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Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

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Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#222

As a Brit deeply into comedy I can confirm my total ignorance of "Dinner For One". How very strange what travels. Visiting the US I was surprised how many Americans knew obscure and not terribly funny Monty Python sketches word for word, and meeting a Chinese CTO once whose first words were "Ah Mr. Bean".

>meeting a Chinese CTO once whose first words were "Ah Mr. Bean"

Consistering there is a large statue of Rowan Atkinson / Mr Bean in Yuexiu Park, the largest park in Guangzhou China. Mr Bean is very well known.

Mr Bean is more famous than Monty Python.

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#223
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He certainly dominated the lineup of a major Austrian music festival a few years back. His act wasn’t even really good, but people just love him.

Do you still do that routine with the 850nm LED? I tried it but I don't think it did anything for me.

Sometimes yes, for a boost. But I mostly don’t need it anymore since I started addressing my microbiome (butyrate, phages, L Reuteri DSM 17938) and added a highly bioavailable copper that directly increases ATP supply and kills pathogenic bacteria, among other things (from a company called MitoSynergy though I think they‘ll rebrand soon - in case you‘re from Europe, it’s sold under „Cu1“ by a brand called Global Healing). Infrared light or curcumin (a bioavailable one, like longvida) do help if I need to be extra smart, but I‘ve since become more cautious when it comes to pushing performance short-term. There‘s no free lunch. So I‘m looking at improving health and metabolism in general.

If the light doesn’t do anything, you might lack some basic building blocks for whatever photobiomodulation does (stimulating cytochrome-C-oxidase seems to be only one of the effects), like copper or other trace minerals (selenium, iodine, zinc), or B vitamins. Hard to say really, energy production in the body seems to be really complex from what I‘ve read. If you have lots of money to spend on health, you could get a hair tissue mineral analysis and an organic acids test, and see what‘s lacking. Former will probably be $100, latter could be 300-500.

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#224

Feels vaguely familiar, but inverted, to the reality that most Americans have no idea what "Auld Lang Syne" is from, what it means, or what its lyrics even are.

The tradition of only knowing a few of the lyrics and just mumbling through the rest is also alive and well in Scotland ;)

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mr Bean travels well because it's universal humour requiring no translation. Has done well in British consciousness for a single 15 episode series too. For slightly related reasons, Norman Wisdom became absolutely massive in the Eastern Bloc because his apolitical slapstick could be portrayed as "struggling against capitalism" :D

Rowan Atkinson is such a comic genius. Look at what he can do with a piano key: https://youtu.be/CwzjlmBLfrQ

I think that was the highlight of the opening ceremony. Would be interesting to know if Rowan Atkinson was involved in developing the bit (not so much the video clip but the single note business was well conceived).

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#226
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t forget that while this is broadcast on NYE in Denmark and Sweden, in Norway it’s broadcast on Christmas which is something you should definitely bring up on a mixed Scandinavian family dinner. It’s also quite fun since there’s a joke relationship between Swedes and Norwegians calling each other stupid, so it’s quite fun to insinuate that Norwegians simply do not understand that the movie is set on NYE.

Here in Norway every year on Christmas eve we also show Karl-Bertil Jonssons jul, a Swedish cartoon from 1975, where a underage postage worker steals packages from the rich and gives it to the poor. It's hard to imagine it would be well received in most other countries, especially as a tradition.

Robin Hood is pretty well recieved in the broader west, and Ned Kelly is an Australian icon. I think the theme is pretty universal. For Christmas tradition the west has Scrooge which reveals the inherent disconnect between Christmas and wealth.

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#227
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also important not to forget that West Germany wasn't immune to the censorship either, and bans, beside what realistically was a Soviet propaganda, also included some really good documentaries and artwork even by today's standards. https://film-history.org/approaches/not-approved-screening

Not sure why are you singling out West Germany here since the same applies to many other countries and tbh there is no particular issue with filtering content coming from totalitarian enemies interested in destroying you. The very important distinction here is that were the same policies as in Czechoslovakia applied in West Germany, people like Rainer Werner Fassbinder would not be able to create their movies. Not di…

> tbh there is no particular issue with filtering content coming from totalitarian enemies interested in destroying you.

Both sides were very much interested in destroying each other (and worked actively on that), but problem is that whenever you have bureaucrats doing censorship in the name of the national or social interests, it ends up affecting far-wider circle of (innocent) people than officially intended, and often can be misused for other (political) purposes. The main reason I even commented on this is that few days ago I've seen an East-Germany documentary on German nazis working as mercenaries in South Africa, which was banned in West Germany, even though it had nothing "communistic" or anti-western - but it touches some not-so-popular subjects on nazis and nazi supporters in West and particularly W. Germany that (although true and well documented) they didn't want people to hear about. So they censored it as "communist propaganda", no questions asked...

Eastern block certainly had a lot more censorship and oppression than West, but it's important to be aware that lots of dirty s** happened in the West too, things were never as black and white as some people like to simplify it now.

Re: Dinner for one: A little-known British comedy famous in Germany

#229
post #4

Here in Denmark, it's new years tradition to watch this on NYE, it's about as important as the Queens new years address. Also, it _NEVER_ stops being fun* [*] Legally required to hold this opinion.

I have watched it in Denmark too for many years. Until I read this article I had no idea that it is watched in other countries as well :)
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