‘Candygram.’ That was a major element of one of the most remembered skits on Saturday Night Live. The landshark would pose as an innocuous delivery person, obtain entry to the abode, and then eat the naive homedweller ...
Here is how one resource described it:
'Jaws' was a summer movie hit and people were freaking out about alleged shark sightings, so 'SNL,' in its fourth episode ever, introduced this spoof, about another panic: The Land Shark. Disguising himself as a delivery man for flowers or Candygrams, Land Shark lured young women to their front doors, only to deny that he was the Land Shark and then eat them when they foolishly believed him and opened the door. So persistent in pop culture is the Land Shark that, 35 years later, people are still repeating the bit, even some who've never seen any of the original sketches.
More below! But, first, a word from our sponsor ...
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top to pop up in diaries around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fleur de kos...
|
We equate sharks with predators, and their victims with victims. They achieved some attention in a literary collection created by Bertolt Brecht, the famous German playwright, originally composed in 1948-49. He wrote a series of stories (called Kalendargeschichten) about a man named Herr Keuner. In this instance, Herr Keuner was asked by his landlady’s daughter if sharks were men, would they be nicer to the ‘little fishes.’
Fair use precludes my being able to quote the entire story, but it may be read in its entirety here. (It is not long and reads quickly!)
(Or in the original German here.)
I can provide some excerpts, however. Like this one ...
There would, of course, also be schools in the big boxes. In these schools the little fish would learn how to swim into the sharks' jaws. They would need to know geography, for example, so that they could find the big sharks, who lie idly around somewhere. The principal subject would, of course, be the moral education of the little fish. They would be taught that it would be the best and most beautiful thing in the world if a little fish sacrificed itself cheerfully and that they all had to believe the sharks, especially when the latter said they were providing for a beautiful future.
And this ...
If sharks were men, there would, of course, also be art. There would be beautiful pictures, in which the sharks' teeth would be portrayed in magnificent colors and their jaws as pure pleasure gardens, in which one could romp about splendidly.
Or this ...
Furthermore, if sharks were men there would be an end to all little fish being equal, as is the case now. Some would be given important offices and be placed above the others. Those who were a little bigger would even be allowed to eat up the smaller ones.
There are things that Brecht did not include. Sharks imposing a sequester on the little fish. Or denying some little fish the right to marry other little fish. Or wishing to build fences so that little fish from other areas cannot enter at will and on their own timetable, so they can never belong or have any of the rights all other little fish have ... Or that the media would be owned by the sharks, allowed to disseminate only the most innocuous, approved chum ...
Since I know you can see where Brecht was going with this, I’m sure you can think of other examples, in today’s world!
(I really like the 'framing' Brecht employed with this. So many of our adversaries ARE sharks, though they don't want to be perceived so. Too bad!)
Thank you for reading! On to tonight’s comments!
From Clem Yeobright:
yg17 deconstructs Republican self-defense plan.
From FogCityJohn:
I nominate this comment by LinSea for top comments. (Ed. note: Sadly, the comment is out of recommendability, but it does a fine job of mocking the association of registration and confiscation we've been reading lately!)
From bwren:
burnt out told a story in today's Daily Bucket, about ice and a pair of beavers and a kind and generous man.
From wsbuffalo:
Bob Johnson did what Bob Johnson does, in mocking armed people in WalMart!
From BeninSC:
Flagged by ozsea1:
Nominating this comment by adamlang for providing some thoughtful and thought-provoking commentary on hiring practices, in Laura Clawson's fine diary on the dubious role of credit checks in hiring.
Top Mojo for yesterday, March 4th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Who is friend & who is foe, that's what I want to by FishOutofWater — 200
2) These cuts were NEVER off the table. by TheMomCat — 191
3) Hey, when a letter from Cong. Keith Ellison... by bobswern — 158
4) Sorry to hear of the job loss. I am 54 and have by MRA NY — 114
5) If you haven't watched this from by dkmich — 107
6) That's crazy by joanneleon — 101
7) You have good people on your side by FishOutofWater — 101
8) Yes. My husband worked for his company for by Smoh — 95
9) How much more "serious" does this have to get... by bobswern — 95
10) Notice all the riots in the by tardis10 — 93
11) We can assume he wants to cut SS by RFK Lives — 89
12) The pain of the sequester by joanneleon — 88
13) Not just "NO DEAL..." by markthshark — 86
14) But Solyndra! by ontheleftcoast — 85
15) We are not stupid, but we do seem powerless... by blue armadillo — 84
16) Yeah but on the upside by david mizner — 80
17) I'm just not sure that he's... by markthshark — 78
18) How can I miss them by TFinSF — 75
19) I have worked with Solyndra panels...And the story by LamontCranston — 74
20) This is why the WH isn't advocating by slinkerwink — 72
21) True....and it was pretty brutal too. by blue armadillo — 70
22) I hate to be a gloomy Gus, but ... by dangoch — 68
23) Wow, Eric, I hope you are right eom by chicating — 68
24) It's telling that most of the comments here... by TheOrchid — 67
25) We have them. They have been in place since by msdrown — 67
26) I commented on another diary by jfromga — 67
27) Unionism, was a success in the class war by LaFeminista — 66
28) I take it you are not familiar with their previous by JesseCW — 64
29) my grandfather knew by BlueDragon — 63
30) From your keyboard to Daisy Dog's ear... by koosah — 63
Top Pictures for yesterday, March 4th, 2013. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!