Word: pokes
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Peter Sellars was a perfectionist. He wanted to get the voice right, and then figure out the character. He wanted to poke fun at people but he wanted to say something at the same time. His 1950s radio series, "The Goon Show," The Mouse That Roared, Dr. Strangelove, and Being There did just that. They let him be "ridiculing without being ridiculous; serious without being solemn...
...organizers were remarkably heterogeneous: Ralph Nader and his allies among union leaders, politicians and economists, but also Actor Ed Asner and Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The cause: taking a poke at U.S. corporations on April 17, "Big Business Day." The place: demonstrations at 150 cities around the country. The charges: from the predictable (pollution, consumer gouging, union busting, governmental corruption) to the obscure (opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, causing high taxes and spoiling New York City's subway system). The reaction: a fairly large yawn...
...stands amid a series of fieldstone revetments. The mujahidin use the rocky enclosure to observe Afghan government convoys on the valley floor below; it is also a resting place for the bodies of five Soviet paratroopers killed there last January. Few of the insurgents can resist taking a ritual poke at the skulls. "This is what we do to Russians," Rebel Tribesman Shaler Seyed beams ferociously, hoisting a cranium into the air with a stick. "We will cut them all into little pieces...
Similarly, the Hasty Pudding's justification for their racist stereotype is more liberal jargon. In his letter to the editor, the president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals states that their characters "poke fun at the stereotypes themselves by illustrating their complete absurdity." He also states that, like the Mikado, "the shows attempt to make fun of ignorance." He then apologizes for the fact that "our characterizations might be misconstrued." Racial stereotypes are both racist and absurd. If the Hasty Pudding wants to demonstrate absurdity of stereotypes, they should "poke fun" at those who make stereotypes, not perpetutate these negative images...
...show be likened to any individual living or dead. The humor of the show derives from ludicrous characterizations at which the audience can laugh without feeling insulted. Edgar Foo Yung is such a character. He bears no resemblance to any Asian person past or present. He is designed to poke fun at an absurd 19th century stereotype. This is what the Mikado, which played this fall at the Agassiz, has been doing on a much larger scale for years. Both shows attempt to make fun of ignorance...