The Sound of Satire

Katherine made me watch The Sound of Music a few months ago.  It's one of her favorite movies, and I'd never seen it.  Coming from a family that plays and appreciates good (classical) music, she grew up a fan of Broadway musicals.  I did not.  The only musical I knew growing up was the movie Grease.

Oh, Sandy!

It wasn't til I was in my 30's that I started to appreciate any broadway musicals, and even then they needed puppets or Mormons having sex to get me interested.

I've enjoyed Avenue Q many many times, but this is the first time I've seen this promotional poster for it.

When we were in New York on vacation a few years ago, West Side Story came on cable in our hotel room.  That's another famous movie that I'd never seen but Katherine had grown up with.  I thought that would be a really appropriate place to watch a movie about New York street gangs, so we settled in to watch it.   We had to stop about 1/3 of the way in because I couldn't stop laughing.  Really, what are all these tough street kids doing prancing around, snapping their fingers, and otherwise doing very gay things? (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it kind of undercuts their street cred.)

Seriously-- I'm supposed to think these are tough guys? Even now, I can't look at that picture without laughing.

Katherine couldn't stand me laughing at one of her favorite movies, so we stopped watching.

When we moved into our new house, it took a while to get our new entertainment center together, but once we did, I promised her that the first movie we'd watch together would be her favorite, The Sound of Music.  Which I'd never seen, but I knew a lot of the pop culture references to it.

The hills are alive! 

We watched the whole thing, and I actually enjoyed it.  I didn't feel impatient to get through it-- I wanted to know what happened.  It was a valuable piece of cultural literacy that I should know.

Then a few weeks ago someone posted this on the website McSweeney's:

I Regret to Inform You That My Wedding to Captain Von Trapp Has Been Cancelled by  Baroness Elsa Schraeder

Now I'm glad that I've seen The Sound of Music for another reason: I got to appreciate this brilliant piece of satire.  I LOLed several times throughout, but this is perhaps my favorite line:

You’ll... be glad to know I have retained custody of the Captain’s hard-drinking gay friend, Max. Anyone who gets tired of sing-a-longs should feel free to look us up.