers of films that they’ve already watched before and could be enjoying instead. All of the awkward and uncomfortable scenes of gross-out and romance are purposeful, because nothing is quite as awkward and uncomfortable than a film disengaging the audience with its own mediocrity. “This is what it’s like to endure this trash!” Drunkenly screams Freddy Got Fingered atop the tallest piece of furniture in the room, while also exposing its genitals to keep you from getting too comfortable around it. Unlike the films it is parodying, its obsession with making a fool out of audiences rips them away from the comfort of the cinema, making them genuinely ask if it is worth wasting their time watching a film called Freddy Got Fingered. Even the title is an intentional slight, as it seems to be completely untethered to the actual plotline and is instead a reference to a seemingly inconsequential scene. But then again, that is the point of it all. Tom Green is an artist, and on his canvas is a portrait of Hollywood with all of the ugly little imperfections that cause a movie like this to be created. But this is just the meta-narrative of Freddy Got Fingered, something that you could find all over the internet. Why do I resonate with it so much, and what about it makes it so exceptional that led to this unhealthy fascination?

Every instance that I’ve rewatched Freddy Got Fingered has always brought about a new side to it, and in the process leaves me craving for more. Gord is an interesting take on the average leading man. He is on the surface bland and inoffensive, made so in order to allow the majority of the audience to immediately identify with him, said group being 20-something skater guys with unrealistic expectations of themselves. Made especially ironic when after the introduction of Gord as an adept skateboarding rebel escaping from authority, he starts to show that in reality he is an unlikeable, bratty, entitled, and all around unpleasant person. Barely a scene passes before we see him masturbate a horse while exclaiming he is a farmer to his father who is not present, seemingly a crude gag but is in reality an insight into his low self worth caused by his imposter syndrome stemming from distant paternal relationship. I would like to remind you, dear reader, that I am still writing of Freddy Got Fingered, in case you were beginning to think I have lost my mind (The answer is yes by the way). All throughout the film Gordon Brody puts on masks for different situations, never allowing himself to be who he is. When infiltrating the Animation studio where he wishes to pitch his cartoons, he pretends to be a mailman to get past reception and then impersonates a police officer when the former stops being effective. Donning the visage of a British Bobby, he dashes into the restaurant where the man he is searching for, Mr. Wallace, is eating. Showing him his cartoons, Wallace is impressed with the potential they have, but says that they are incoherent and lack real substance. Upon rejection, Gord puts a pistol in his mouth before Wallace stops him and advises what he should do to improve. Gord was genuinely ready to blow his brains out the back of his skull if he wasn’t able to get his show greenlit, and it hit me in that moment that he isn’t just some random jackass, but a victim of detrimentally low self-esteem.

The origins of his complex are made apparent when he goes back home to Oregon and are reintroduced to his Family. We see that his father Jim, played by Rip Torn, is disappointed in his return and begins to sneer at him for his failure. This father and son dynamic always has tension in every scene from this point onwards. Gord, who just wants to be accepted for who he is and not judged by what the world expects him to be, is always at the receiving end of Jim’s wrath, who values his idea of a successful life over the happiness of his sons. From here it becomes little wonder why Gord is the way he is, all his life he was told that who he was is not good enough, he has to be what his father wants if he is to be considered worthy of not only love, but being treated with a modicum of dignity. Whenever Gord acts eccentric or divulges his interests to his father, they are met with either resentment supplemented by verbal assault, or physical violence. After a late-night skateboard outing to escape from his father’s wrath goes awry, he visits his convalescing friend in the hospital, whereupon he meets one of the more interesting characters in relation to Gord, the love interest Betty.

