12.05.2006
Where Else But Plattsburgh, NY?
Humor is a relative experience. After living in NENYland for too many years, what I find funny could be incomprehensible to an outsider.
Case in point: An item I came across in the book, Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec (2000). The author, Taras Grescoe, was raised in British Columbia, spent a few years living in Paris, and now lives in Montreal. His nonfiction book provides insights into Quebec and its people through history, sociology, and popular culture.
In the area of popular culture, Grescoe talks about Canadian television and what has been produced in the way of Quebec-flavored entertainment. La petite vie is a situation comedy about the dysfunctional Pare family, headed by its bearded patriarch, Popa.
In his description, Grescoe says:
“The Pare family are determinedly lower middle class, xenophobic, and utterly indifferent to anything beyond lottery tickets, recipes for pate chinois (a kind of shepherd's pie with corn), and their perpetual squabbles... Disgusted to learn that they've won an all-expenses-paid voyage to Hong Kong in a raffle, Moman and Popa trade it for 100 trips to Plattsburgh - a New York State border town 45 minutes from Montreal.”
That plot summary is hilarious – at least to me. To most of you, it might produce a confused chuckle or head-scratching.
How do I begin to explain why it’s so funny? I could tell you to look through the Plattsburgh phone book and count all the surnames of Francophone origin, including the ones that have been Anglicized. Or to think about the terms “xenophobic” and “lower middle class.” Maybe the historical phrase, “Blue Light Special at K-Mart,” might give you some proper insight.
But Plattsburgh and the surrounding region have to be experienced personally.
If you can stand it.
# posted by Stan Spire @ 9:43 AM 
