All About Pranks - The Art of the Prank

Alfred Jarry (September 8, 1873 – November 1, 1907) was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother’s side.

Best known for his play Ubu Roi (1896), which is often cited as a forerunner to the theatre of the absurd, Jarry wrote in a variety of genres and styles. He wrote plays, novels, poetry, essays and speculative journalism. His texts present some pioneering work in the field of absurdist literature. Sometimes grotesque or misunderstood (i.e. the opening line in his play Ubu Roi, “Merdre!”, has been translated into English as “Shittr!”, “Shikt!”, and “Pschitt!”), he invented a science called ‘pataphysics.

Biography and works

A precociously brilliant student, Jarry enthralled his classmates with a gift for pranks and troublemaking.

At the lycée in Rennes when he was 15, he led of a group of boys who devoted much time and energy to poking fun at their well-meaning, obese and incompetent physics teacher, a man named Hébert. Jarry and classmate Charles Morin wrote a play they called Les Polonais and performed it with marionettes in the home of one of their friends. The main character, Père Heb, was a blunderer with a huge belly; three teeth (one of stone, one of iron, and one of wood); a single, retractable ear; and a misshapen body. In Jarry’s later work Ubu Roi, Père Heb would develop into Ubu, one of the most monstrous and astonishing characters in French literature.

April 13, 2007January 15, 2019

“Pataphysics, the science of imaginary solutions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

‘Pataphysics, a term coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. It is a parody of the theory and methods of modern science and is often expressed in nonsensical language. A practitioner of ‘pataphysics is a ‘pataphysician or a ‘pataphysicist.

The term first appeared in print in Alfred Jarry’s play text “Guignol” in the 28 April 1893 issue of L’à‰cho de Paris littéraire illustré. Jarry later defined it as “the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments” (Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, II, viii). Raymond Queneau has described ‘pataphysics as resting “on the truth of contradictions and exceptions.”

Jarry mandated the inclusion of the apostrophe in the orthography “to avoid a simple pun,” the pun possibly being patte à physique (leg of physics), as interpreted by Jarry scholars Keith Beaumont and Roger Shattuck, or possibly pas ta physique (not your physics), or maybe “Pâte à physique” (physics dough).

April 12, 2007January 15, 2019

The times they are a’changin’?

This New York Times article by Alex Williams about the history and psychology of the heckler from Shakespeare’s time to the present was sent in by Scott Pellegrino. Both artists and their critics are grappling with First Amendment freedom of speech issues… and bad manners.

Rise of the Takedown
by Alex Williams
The New York Times
April 8, 2007

To Alicia Estrada, a professor of Central American studies who was ejected from a screening of Mel Gibson”s “Apocalypto” last month after grilling him about the historical accuracy of that Maya epic, which he directed, she was not a “heckler,” as Mr. Gibson”s representatives called her, but a dutiful academic asking of him what she asks of students in her classroom.

To Kyle Doss, an audience member who helped spark Michael Richards”s tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club last November by yelling “You”re not funny” following a racially charged joke, he was not a heckler, but a champion of tolerance. “I think freedom of speech should have some kind of limit,” Mr. Doss later told a reporter.

To Jean Sara Rohe, one of the students who assailed Senator John McCain about Iraq at his commencement address at the New School last May, she was not a heckler, as newspapers later called her, but a crusader for peace, doing what her “conscience called for.”

For decades, hecklers who railed at entertainers, politicians and athletes were confined to the margins “” Continue reading “The times they are a’changin’?”

April 1, 2007January 15, 2019

Ta Da!

April 1, 2007January 15, 2019

Hey, kids! Madison Avenue wants you!

Troy Jollimore reviews the book “Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole”, by Benjamin R. Barber, Norton, 2007, in the San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2007 and writes about “the transformation of Homo sapiens into Homo consumerus” by way of the “consumerization of the child” and infantilization in general by marketers who, using culture jamming and other techniques, have created a population of consumers who are “a ready and pliable modeling clay for the marketers’ sculpting techniques”.

Troy Jollimore is an External Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center. His poetry collection, “Tom Thomson in Purgatory,” won a 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award.

“Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole”, by Benjamin R. Barber, is available at Amazon.com via this link. -JS

UPDATE, May 13, 2007: At the end of this article, check out the Benjamin R. Barber interview with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report, Comedy Central.

When the movie “Smokin’ Aces” opened in late January, the first paragraph of the review by New York Times film critic A.O. Scott — which, Scott went on to claim, constituted a “fair summary” of the movie — read as follows:

“‘F.B.I.! F.B.I.!’ Blam blam blam blam. ‘[Expletive]. [Expletive].’ Blam blam blam. Spurt of blood. Plot twist. ‘F.B.I.! F.B.I.!’ ‘[Expletive].’ Blam blam blam blam blam. ‘[Expletive].’ ‘F.B.I.!’ ‘Hotel Security!’ Blam. Exploding skull. Guy sits on a chain saw. Montage. [Expletive]. Plot twist. Roll credits.”

Undaunted — indeed, apparently delighted — the studio quoted from the paragraph in their ads. Predictably enough, millions of American moviegoers turned out to see it. Continue reading “Hey, kids! Madison Avenue wants you!”

Category: All About Pranks

Alfred Jarry, the father of ‘pataphysics

“Pataphysics, the science of imaginary solutions

The times they are a’changin’?

Ta Da!

Hey, kids! Madison Avenue wants you!