A horny wheelchair bound temptress may not seem like it upon first glance, but Betty is actually the most interesting character out of the entire cast. She feels genuine, introduced as a bored receptionist flipping a coffee creamer idly. Gord immediately strikes up a conversation, whereupon he and the audience find out she has an interest in physics, and apparently an interest in him as well. Betty is strangely well written for what most considered at the time to be a crass sexual joke, so much so that she would actually be a better protagonist than him. She is everything Gord is not, she’s smart, funny, ambitious, and kind to a fault. Even her side plot to create a rocket powered wheelchair makes for a much more unique plot than the one given. Even Gord reciprocates this sentiment in their meeting, lying that he is a stockbroker in an attempt to impress her. In fact, sectioning her off as just the dull protagonist's love interest is a jab at how women in these movies are only there to serve in the development for the male protagonist, just nothing more than their muse. Nonetheless, without this relationship the movie would lose a lot of its soul. Romantic chemistry in comedy films is always hit or miss, but Gord and Betty do seem to have it surprisingly. They’re both silly and impulsive, creatively driven to a fault, but just different enough to eek out the best and worst in them. Gord thinks that what he wants to do with his life is wasteful, but Betty doesn’t. Now I don’t mean that she directly affirms that he is worthwhile like most poorly written love interests would, stroking their lover’s(and by extension the director’s) ego, rather she confronts him with her optimism. He asks if she would feel stupid and like a loser if her experiment failed. Taken aback at first, she questions why she would, relaying that her failures are just as important as her successes. Gord’s self-worth is directly tied to his ability to succeed, whereas Betty doesn’t need this affirmation. Their dialogue further cements how detrimental his father’s overbearingness was to his outlook, and how he is slowly beginning to realize how destructive that mindset is.

At their dinner date, Jim sees Gord and Betty across the restaurant, then reveals that Gord was lying to both him and her about his office job while poking fun at her disability, leading to a father-son scuffle that throws the entire floor into utter chaos. Cops show up, Gord and Jim are detained, and Betty bails Gord out. Most mediocre comedies at this point would have the love interest be upset that her significant other lied to her, leading to him having to make things right to repair their relationship before the happy ending. Breaking the mold, Betty does not get angry with Gord even a smidgen, choosing to be understanding of his situation now that she caught a glimpse into his home-life. She just plain likes Gord, willing to put up with him more than she really should, but still chooses to look past his lies and self-destructive nature for who he truly is, someone who just wants to be accepted by the world around him. Someone just like her.

Right after that enaction of social terrorism performed by the Brody father and son duo, they decide it would be best to go to family therapy and assail the audience with what I fondly refer to it as, “The Scene.” “The Scene” is Freddy Got Fingered’s statement to the world, it is what instills a man with the impetus to rewatch a glorified stoner daydream for the ninth time and leave him wanting more! Gord accuses his father, in a final act of defiance, of molesting his younger brother Freddy. During the ensuing confusion Gord picks up a bust of Sigmund Freud and throws it into the glass window pane, allowing him to escape into the evening sun. The authorities take Freddy away and send him to The Home for Molested Children, and the family slowly unravels from then on. Besides the heavy handed metaphor of Freud’s theories being used as a way for Gord to escape his predicament while simultaneously discrediting them, “The Scene” also recontextualizes Freddy, innocuous of a character as he is, as Gord’s foil. He is in the movie very little but when he is it is to serve one of two purposes: To be compared to Gord, or to be treated as an object. During breakfast much earlier in the film after a fight between Gord and Jim, Freddy tries to explain to his brother that he should grow up. Gord, surprisingly, talks down to him and halts the conversation.

Gord: “He's driving me insane.”

Freddy: “No. No, you're driving him insane. You're older than me and you still live at home. I have a job, you know. I pay my own way.”

Gord: “You work in a bank. Should I be dazzled?”

Freddy: “Well, at least I don't live at home!”

Gord: “No, you live in a tiny shithole and you come here to eat for free.”

With these lines it is plain to see that despite Freddy’s idea of success directly lining up with his father’s, he is even more pitiful than Gord. What little we know of him is to show that his acquiescence to his father’s expectations has left him bereft of not only genuine personal success, but of dignity itself. When child protective services come to take him away, he is half naked, mouth agape, watching open heart surgery on television, a palpable indication of emptiness. He isn’t treated as an adult either, as his protests to the police fall on deaf ears as both them and the psychologist infantilize him. Why would Tom Green name this movie after a character like Freddy, whose lack of presence and characterization make him little more than an afterthought when looking back on the story? Or did I just answer my own question? Freddy is not a character because he is not allowed to be one, he is just too passive and accepting of his circumstances for him to stand out. All he can be is a doll that Jim uses to dress up as the perfect son, and this passiveness leads to Gord, the “failure,” to both pity and resent what he let himself become. That’s why Gord accuses their father of molesting him, after all he does narratively violate Freddy’s autonomy by consistently making decisions for him. Evidently enough, as soon as Gord dons a suit for a quick bit Jim is elated because he believes that his son finally gave in to his demands for him to get a job, because he is acting more like his obedient brother. In this sense Freddy is the most tragic member of the Brody clan, a literal manchild whose growth was stunted by overbearing guardians. When I think of him, a bonsai tree comes to mind. Sure, it looks healthy, but when you realize that it could have grown into a much bigger plant if it were not for its small pot, that realization of wasted potential comes with a tinge of melancholy.

