I realized that I wrote the below a few weeks ago, but did so the night I was getting sick with food poisoning, so never reviewed/edited it and then forgot to post it. Keep in mind that it was drafted just as I was becoming violently ill...
If I was to go into the clothing business in Taiwan, I think I would first concentrate on pants. For the ladies, I'd take 'em in around the seat area as they just do not (on average) have the booties to fill up the way pants are cut for the rest of the world. For the fellas...same thing. At lunch yesterday, we saw one of the servers donning one of the more ridiculous fashion trends going around these days, popularized by NBA stars, where they wear big ol' eyeglass frames with no lenses. Uh honey...everone needs glasses here and they all look like dorks already, so how did this seem like a good idea to you? So that got me thinking about one the dumbest guy fashion trends in the US...which is wearing jeans halfway down your butt and exposing your boxers on top. For the Chinese, I don't think the physics required to pull that off are possible when you have no butt or the accompanying rounded hips. Perhaps this could all be solved with prosthetic ass cheeks...they have those right? And will someone pleasemake me an ironic t-shirt with words from a language other than English? Do they not have irony in other languages?
That thought got me thinking about "Chinese comedy" No secret I consider myself an amateur comedian. There is a saying that people that like comedy laugh when they dress up a young person as an old lady who then falls down the stairs, while comedians laugh when an old lady falls down the stairs. I don't laugh out loud often, especially at my own jokes, but something made me spit out my wine one night in Italy. One of the running gags around our house is that Betty has a big head, and by big, we mean a large skull. One of her co-workers gave her a hard time about it years ago and we are just unable to let it go. One night at dinner when we were in Italy, the subject of this video came up. If you don't click on the links, it is a video of the guy cleaning up in an elephant's pen, and the elephant backs up and the guys head gets stuck up its butt. Posssibly the funniest video ever...go ahead and go back on click on it. I know it is not your usual dinner conversation, but it is at our house and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Anyway, we were talking about the poor guy, and then Betty said something like how horrible it would be to get her head stuck in the elephant, to which I replied, "I agree...for the elephant."
I know that is totally mean and will probably get the silent treatment from Betty for a while just for recounting the story, but funny nonetheless. Have been flipping around the TV dial and leaving the Chinese stations on in the background to help familiarize myself with the language, and it seems the only comedy is of the slapstick variety. Very Jerry Lewis or Mr. Bean . I might be missing something, but I think it is the limitations of the language that does not lend itself to the more verbal comedy that I prefer...just don't think a classic bit, like George Carlin's Football v Baseball, is feasible. For a language that will not introduce new words, I don't think being able to play with (or on) them is easy. I hope to be proven wrong...
Finally, someone shared this link reviewing the new Barbie themed restaurant that recently opened in Taiwan. Will make it a point to check it out soon, but the bigger find from this article was the presence of the bathroom themmed restaurant called Modern Toilet. Seats made of toilets, drinks served in souvenier glasses shaped like urinals and deserts serrved in squat pots? Brilliant...we are definately gonna make a run to this place.
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