a danish comedian named omar marzouk has had both the audacity and the guts to create a terror cell sitcom. the first episode hasn't even been shown and already it's getting a lot of buzz. the program, which will be in danish, is called Cellen or The Cell. omar marzouk plays osama, the main character, and danish actor nicolas bro plays poul abdul, a danish convert to islam from the so-called "whiskey belt" where the rich live north of copenhagen. apparently poul abdul is the most rabid member of the group.
they will have adventures such as participating in the world championship in terror and a wine-tasting style sampling of explosives. apparently in every episode, the main characters blow themselves to bits in some or other terror action gone wrong. they are sent back every time from heaven and the 72 virgins because they never manage to blow anyone but themselves up.
it sounds to me like a hilarious opportunity to bring some humor to what can only be characterized as a touchy subject, to say the least (especially if you're in line at airport security - do NOT under any circumstances attempt any humor about it there). humor has a way of allowing you to get at the underlying meaning in things and it may very well be the only way forward after eight years of "you're either with us or against us" rhetoric from the previous US administration.
it strikes me as very danish to come up with such a concept, though of course there is a tradition for it elsewhere (think monty python's life of brian)...because one thing the danes excel at is laughing their way out of things, especially in an ironic manner. and after the mohammed cartoons that rocked the world and the recent absurdity of yale university cowards press publishing a book about them that does not feature the actual cartoons (talk about giving in to the terrorists), i think it's time to start laughing about this. it's the only way to really get things out in the open and deal with them. comedy has a way of getting at the true heart of things, if it's well done, of course. i'm looking forward to seeing this
apparently some british comedians have already stolen the concept and made a copy-film that's on you tube...here's their first episode. the danish episodes aren't yet available and they're even being filmed in some revolutionary new RED-camera technique, so they will be worth waiting for even tho' the concept has already been stolen by someone else.
Showing posts with label proving to myself that i can post without a picture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proving to myself that i can post without a picture. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Sunday, October 04, 2009
cultural perspectives
this afternoon, we put the child, age 8, on the train by herself, to go into copenhagen to see a movie. her big sister was meeting her halfway, but for half of the journey, she was all by herself on the S-train. it felt momentous both to her and to us. she was giddy with excitement and pride. when she's proud of herself and you praise her, she does the cutest little exhale through her nose, not quite a snort, but quick, heavy breath. it's one of my favorite things. she met her sister as planned, saw the movie and came home again on the train, the last half of the journey by herself. in all, a wholly successful journey. she was proud and we were proud that our little girl was so grown up.
after she left for the movie, i was thinking about how such a thing wouldn't be possible if she were growing up in the US. we'd surely have been turned in to social services for trusting our 8-year-old child to make a journey by herself on public transportation. and for a moment, i was really glad she's growing up here, where kids are trusted and so are the other people in the society around you. because in addition to us being confident that she could make the journey, we also knew that no harm would come to her on the train, especially not on a sunday afternoon.
i guess i have the US on the brain because of the IOC meeting last week in copenhagen. as you may be aware, the IOC met in copenhagen last week to decide where the 2016 olympics will be held. with top officials, royalty, sports stars and VIPs from spain, japan, brazil and the US fronting up to campaign for their respective cities (Madrid, Tokyo, Rio and Chicago), it was a big news week for the danish t.v. stations. since oprah and michelle obama were speaking on behalf of chicago, the news was fixated on them for several days. they were only eclipsed by president obama himself coming into copenhagen for five hours on friday.
after chicago was out in the first round of voting, much to the shock of everyone, who had thought it was a dead heat between rio and chicago, oprah apparently sneaked quietly out of town, as we didn't hear anything more about her. sadly for president obama and michelle, their departure was a bit more public, as cameras were obsessively trained on air force one from the moment it landed 'til well after it was but a shining dot in the sky. however, at the time they left, the results weren't yet known.
the coverage was non-stop and it was DR's (the state-owned television station), turn to pretend they were CNN. and pretend they did. speculating like mad about who was in an unmarked white plane parked on the runway near air force one. speculating like mad about which city would win the olympics. asking danish rock stars their opinions as to who would win (as if they knew). commenting live on a big event held for the IOC members and the cities' celebrities at the copenhagen opera (without knowing more than a handful of the names of those arriving, which ended up rather embarrassing and far more comical than they meant it to). and then there was the bringing in of danes with loose connections to the obamas and oprah to the studio to comment on all of the hype. one connection was so thin that all a danish model living in the US had to offer was that her african american husband reminded her a lot of obama. i laughed quite a long time at that one. poor DR, they were totally unaccustomed to being on air nonstop and clearly struggling with the task.
i hope they learned a lot of lessons because the next big international event on the horizon is the COP15 climate meeting here in copenhagen in december and i hope at least they get a list of names of the attendees at that one, so they can at least say who people are. copenhagen will be filled with strangers then, so i don't think we'll be putting the child on the train alone.
after she left for the movie, i was thinking about how such a thing wouldn't be possible if she were growing up in the US. we'd surely have been turned in to social services for trusting our 8-year-old child to make a journey by herself on public transportation. and for a moment, i was really glad she's growing up here, where kids are trusted and so are the other people in the society around you. because in addition to us being confident that she could make the journey, we also knew that no harm would come to her on the train, especially not on a sunday afternoon.
i guess i have the US on the brain because of the IOC meeting last week in copenhagen. as you may be aware, the IOC met in copenhagen last week to decide where the 2016 olympics will be held. with top officials, royalty, sports stars and VIPs from spain, japan, brazil and the US fronting up to campaign for their respective cities (Madrid, Tokyo, Rio and Chicago), it was a big news week for the danish t.v. stations. since oprah and michelle obama were speaking on behalf of chicago, the news was fixated on them for several days. they were only eclipsed by president obama himself coming into copenhagen for five hours on friday.
after chicago was out in the first round of voting, much to the shock of everyone, who had thought it was a dead heat between rio and chicago, oprah apparently sneaked quietly out of town, as we didn't hear anything more about her. sadly for president obama and michelle, their departure was a bit more public, as cameras were obsessively trained on air force one from the moment it landed 'til well after it was but a shining dot in the sky. however, at the time they left, the results weren't yet known.
the coverage was non-stop and it was DR's (the state-owned television station), turn to pretend they were CNN. and pretend they did. speculating like mad about who was in an unmarked white plane parked on the runway near air force one. speculating like mad about which city would win the olympics. asking danish rock stars their opinions as to who would win (as if they knew). commenting live on a big event held for the IOC members and the cities' celebrities at the copenhagen opera (without knowing more than a handful of the names of those arriving, which ended up rather embarrassing and far more comical than they meant it to). and then there was the bringing in of danes with loose connections to the obamas and oprah to the studio to comment on all of the hype. one connection was so thin that all a danish model living in the US had to offer was that her african american husband reminded her a lot of obama. i laughed quite a long time at that one. poor DR, they were totally unaccustomed to being on air nonstop and clearly struggling with the task.
i hope they learned a lot of lessons because the next big international event on the horizon is the COP15 climate meeting here in copenhagen in december and i hope at least they get a list of names of the attendees at that one, so they can at least say who people are. copenhagen will be filled with strangers then, so i don't think we'll be putting the child on the train alone.
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