Word: laughing
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...foundation of his desire to entertain: Another favorite was the dissing competitions, in which children threw insults at each other to make others laugh. "Your grandmother is so fat that God won't let her into heaven," one boy would shout at another as the crown laughed ... In the beginning I'd fall silent when it was my turn. But I started improving ... As well as the insults we had to rap for the older boys-tell stories in chanting rhythms to entertain them-and I found that I enjoyed entertaining people...
When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's London visit was also disrupted by snow, Britain's international humiliation was complete. Still, say this for Londoners: They can laugh at themselves. "Good thing Hitler's dead," remarked a stock clerk in a supermarket. "He couldn't get us with the Blitz, but the place is so incapacitated now, he'd walk right in." Meeting adversity with a sort of gloomy wit is not a characteristic that always serves Brits well; they sometimes crack jokes when they should be complaining. Yet in this coldest of economic climates, an unquenchable sense of humor...
...written on that slate. For each job, an active is overwritten with a customized composite of the minds and memories of actual people. (Between tasks, the actives are creepily affectless tabulae rasae--like children or especially pretty, dumb actors.) Some of those people, like the voices on an old laugh track, are now dead. Which raises questions: What does it mean to be alive? What is the Dollhouse's obligation to the people whose memories it "resurrects"? Is Echo herself, Caroline or the sum of her borrowed parts...
Attempting to explain the rationale behind the sculpture, Cerný explained that, “We wanted to find out if Europe is able to laugh at itself.” Admittedly, “Entropa” is funny because many of its stereotypes have some element of truth to them. The EU is not as unified as it ideally aspires to be, and of course each of its member countries has flaws. Criticism and humorous mocking by artists can be vital and necessary to help effect change...
...talk about "the Blitz spirit," and snowbound London is infused with it. It's the reason its citizens cracked jokes and conducted sing-alongs in bomb shelters. It's also the reason they seldom complain with sufficient conviction to make authorities take notice. They're too busy having a laugh. Customers have to navigate sheet ice at the entrance to a central London branch of Holland & Barrett, a chain selling health foods and natural remedies. "I'm not sure it was worth opening up yesterday. We only took ?300," says the attendant. As another would-be customer literally falls through...