The word of the day* for January 19, 2007 is “vaudeville” —NOUN: 1a. Stage entertainment offering a variety of short acts such as slapstick turns, song-and-dance routines, and juggling performances. b. A theatrical performance of this kind; a variety show. 2. A light comic play that often includes songs, pantomime, and dances. 3. A popular, often satirical song.
While watching the entertainment news last night, I was thinking that American Idol is this decade’s Amateur Hour. Only on the Amateur Hour the producers never showed us the really bad enties. We never had to see the singer who couldn’t remember the words on television. Of course, we had ourselves to provide that sort of thing: Dad singing in the shower, little Mary reciting a poem to the family after supper.
Sometime after the Amateur Hour bit the televisual dust, Chuck Barris brought in The Gong Show, which occasionally had really bad acts. However, the Gong people and the abysmal “entertainers” knew they were bad: knew they were getting air time merely to be ridiculed. Now we have to suffer not only the bad singers, but Simon, et al. castigating these people in public. We no longer have a tolerance for amateurs.
The quote† for today is from George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Man and Superman (1903) act 3:
Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.
;^) Jan
* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition and is used by permission.
† The quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or The Quotation Pages and is used by permission.
P.S.: Comments and word requests are welcome.
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