Word: humorously
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Franny Loses A Fight," in The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving. All Hallow's Eve, Irving style. Giant spiders. Heart attacks. Tortured children. A tragic rape. But there's the usual dose of good humor here, and Irving's spirit shines through bigger than the State o' Maine itself. This is Halloween candy to sink your wisdom teeth into, the Snickers bar in the bag of Golden Delicious apples...
...streaks down the highway like a big red Road Runner, and the Laziest Woman in the World (Swoosie Kurtz) vegetates in a tidy mansion surrounded by the bleak glamour of the Texas plains -- civilization's affront to parched nature. Byrne's framing of the actors, like his sense of humor, is just off center and right on target. It gives all the performers (especially Goodman, who becomes tomorrow's star with his endearing turn as Louis) plenty of room to expand their characters from stereotypes into the deft cartoonery of a postmodern Preston Sturges stock company...
What made Heads songs like this so insinuating -- so persistent, so haunting -- was not just their edginess but their off-kilter humor. A verse full of imminent violence could almost scar you with surprise, scare you from laughing. Then a chorus ("This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,/ This ain't no fooling around"/ This ain't the Mudd Club, or CBGB/ I ain't got time for that now") comes bouncing in to turn everything inside out and dare...
...David has a very bewildered sense of humor," Henley adds. "I wouldn't call it wry because that implies a sarcasm that he doesn't have. He laughs really loud at things and then gets embarrassed because he did." Still, getting on Byrne's wavelength takes adjustment. "I didn't put a lot of emphasis on the psychological motivations of the characters, and some actors found that a little troublesome," he admits. Ask John Goodman, whose portrayal of the earnestly romantic Louis Fyne is a memorable one, what he thinks about Byrne, and he will smile and say, "That...
...beleaguered city of Houston, jinxed in oil and space and now ninthinning rallies, showed particular grace and unusual humor in defeat. A courageous child "soloist" in a pinafore came out on the infield and sang the national anthem before the last game, and the morning after the Chronicle reported, "Around 2 p.m., little Amber Pennington, seven years old, fought her way through The Star-Spangled Banner before the start of the sixth game of the National League Championship Series. Before the game was over, Amber joined the Brownies, the Girl Scouts and went to her senior prom. She was married...