Considering that Fey's normal picture is quite easily distinguished, I'd say she has the talent of an Oscar actress. She parodied Palin's body language and facial expressions extremely true to form; I had a very hard time telling her from Palin. But what made me laugh the most was how she captures Palin's incoherent and evasive speaking style. At one point the Fey-Palin says, "We are not afraid to get mavericky in there, and not got to allow that, and also to the great Ronald Regan." This way of randomly throwing together words and phrases without regard to grammar or meaning, was exactly my impression of Palin's speaking when I watched the debate Thursday night. Palin is worse than George Bush in this regard – though both appear uncultured, and Bush probably more often pronounces words incorrectly, he at least seems to genuinely mean what he says, even when I am almost sure he does not. Given how old McCain is, I would be extremely worried if McCain got sick and this lady became our president. Apparently this is also a main reason that many of my Chinese friends won't vote for McCain. Call it a shallow and intuitive way of reasoning. But what more can common voters do if not judge based on impression? I think McCain made his biggest mistake by choosing such a (...) running mate.
Now let's return to entertainment, and
Apparently, in China the first notable "mischievous dub" occurred in December 2005, when an as yet unknown man named Hu Ge parodied the reputed director Chen Kaige's new movie, "The Promise," changing the story of an ancient Chinese prince to a modern murder case. Hu's short dub film spread apace, receiving more applause than the original movie. Chen Kaige, who apparently was unfamiliar with parody culture, bristled with anger and threatened to bring a copyright lawsuit against Hu. In February 2006, at the Berlin International Film Festival, where he was about to launch "The Promise" for Europe, director Chen said in indignation to reporters, "To be a man one can't be so shameless!"
The case attracted attention from lawyers nationwide, most predicted Hu would lose the lawsuit. From outside however, Richard Stallman, the founder of Free Software Foundation, concluded in an interview with a Chinese blogger that "Parodies like this one are legally considered 'fair use'. Courts have ruled that you don't need to get someone's permission before you make fun of him by parodying his work. It is lawful, pure and simple." The Chinese neitizens, meanwhile, were split. Supporters of each side argued noisily online.
In the end, there wasn't a lawsuit after all. The public debate calmed down after Hu made an apology to director Chen. But the damage was done: Hu's dub film started
Mischievously or not, despite the regulation, Chinese parodies did not simply go away. As recent as last month, a new one surfaced on YouTube mocking the
What I'm hoping though is to see political parodies like those on SNL begin to appear in
5 comments:
I feet the same way when I watch SNL, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Corbet Report, Real Time with Bill Maher, and even The Orielly Factor...
and thinking about what has been missing in both the more serious political life and the more lighter entertainment life in China. Hope a day that these kind of shows can become norm in China comes soon.
It would be fun, but not necessary. The political culture don't have to be as lighthearted as the west. It would just be another way of doing things.
The Chibi/Zhifubao parody got taken off Youtube, but it's still on Ku6:
http://v.ku6.com/show/yj_OlWZMKVBp35Ml.html
(came via ESNW)
Bien, thanks for sharing your feelings.
Micah, thanks for the alternative link. Apparently the copyright law is more effective against parodies than pirates. :-)
Anonymous, if people only want to praise their leaders, but no one want to make fun of them, IMO something is amiss in that political culture.
Hope no one's holding their breath... When Palin was announced as McCain's running mate, I commented to my family that she looked like Tina Fey. They pooh-poohed me.
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