MDDM: Washington & Gershom

[Doug Millison]

At 4:05 PM +1100 7/12/02, jbor wrote:
>But, if George knows that that's what Gersh is doing - and he does, because
>Gershom tells him, straight out, in the text - then wouldn't that defeat the
>purpose you are trying to ascribe to him for changing them in the first
>place?


Washington appears, in M&D, to be about as dull as the King in those
jokes,obviously he doesn't understand how he's the butt of Gershom's jokes
and not the King.  With the pot and the punch  it's quite likely that half
of what's being said in the room doesn't register. By this time after the
theatrical folly that has included Washington's attempted con job
(deflected by Dixon), his song with Martha, and Gershom's joaks, they are
all so stoned and loose with punch that the conversation veers wildly from
one subject to another, multiple conversations going on simultaneously,
long stoned excursions into the lead plates and Jesuits and other weirdness
-- as stoned as red-eyed Washington appears to be, it's difficult to say
with any certainty what he understand or doesn't understand clearly in this
scene.


>on 12/7/02 3:59 PM, Doug Millison at millison at online-journalist.com wrote:
>> Yes, that's my point exactly.  Gershom changes master-slave  jokes that
>> portray stupid slave owners into king-fool jokes that portray stupid kings,
>> because he knows the former will offend and the latter amuse white slave
>> owners like Washington and his peers.
>>