February 27, 2002

5:09 AM

Was John Wayne A ... Welshman?In that case, I nominate Johnny Cash as the No.1 American icon. Unless it turns out he's English or something. [Inspired by jpoulos's, Kafkaesque's, Optamystic's and others' recent celebrations - elsewhere on MetaFilter - of the great man.]
posted by MiguelCardoso (15 comments total)

He roamed the west terrifying evil-wrongdoers with his close harmony singing.
posted by vbfg at 5:25 AM on February 27, 2002

Hoho. I started reading this thinking it was serious!
posted by salmacis at 5:37 AM on February 27, 2002

So did I, salmacis. Only the repeated misspelling of Leonard Malting gave the game away...How Green Was My Valley indeed!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:44 AM on February 27, 2002

I second your nomination of Johnny Cash! He's a bad, bad man.
posted by ColdChef at 5:56 AM on February 27, 2002

And a Happy 70th Birthday (yesterday) to JC.
posted by liam at 6:41 AM on February 27, 2002

(Is it Welsh week on Metafilter? What will Friday be like?)

And . . . why is this so damned funny? Perhaps there's something intrinsically funny about Welshness?

Elvis was Welsh, as well, you know. Har har.

</grouch>
posted by ceiriog at 6:43 AM on February 27, 2002

Not sure if you're ready for this. (warning: 9/11 'joke')
Slightly o/t, very non-PC and in much worse taste, on the same page: September 11 - The Musical!.....With Danny de Vito playing Osama bin Laden......
"....Christopher Reeve is making his movie comeback in the picture too.

And who is he playing?

A guy on a life support machine. He doesn’t want to get typecast in lots of ‘wheelchair’ roles."

(that bit made me smile). Makes valid points tho, ie, we laugh at some comedy/war films, when will it be 'historic' enough to do that on this subject?

- john
posted by dash_slot- at 7:11 AM on February 27, 2002

How many comedy Pearl Harbour or Stalingrad movies are there? There's comedy in unspecified events purporting to truth (what's that WWII flick with Telly Savalas as the tank commander?) but not in actual events with massive numbers of deaths involved.
posted by vbfg at 7:52 AM on February 27, 2002

The giveaway to me that this was bogus is that the photo of "Dr. Andrew Cousins" is actually that of Richard Longfrom "The Big Valley" and "Nanny and the Professor"
posted by briank at 8:04 AM on February 27, 2002

vbfg: good point, well made.
thing is, most ordinary brits - the ones at the pub, office and school - will laugh at any subject. our humour can be very, very dark and, to me, it seems that it is the removal of the personal (pc concepts like race/gender/sexuality) which widens the array of topics so as to deny the concept of the sacrilegious. though, of course, that doesnt mean we can't also be racist/sexist/homophobic: it's just that the majority would find those items unfunny, whereas the humour of death and disaster is healthier.
I think.

-john



posted by dash_slot- at 8:11 AM on February 27, 2002

Briank, it weren't no Welsh valley that Richard Long gallivanted about neither.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:15 AM on February 27, 2002

vbfg: Life is Beautiful definitely qualifies... also Children Of The Revolution, sorta. Italian and Australian. Maybe it's just us amurricans who have no sense of humor about our tragedies... we'll get Bruckheimer to direct 9/11 instead.
posted by ook at 8:21 AM on February 27, 2002

Johnny Cash rawks!
posted by revbrian at 9:39 AM on February 27, 2002

Cash's ancestors are reputed to come from Strathmiglo in sunny Fife

Mind now, it takes a lang spoon to sup wi' a Fifer
posted by the cuban at 11:02 AM on February 27, 2002

Ok here's my brush with greatness, I have actually seen the house where John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa. I think a lot of people in that area have Welsh roots (like my mom).
posted by ArkIlloid at 9:17 PM on February 27, 2002