I want to end this essay with a moral that I took away from Freddy Got Fingered, as strange enough as that sounds, and what it has to say about art as a whole. Put simply, this is a story about revenge. Despite and because of his Father’s harsh ways, Gord managed to take from the trauma he sustained throughout his life and sublimated it into his animation. Creation not only lets him heal, but also acts as retaliation against Jim once he becomes successful. So long as you have the drive to prove everyone’s doubts and admonishments wrong by persevering out of wicked spite, you will have the last laugh. Freddy Got Fingered is a story about revenge through artistic expression, and I think that is quite beautiful.

#freddy got fingered #tom green #movies #essay paper #comedy

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megan1412 · 4 years ago

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57 years ago today, The British Invasion began in America. 73 million people tuned into The Ed Sullivan show to watch The Beatles perform for the first time on American tv. The record breaking performance skyrocketed the group into the mainstream and allowed them to enjoy international success.

"Seventy-three million people were reported to have watched the first show. It is still supposed to be one of the largest viewing audiences ever in the States.

It was very important. We came out of nowhere with funny hair, looking like marionettes or something. That was very influential. I think that was really one of the big things that broke us – the hairdo more than the music, originally. A lot of people’s fathers had wanted to turn us off. They told their kids, ‘Don’t be fooled, they’re wearing wigs.’

A lot of fathers did turn it off, but a lot of mothers and children made them keep it on. All these kids are now grown-up, and telling us they remember it. It’s like, ‘Where were you when Kennedy was shot?’ I get people like Dan Aykroyd saying, ‘Oh man, I remember that Sunday night; we didn’t know what had hit us – just sitting there watching Ed Sullivan’s show.’ Up until then there were jugglers and comedians like Jerry Lewis, and then, suddenly, The Beatles!"

Paul McCartney

Anthology

#the beatles #john lennon #paulmccartney #george harrison #ringo starr #1960's music #1960s aesthetic #1964 #the ed sullivan show #february 9 #legendary day #i want to hold your hand #new york city #the first us visit

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sarah-snook · 5 years ago

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Hello! If possible, could you reccomend your favorite chaptered reddie fics?

ohhh yes! i love doing fic recs!!! i haven’t been asked for one in a while! here goes! it’s my bday today so i’m gonna be rereading (or finishing) all of these as a treat haha

some of these might be in progress so just be aware of that!

ask me to stay by @feldmancorey↬ word count: 36,036 | chapters: 7/7 | rating: T

“Your lip is all busted,” Eddie said, as though pointing out that Richie’s lips were injured would somehow make it okay that Eddie was paying attention to them. Richie’s hand came up, long fingers wrapping around Eddie’s tiny wrist, and he gently guided Eddie’s touch away.

Eddie finally wrenched his eyes away from Richie’s lips and met his best friend’s gaze. There was a softness there that he rarely got to see, not even the smallest hint of teasing or joking there. It was just Richie, just Richie looking at him and Eddie looking back. For a single moment, it was just Richie and Eddie alone in the world. Nothing to bother them, nothing to live up to.

[or: the year is 1994, and Eddie Kaspbrak is in love.]

the real world by @feldmancorey↬ word count: 15,796 | chapters: 5/18 | rating: T

The lights in the Tozier house were on.

Nearly four months ago, Eddie’s best friend, Richie Tozier, had seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth. He’d stopped coming to school, wouldn’t answer texts, and stopped posting on all social media. The home phone would ring and ring until the caller hung up. The driveway had been empty. The grass on the front lawn had overgrown and wilted. The house never went up for sale but for four long months, it was as though the Tozier family had simply disappeared.Until now, with Went’s car sat in the driveway and the living room lights all flicked on. Eddie could see movement through the windows. It was as though the world had picked back up from where it had stopped, without a hint of change.

[or: after a sudden and unexplained disappearance, richie tozier returns to derry with a secret that no one person could ever hope to hold onto.]

One caramel macchiato, on me by @jem-carstairs-is-perfection↬ word count: 11,058 | chapters: 2/2 | rating: T

“Oh shit.” Richie swore and looked around hoping he’d missed another empty seat somewhere in the classroom so he didn’t have to take this one.

