Word: humors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Three-ring-binders snap open and shut as Professor David Wise sketches a graph on the board. Wise has the reputation of being a good teacher with a sense of humor who makes the most out of the reputedly dry subject. Today's lecture covers specification analysis, or how to interpret data to correctly identify trends. For example, how to look at the health data of a certain population to determine the effect of pollution on that community...
Aside from that, though, there are no taboos, and Jones refuses even to speculate on topics that might be considered too sensitive, too tasteless, or otherwise off-limits for humor. "As soon as you say any subject is out of bounds," he maintains, "you're up against the wall." Not everyone finds those standards agreeable--one backer of Jabberwocky abruptly pulled out, leaving some legal threads dangling, after he saw the script--but the strategy has paid off with audiences. Monty Python and the Holy Grail made 200,000 pounds, or about half a million dollars; Life of Brian...
...mildly embarrassing experiments--including The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, Time Bandits and Jabberwocky --Jones deftly avoids discussion. He steadfastly resists analyzing what has made any of the Python or Python-offshoot products bad or good. Nor, despite considerable hinting from several quarters, does he agree that Python humor has evolved in any particular way since its creators started dabbling in the commercial feature-film world. For him the most important comic influence remains the English tradition springing from the likes of Tristram Shandy, and after that the "goon shows" of early radio and the comic compilation Beyond the Fringe...
...Really," he says, "as long as it seems funny to us...I don't see humor changing that much...
...actually, a classless performance on the part of a department once noted for its friendliness and good humor. It is evidence, as Weber might point out, of the increasing bureaucratization and professionalization of Social Studies. And as one senior who has spend three years in the department it was saddening and deeply disappointing...