Gilbert and Sullivan/YMMV: Difference between revisions
m
→top: clean up, replaced: Big Lipped Alligator Moment → Non Sequitur Scene
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (→top: clean up, replaced: Big Lipped Alligator Moment → Non Sequitur Scene) |
||
Line 1:
{{work}}
* [[Acceptable Targets]]: Many a person would have been upset at Gilbert if he had been the model for King
* [[Creator's Pet]]: Alexis Pointdextre the designated hero of the Sorcerer
* [[Critical Research Failure]]: Outside of an actual Japanese song ("Miya sama") and a phrase supposedly from a children's game ("O ni bikkuri shakkuri to!"), the Japan of ''The Mikado'' bears no resemblance in the least to the Japan of real
** There is one other bit of actual Japanese culture. When Pooh-Bah offers to toast Nanki-Poo "three times three" (at his wedding before he is executed). It just happens, that's a pretty accurate translation of part of the Shinto Wedding ceremony (3 drinks (of sake of course) by the groom, 3 by the bride, 3 by the groom).
** While all of the above is accurate, it's worth noting that Gilbert went out of his way to find actual Japanese girls to teach his actresses how to walk in a Japanese manner and took pains to make the kimonos as accurate as possible.
*** That's typical of Gilbert's ideas of stagecraft. Everything should look as realistic as possible, in order to make the silliness all the funnier in contrast. He also dressed the sailors in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' with real naval outfits and carefully modelled the set on H.M.S. Victory.
** The Yeomen of the Guard are not the Beefeaters who guard the Tower of
*** The Yeoman Warders did not exist until 1548, and the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Richard Cholmondeley, mentioned in the lyrics, served from 1513 to 1524.
* [[Crowning Music of Awesome]]: "Hail Poetry" from ''Pirates''. Sort of an inverse [[
** Really, there's at least one great song in every show. ''Pirates'' is particularly strong in this regard.
* [[Ear Worm]]: [[Ear Worm/Gilbert and Sullivan|Many]], though perhaps the most notorious is "Come, friends, who plough the sea," the chorus of "With cat-like tread," which has become well known in many variants (''e.g.'', "Hail, hail, the gang's all here").
** Said tune is actually a musical [[Shout-Out]] to Verdi's "Anvil Chorus" from ''Il Trovatore''. There's an even more explicit one hidden in "Poor Wand'ring One," which copies a bit in the aria "Sempre Libera" from Verdi's ''La Traviata'' note for note.
* [[Fair for Its Day]]: The apparent [[Straw Feminist|anti-feminism]] in''Princess Ida'' is ''nothing'' compared to the genuine Anti-Feminist jokes of its time. The Tennyson poem it's based on is also arguably worse in many respects than Gilbert's parody, since the [[Framing Story]] basically claims it's an incompetent attempt by feminists to rewrite history, which ends up showing that a woman's place is with her man. In Gilbert's version, the worst you get is some ''characters'' poking fun of women's
* [[Memetic Mutation]]: A notable [[Older Than Radio]] example is the "What, never?", "No, never", "What, never?" "Well, hardly ever."-exchange from ''H.M.S Pinafore''. The editor of a certain London newspaper is said to have threatened to sack any man on staff quoting the passage, his rant ending with "I never want to hear that joke again!". Cue everyone...
** ''The Mikado'' in particular is the source of many now-familiar English phrases, such as "a short, sharp shock," "Let the punishment fit the crime," and "grand Poohbah."
Line 32:
* [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]]: Parodied in ''Patience'' with "If You're Anxious for to Shine."
* [[Unintentionally Sympathetic]]: John Wellington Wells, the title character in ''The Sorcerer'', who actually was supposed to be the villain, but unfortunately his evil is only hinted lightly upon in the text so one feels the retribution is a bit overdone. {{spoiler|In the end there is a choice of whether he or the handsome Tenor Alexis dies; the audience tends to opt for the ''tenor''. It doesn't help that most people can't stand Alexis anyway}}
** To a lesser extent, Dick Deadeye, who is hated by his shipmates just because he's ugly and a
* [[Values Dissonance]]: ''Princess Ida'' is an attack on feminism that was considered outdated ''when it came out.''
* [[What an Idiot!]]: The unnamed king in the song "There Lived a King" from ''The Gondoliers''
| |||