He hadn’t.

With an apologetic shrug he said, “I know I’m the last person you want to see right now, probably ever and trust me, I’d fuck off if I could, but that’s literally the only seat left.”

The guy sighed but didn’t move, staring ahead, perhaps hoping Richie would disappear if he ignored him hard enough.

Richie couldn’t help but share the sentiment. “I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“It’s your elbows I’m more worried about.”

or Richie and Eddie have the opposite of a meet-cute. When their paths cross again, neither is too happy about it ―at first.

Un Nouveau Soleil by @eddiefuckinkaspbrak↬ word count: 33,353 | chapters: 3/3 | rating: E

It was three months into his first year that Richie met Eddie for the first time. Edward Frank Kaspbrak. The man who would become the love of his life.

And Richie had no idea.

or: Richie is the heir to the British Throne who decides to study abroad at Harvard University. There, he meets Eddie Kaspbrak and they fall in love…duh.

The Greater Fool Series by @yallreddieforthis↬ word count: 47,573 | chapters: 7 parts | rating: varies

Begins a couple months after the end of the movie. Follows an alternate timeline in which none of the Losers other than Beverly move away from Derry, and none of them forget It or each other.

oh, somebody loves you by slytherincosette↬ word count: 12,341 | chapters: 3/3 | rating: NR

“‘I already know I’ll smell Eddie’s mom,” Richie announces to no one in particular, “I’ve never met her, but we’re soulmates. I imagine she smells like lemon cleaning supplies and antacid. Very sexy.’

Eddie lets his head drop onto the table.”

Amortentia is encountered in Potion’s class and everything goes to shit. Basically a romantic comedy set at Hogwarts. Everyone is Bad At Feelings, until they’re not.

He Asks How I Am by @themightychipmunk↬ word count: 19,369 | chapters: 4/4 | rating: T

After a year of writing to each other through an anonymous pen pal program, Eddie and Richie end up at the same school, completely unaware of their deeper connection.

Things get pretty gay.

and this is who we are by sunsetozier↬ word count: 40,763 | chapters: 8/8 | rating: M

He realizes, suddenly, that being in a position like this meant nothing to him two weeks ago. At the time, it was completely normal, holding no real meaning other than comfort and tradition – after all, him and Eddie have been disgustingly cuddly with one another since they were kids, even though they’d usually bicker while holding each other close, much to the annoyance (and entertainment) of their friends.

Now, however, Richie can feel his heart skip a beat in his chest, an undeniable thundering that echoes loudly in his ears. He can picture his younger self, as much of an oblivious idiot as he may have been, soaking in the warmth and the affection of Eddie’s touch when they hugged, shoved, or even just nudged one another. It’s funny, really, how much changes once you’re aware of how you feel.

[In which Eddie and Beverly lie to their friends for five years before finally coming out, much to the surprise of one supposedly straight Richie Tozier.]

the boy who cried (wolf) by @jortsbian↬ word count: 21,784 | chapters: 3/5 | rating: T

The following events seemed to happen in slow motion, which would probably have looked cool as fuck if Richie hadn’t been a gangly uncoordinated teen and if it had been a cool action movie instead of real life: the wolf lunged at Eddie. Richie, in a fit of anger and fear-fueled adrenaline, kicked at the wolf as hard as he could. The wolf twisted its head and sunk its teeth into Richie’s leg. Richie’s thoughts turned blank except for oh shit. Eddie screamed something at the wolf and sprayed it in the eyes with his inhaler. The wolf whimpered, released Richie’s leg, and stumbled blindly into the woods. Richie thought another oh shit as Eddie scrambled over to him and asked him—something. The world went dark.

AKA, the one where Richie’s a werewolf and that’s the least of his worries (or maybe not, but sue him for being dramatic, will you?)

call my bluff, call you babe by @hyruling↬ word count: 16,527 | chapters: 2/3 | rating: M

“Why can’t I ask Bill?”

“Because— he’s basically a celebrity too. That’s just. It’s already weird enough to people that you two even know each other, pretending to be romantically involved is just opening up a whole can of worms. I’m outside.”

“‘Romantically involved’, when did you start writing for The Sun, Eds,” Richie teases with a chuckle, just as Eddie reaches the final turn down Richie’s hallway. “That doesn’t really… I mean, people know we were friends when we were kids, so—”

“Just pretend to be my date,” Eddie says, and—

And nearly throws his phone into the fucking wall.

