Missed Opportunity for A Mighty Wind

[Fiddle Peghead]

How did Christopher Guest and Co. miss making fun of this (wait for it) comedic opportunity in the movie A Mighty Wind?

[Push You Down]

Not sure what you mean. Is it that there's an Asian in the New Christy Minstrels? Because they did do that joke in A Mighty Wind. The culty group did have an out of place Pacific Islander member.

[Fiddle Peghead]

Originally Posted by Push You Down

Not sure what you mean. Is it that there's an Asian in the New Christy Minstrels? Because they did do that joke in A Mighty Wind. The culty group did have an out of place Pacific Islander member.

I might not remember it, but did they sing say "How-ray-rue-ya" in the movie instead of "Hallelujah"?

In retrospect, I wish I could just take this thread back. The offensiveness, even if it was 50 years ago and the Asian singer was in on it, outweighs any comic value.

[friedo]

Fa ra ra ra ra, ra raaa ra raaaaa.

[Sampiro]

The most '60s folk moments for me are seeing all white groups like that do songs like "Pick a bail of cotton" or "Mammy's Little Baby" and other slave/blackface minstrel songs. There's something about seeing a sweatervested preppy boy and a highly coiffed white girl in moderate beehive hair and a poodle skirt smiling broadly and singing "Oh Lordy! Pick that bail of cotton!" that just would let you know "this isn't quite right" even if you knew nothing of U.S. history.

[bienville]

In the rich history of making fun of R/L reversal of Asian accents, there is one- exactly one- joke that stands out as being absolutely brilliant.

In the movie UHF, Gedde Watanabe plays a karate instructor. Toward the climax of the film the karate instructor and his students help in the fight against the bad guys.

The karate team are hiding in a janitor's supply closet. The closet door is labeled "SUPPLIES".

The bad guys open the closet door to be surprised by, then attacked by the karate team. As the SUPPLIES door is opened and the bad guy is caught off guard, Gedde Watanabe yells out to the bad guy:

"SUPPLIES!!!"

("Surprise!" with R/L issues)

[TriPolar]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

The most '60s folk moments for me are seeing all white groups like that do songs like "Pick a bail of cotton" or "Mammy's Little Baby" and other slave/blackface minstrel songs. There's something about seeing a sweatervested preppy boy and a highly coiffed white girl in moderate beehive hair and a poodle skirt smiling broadly and singing "Oh Lordy! Pick that bail of cotton!" that just would let you know "this isn't quite right" even if you knew nothing of U.S. history.

I remember weird stuff like that, but I didn't associate it with real folk singers so much. What you're describing sounds like pop singers doing either folk or 'coon songs'. But my experience is limited in that area.

[Dendarii Dame]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

The most '60s folk moments for me are seeing all white groups like that do songs like "Pick a bail of cotton" or "Mammy's Little Baby" and other slave/blackface minstrel songs. There's something about seeing a sweatervested preppy boy and a highly coiffed white girl in moderate beehive hair and a poodle skirt smiling broadly and singing "Oh Lordy! Pick that bail of cotton!" that just would let you know "this isn't quite right" even if you knew nothing of U.S. history.

In Till the Clouds Roll By, a biopic of Jerome Kern who wrote the music in Show Boat, there's a big number with Frank Sinatra, wearing a white tuxedo, singing "Ol' Man River."

[Labdad]

Originally Posted by bienville

In the rich history of making fun of R/L reversal of Asian accents, there is one- exactly one- joke that stands out as being absolutely brilliant.

The Craw on "Get Smart" always used to crack me up.

"It's our old enemy the Craw!"

"Not Craw - CRAW!"

[da_pope]

narrowly passes the eye test...

[Bridget Burke]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

I remember weird stuff like that, but I didn't associate it with real folk singers so much. What you're describing sounds like pop singers doing either folk or 'coon songs'. But my experience is limited in that area.

I remember those slick "up with people" types from TV. Then there were the more reverent Yankees--up in Cambridge & Greenwich Village--who had serious record collections.

Down here in Houston, we had some Lomaxes. With a little effort you could learn about Blues from Lightnin' Hopkins. Or watch Clifton Chenier adapting Louisiana Creole music into modern Zydeco. (A form that's still alive & well here.) Or go up to Navasota & find Mance Lipscomb with his older traditions....

Not that there was no silliness here--but we also knew about The Real Thing...