5.27.2010

If beans can be comedy, can vegetables be art? . . . Thursday's Terrific Tidbit Number Five.

                          
I read something in the paper a week or so ago 
that really made me laugh:

"One of the world's longest running TV comedy shows, according to an April Reuters story from South Korea, is the weekly North Korean production 'It's So Funny,' with its undynamic format of a man and a woman in military uniforms talking to each other."

Already I'm thinking that Americans obviously try much too hard -- television could be so much simpler!  Then I kept reading . . . 

"The latest episode 'extolled the virtue of beans, while avoiding any flatulence humor.'

'If we soldiers see beans, we become happy,' said the man, leading both hosts to laugh.  The two talk about how bean-fed North Korean soldiers were able to fight off U.S. imperialist troops during the Korean War."

What?  Great comedy with no flatulence humor?  (Definitely not American.)

Who knew that all you had to do was discuss beans to have the audience glued to their sets?

Of course, the competition might kill the show, if there were competition.  But what if everyone agreed to just stop trying so hard?  Then we could all kick back, vacation in New Mexico all the time and laugh about things like beans.


A day or two after I saw that article,
I came across this picture from a 1950's mag:




NOW THAT IMAGE LOOKS EERILY FAMILIAR, 
DOESN'T IT??!!


Why yes, Susan, 
it looks just exactly like every bird 
you've ever stitched!  




Same charming pose, same upturned beak suggestive of cheerful song.  And all I really needed to do was stick a few pieces of carrot on a squash.  Probably faster than all that annoying stitching, don't you think?


I've named the image SQUASH TWEET




(which I love, although/because it sounds like something icky involving a baby bird on the sidewalk)



and I am putting it on my bulletin board 
to remind myself to keep it simple. 




Now if I could just
get a couple of 
North Korean soldiers 
to stand in my booth 
and talk about my work . . .







                                    

5 comments:

Amelia Poll said...

"I goosh it mom, I goosh it!"

Your doodle reminds me of something I drew in Jr High. It was the bottom of a shoe. I entitled it "Death from an ant's perspective." I thought I was so clever :)

Keeping it simple is sometimes so much easier said than done...good luck!

susan m hinckley said...

Actually for me it's darn near impossible! But you probably know that.

Do you still like to goosh bugs? Because bugs are one of the features of my new studio space! Hooray for basements!

luanne said...

How you got from beans to birds, I'm not quite sure, but that squash is definitely birdesque. Though not nearly as charming as your birds (the squashed baby tweet excepted)!

Allie said...

For the life of me I can't imagine watching a sitcom in North Korea. That squash is hysterical!
I know a lot of people say less is more, but my personal philosophy is more is more. I love more. The more the better.

susan m hinckley said...

Allie, my personal motto is actually "Too much is never enough" . . . or sometimes, "Is two too many? Is ten enough?"

LuAnne -- My sincerest apologies to our more sensitive bird loving readers . . . luckily, I can't draw for beans so we can just chuckle at the silliness of that hapless chick, can't we?

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