Thanks for Pudding up with Me by MooeyDooey↬ word count: 62,809 | chapters: 7/8 | rating: E

Eddie Kaspbrak was once one of the most influential professional chefs in New York. After an unfortunate incident in his kitchen, he loses his job and most of his earnings. Down on his luck, with no where else to go, he accepts a job offer with the ragtag ‘Prospect Test Kitchen’ in Boston.

What starts as a small passion project, making cooking tutorials online, becomes a lot more complicated and bigger than they could ever imagine when Bill brings in a new addition to their team. A comedian with a shocking background and surprise talent for culinary arts: Richie Tozier.

Eddie’s the only one who doesn’t like the new recruit, but Bill bribes Eddie into giving Richie a chance. At the end of six months, Richie’s contract will expire. Eddie will get to decide whether they offer him a contract renewal, or refuse to re-hire him.

Things are heating up in the Prospect street Test Kitchen! Will Eddie stick to his guns, and keep his dignity? Or will he get lost in the sauce?

#reddie #eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #reddie fic #fic rec #multichapter #asked and answered #Anonymous

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thewordwideweb · 5 years ago

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Sophomore: an oxymoron

In today’s Word of the Day post, I’m going to tell you something you probably didn’t know about the word “sophomore.”

It’s an oxymoron. That is, a rhetorical device or figure of speech in which two apparently opposite or contradictory terms are put together to create a new concept. (“Rhetorical” device and “figure of speech?” Eh, same difference. “Same difference” is an oxymoron.)

There are loads of examples in everyday speech. “Bittersweet” is an oxymoron. So is “alone together,” and “deafening silence,” “open secret,” “virtual reality,” even “passive aggressive.” Comedians like to use the examples “jumbo shrimp” and “military intelligence.”

Let’s get back to today’s oxymoronic Word of the Day – “sophomore.” It comes from two Greek words, “sophos” (wise) and “mōros” (foolish). So a sophomore is “a wise fool.” Those Greek roots appear in plenty of English words, like “philosopher” (literally, a lover of wisdom) and “moron” (a very stupid person). I hope my brilliant granddaughter, who will be a high school sophomore in 2021, will forgive me for this whole post.

The use of “sophomore” apparently started as part of a ranking system in British colleges and universities. A first-year student was a “fresh man” (or “freshman”) – someone who was just starting out, didn’t have very much expertise, and like a seedling, needed to be carefully tended and nurtured.

By the second year, the student had acquired a bit of knowledge, enough to be a “sophy moore” (or “sophomore”) – a wise fool. The student was on his way to becoming a sophister. Today, a sophister is someone who uses devious or fallacious reasoning and arguments, but originally it simply meant a scholar, a well-educated person, or a teacher or philosopher.

In the third year, the student achieved the rank of “junior sophister” or simply “junior soph” (which admittedly sounds odd to our modern ears). A fourth-year student had achieved the rank of “senior soph.”

That ranking system crossed the ocean and was adopted by Harvard, and was then copied by loads of other American colleges and universities. Somewhere along the way, they all dropped the “sophister” part and just kept “junior” and “senior.”

At the risk of appearing sophomoric (conceited and overconfident of my own knowledge but lacking in maturity, taste or judgment), I think you probably learned something today, you wise fools!

#Word of the day #words #language #humor #sophomore #freshman #junior #senior #oxymoron #harvard

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husheduphistory · 5 years ago

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“All the World's a Stage”: The Revolutionary Repertoire of Ira Aldridge

The work of William Shakespeare is deeply woven into our world. We know the stories, we know the quotes, and if nothing else we know of the countless modern adaptations. The words of Shakespeare were launched into the hearts and minds of people from the stage with performers delivering dialog and introducing characters that remained with the viewers long after departing the theater. In the 19th century the actors and actresses that took on these roles could elevate themselves to performing arts royalty earning enormous amounts of money, being knighted, and indulging in lifestyles that equate them to today’s Hollywood elite. One master of the Shakespearean stage was Ira Aldridge, a man who not only gave stunning performances, but also shattered the glass ceiling for people of color in theater.

