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March 13, 2006
Comic perspectives on the U.S.A.
Americans are not known for a self-deprecating sense of humor, or even, it seems, for being able to laugh (an English colleague told me last week that she thinks Americans are far too serious about everything). But people in other parts of the world sometimes enjoy a good laugh at our expense, and seem to be able to find plenty of people in the United States to help them along. Here are a couple of clips from an Australian comedy show. First, "How about Kyrgystan?" from CNNN in Australia. Another CNNN clip made the rounds on the Internet and landed in my inbox last week. Consider it forwarded; you'll need to open this link, "Where to Attack Next" in Windows Media Player. Copy and paste the URL into the Media Player if clicking the link doesn't open the file: http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/assets_news/blog/wheretoattack.wmv
A posting on a message board comparing this show to "The Daily Show," which is one U.S. show that does get us to laugh at ourselves. It's hard for me to believe real people would say such stupid things, but perhaps I'm overestimating my country's people. Are they really unable to identify that very, very large island in the south Pacific? The interviewer has it labeled Iraq at one point (hm, Iraq? Australia?). If only I could believe that this is just a joke.
We've just set up a popculture database about global perspectives on the U.S.A. and would love to have volunteer contributors. We've put together wonderful collections on other topics, like Community and Human-Computer Interaction, and make them available free to teachers and students at our website. You'll need a password to be able to contribute, at the moment anyway, so please drop us a note if you'd like to take part, or send your list of suggestions.
Posted by Karen Christensen at March 13, 2006 3:44 PM