Ira Frederick Aldridge was born in New York City on July 24th 1807, the son of free parents in a state where slavery was legal. His father Daniel was a preacher and as a child he was given a classical education at the African Free School where his studies included English grammar, writing, mathematics, geography, and astronomy. His parents may have wanted him to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a preacher, but while still in school the young Aldridge was introduced to the performing arts and it instantly took hold of him. By the time Aldridge was a teenager he was already well acquainted with many of New York City’s most prominent African American actors. They saw his talents and encouraged him to move onto the stage of the African Grove Theater.

Founded by William Alexander Brown as a casual get together where Black actors would gather to perform short skits and readings, the African Grove Theater would grow in the hands of Brown and James Hewlett to become the first African American theater group in the United States, attended by “all types of black New Yorkers - free and slave, middle-class and working-class.” In the early 1820s the company was young, and so was Aldridge, who gained his first experience in theater at age fifteen as an apprentice under Hewlett, the first African American Shakespearean actor.

Aldridge made his African Grove debut in 1822 playing the role of Rolla in Pizarro and then Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare had a special place in the young actor’s heart and he would often see productions of his work in the Park Theater before the stories were brought to his own stage. The productions at the African Grove were well attended and the performances highly praised, but there were continuous problems from the community surrounding them. At the time slavery was not yet abolished and segregation was firmly in place making the theater company, its actors, and its audiences targets for racist attacks and prejudice. White people were permitted to attend performances at the African Grove, but their often disruptive behavior eventually led to an area in the back of the theater being sectioned off specifically for them. When it was not audience members causing problems it was fellow theater companies. When the Park Theater and the African Grove were both hosting performances of Richard III the owner of the Park, Stephen Price, contacted the police to have the “rival” production shut down. Seeing the constant racial pressure made Aldridge all too aware that his dreams of conquering the stage could not happen on American shores. Inspired by the British Shakespearean actors he watched on stage, he moved to Liverpool at only seventeen years old.

Playbill of the African Grove Company’s first production of Richard III. The figure is the actor James Hewlett.

Aldridge was new to England, but the country was familiar with his artistic background for all the wrong reasons. More than a year before his arrival a British comedian named Charles Mathews began performing a new routine, including a character called the “African Tragedian.” The portrayal was wildly popular, but it should have been shameful with Matthew donning blackface and portraying an African American who botched lines, made a fool of himself on stage, and fumbled his way through the works of Shakespeare in New York City. It is believed that the inspiration for this character was James Hewlett, the man that Aldridge apprenticed under at the African Grove.

Rather than let the portrayal destroy him, Aldridge used the name recognition to his advantage. He began billing himself as “American Tragedian from the African Theatre New York City” or simply “The African Tragedian.” On October 10th 1825 Aldridge made his European debut in the lead role of Oroonoko in Revolt of Surinam, a story of an African prince tricked into slavery and sold to British colonists. People recognizing the phrase “The African Tragedian” from the Matthews comedy routine filled the theater seats expecting a good laugh. What they got was a powerful dramatic performance that stunned all in attendance with one member of the British press reporting:

“It is most true that those are ‘blessed who expect nothing’, and from this cause may have proceeded in some degree the satisfaction with which we beheld the performance of the ‘Tragedian of Colour, from the African Theatre, New York’, but we do not hesitate to express our opinion that his acting will gratify many and astonish all.”

Regardless of the reviews, when Aldridge stepped onto the stage he had already made history by becoming the first African American actor to establish himself professionally in a foreign country.

Portrait of Aldridge painted by James Northcote.

Aldridge embraced the rumors and misconceptions swirling around him and created an elaborate backstory for himself, that he was the descendant of a Senegalese prince whose family fled their homeland for the United States to save their lives. It was a story that made him seem even more mysterious and people began to visit the theater purely out of intrigue. Whatever the reasons that people went to see him perform, they all left deeply impressed by the power of his acting. After his portrayal of Oroonoko, Aldridge began touring the United Kingdom and over the course of a few years he successfully built a name for himself with his work in productions of Othello, Macbeth and Richard III. Aldridge did not return to London for several years, and when he did it was under circumstances that were tragic but also hugely important to his career. While performing the lead role of Othello on March 15th 1833 Edmund Kean, the most highly renowned tragedian of the time, collapsed on stage into the arms of his actor son Charles Kean and uttered the words, “O God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles.” He did in fact die a few weeks later leaving a vacancy in the play’s cast. Aldridge was asked to take over the role and he jumped at the opportunity. He had his start in London, but this was different, he was now performing the lead role of Othello in the prestigious Royal Coburg in Covent Garden alongside some of the great names of his industry. He was only twenty-seven years old but it was the role of a lifetime.

Aldridge as Othello, painted by William Mulready.

Unfortunately, Aldridge taking the highest stage in London was too far for some people and reviews that once praised him began to slowly simmer with racism and critiques on everything from his physical appearance to his pronunciations of certain words. As Aldridge took on other roles in the London region critics became sharply divided with some applauding his abilities and others remarking he should be reduced to a street sweeper outside the theaters where he was performing. One complaint of some lay in his very interaction with white actors, but this may have had much deeper roots in that Aldridge would sometimes portray white characters in greasepaint and wigs leading some people to become angry that he was taking prominent rolls from “their” actors. Another reason for the harsh criticism was that Aldridge often took liberties with his performances, changing characters from villain to hero and vice-versa, erasing entire scenes and adding new ones, and adapting classics as he wished. Additionally, on the closing night of his engagement at a theater Aldridge made the bold addition of directly addressing the audience speaking on the injustices of slavery, some addresses coming before or very shortly after the emancipation of slaves in the British colonies in 1832.

Despite all the criticisms, Aldridge had built himself up to be a bona fide star of the stage taking on complex roles with ease and even resurrecting Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus in 1845, a production not produced in the British Isles since 1724.

Aldridge as Aaron in his revival of Titus Andronicus.

After touring various theaters in England he made his way to the European continent in 1852 where he performed in wildly successful tours in Germany and was presented to the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He then proceeded to tour Prussia, performing for Frederick William IV who awarded him the Prussian Gold Medal of the First Class for Art and Science. He then moved on through the later 1850s performing in Budapest, Serbia, and then Imperial Russia making him the first actor to perform Shakespeare in the country. His performances in Russia caused a wide array of reactions. They were powerful, highly praised, and he became acquaintances with some of the great poets and artists of the time such as Taras Shevchenko, Count Fyodor Tolstoy, and the Czar of Russia who awarded him with a Golden Cross for his accomplishments. On another hand the performances caused uprisings and resulted in some works of Shakespeare being banned entirely. With his near-constant touring and performing Aldridge became one of the most well-know and acclaimed tragedians of his time and in 1859 with nearly four decades of acting under his belt he returned home to England. It was time to take on another benchmark of Shakespearean acting and tackle the role of King Lear.

Pastel portrait of Aldridge drawn by Taras Shevchenko in 1858.

After successfully performing the great tragedy and then completing a second tour of Russia Aldridge again returned to England. He was now in his later fifties and after purchasing property in England and applying for British citizenship in 1863 it may have seemed that the actor was finally ready to take root at home. But this was not the case and he was quickly back on the road in Europe and making plans to bring a tour to the post- Civil War United States. Unfortunately, his plans to cross the Atlantic again never had the chance to unfold. In 1867 Aldridge was on tour in Poland when he became very ill with a lung infection. He died in the city of Łódź on August 7th 1867 at the age of sixty.

Aldridge portraying King Lear.

For a man that revolutionized so much in the world of performing arts the news of Aldridge’s death took an unfortunately long time to reverberate through the world. His remains were buried in the Łódź Old Evangelical Cemetery but he would not receive a proper tombstone and memorial for twenty-three years. In the United States Aldridge had become a legend and a role model for African Americans but the news of his death reached the states painfully slowly. Many Black theater groups decided to rename their companies to honor Aldridge, most notably The Ira Aldridge Troupe of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His grave is now maintained by the Society of Polish Artists of Film and Theatre.

The magnitude and influence of Ira Aldridge’s accomplishments cannot be understated. As a young man in the early 1800s he took the steps to travel across the globe in order to not only challenge, but smash the roadblocks placed in front of African American performing artists. Despite mixed reviews and racism that attempted to crush him he thrived, taking on Shakespeare in England and carrying it to other parts of the United Kingdom, all over Europe, and to corners of the globe that had never had access to Shakespeare on stage before. He gave performances that both amazed and infuriated through his renditions of text, his customizations, and his speaking directly against the horrors of slavery in a world where it was still firmly rooted in people’s lives.

Today the honors to Ira Aldridge can be found all over the globe. Howard University in Washington D.C. has a theatre named after him, A bust of Aldridge sits in the foyer of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, in 2014 a memorial plaque was dedicated at the place of his death in Poland, and he is one of thirty-three people granted a bronze plaque at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Memorial plaque for Ira Aldridge at his place of death in Poland.

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