Comedy Corner

[Quijote]

And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Philip & PDG comedy duo are back in town to liven up your autumn-into-winter days. Oh yes.
[Philip & PDG now do their version of a Chas n' Dave cockney "Knees up Mother Brown" sort of thing on a badly tuned Bechstein ...]

[Quijote]

And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Philip & PDG comedy duo are back in town to liven up your autumn-into-winter days. Oh yes.
[Philip & PDG now do their version of a Chas n' Dave cockney "Knees up Mother Brown" sort of thing on a badly tuned Bechstein ...]

A clinical psychologist writes : Oh Lord, not this, not now, please!

[PDG]

Good Lord, he's back !
Thought you'd been shackled up by your latest "squeeze", PDG ! So glad you managed to escape. By the way, I have lamented your absence elsewhere on this forum.

No new 'squeeze', Phil - I've had the same one for years now! Now, who will take top billing in our comedy partnership. I suggest it be me (with the percentage split to represent this). Are we agreed? I can think of no other contender....

And thanks for finding me lamentable. I'm touched...

[Quijote]

No new 'squeeze', Phil - I've had the same one for years now!

Poor girl, she must be a saint, I'd say!

[Quijote]

Now, who will take top billing in our comedy partnership. I suggest it be me (with the percentage split to represent this). Are we agreed? I can think of no other contender....

You and your bloody artist's ego! OK, I agree, so long as you accept payment in old Viennese florins. So, you are to be Hardy and I Laurel, is that it?

[Quijote]

And thanks for finding me lamentable. I'm touched...

Touched? Yes, I believe you are, PDG. Welcome back!!!

[Quijote]

And now a French joke I heard only today, but first you need a quick lesson in French "bar room speak". Here in Alsace, if you want a small shot of whiskey (or similar 'ether') you ask for "un baby". So, "Donnez-moi un baby" = "Give me a shot of whiskey".

Here's the joke :

Mozart and Bach go to a bar (in Alsace) :

Barman : "What'll you have, gentlemen?"
JS Bach : "Donnez-moi un baby."
Barman : Et vous, Wolfgang?"
Mozart : "Oh, un baby comme Bach!"

Geddit?

[Quijote]

I think only PDG and Michael will get this one.

[Peter]

And now a French joke I heard only today, but first you need a quick lesson in French "bar room speak". Here in Alsace, if you want a small shot of whiskey (or similar 'ether') you ask for "un baby". So, "Donnez-moi un baby" = "Give me a shot of whiskey".

Here's the joke :

Mozart and Bach go to a bar (in Alsace) :

Barman : "What'll you have, gentlemen?"
JS Bach : "Donnez-moi un baby."
Barman : Et vous, Wolfgang?"
Mozart : "Oh, un baby comme Bach!"

Geddit?

I could be wrong (long time since my schoolboy French!) but shouldn't it be 'et tu'?

[Quijote]

I could be wrong (long time since my schoolboy French!) but shouldn't it be 'et tu'?

Well, if the barman was on familiar terms with Wolfgang he would have said "Et toi, Wolfgang?" Are you perhaps confusing this with Julius Caesar : "Et tu, Brutus?" Have you had "un baby de trop", Peter? (*)

(*) One "baby" too many?

[Peter]

Well, if the barman was on familiar terms with Wolfgang he would have said "Et toi, Wolfgang?" Are you perhaps confusing this with Julius Caesar : "Et tu, Brutus?" Have you had "un baby de trop", Peter? (*)

(*) One "baby" too many?

No I thought that tu was singular and vous plural?

[Quijote]

No I thought that tu was singular and vous plural?

Tu is singular, and vous is plural, as you say. The "vous" is also the polite form (like the German "sie" as opposed to "du").
I think in English we used to make a similar distinction : thee and thou, though I have forgotten which is familiar and which is formal. Could the grammarians on the forum enlighten us?

[Quijote]

Peter (and others), would you care to share "un baby" next time you happen to be in Strasbourg? I'm afraid I don't possess a Bechstein (my piano is something far more modest, but functional; at least it is tuned, though my regular tuner this time round [3 weeks ago] makes me think he is not committed to equal temperament!).
Talking of equal temperament, I have a comment to make on the regular (general) forum : please see the thread Pitch recognition and key colour.

[Peter]

Tu is singular, and vous is plural, as you say. The "vous" is also the polite form (like the German "sie" as opposed to "du").
I think in English we used to make a similar distinction : thee and thou, though I have forgotten which is familiar and which is formal. Could the grammarians on the forum enlighten us?

Yes I thought it might be that, similar to the German. What surprises me is that in our more informal times those distinctions still exist - for once we are actually ahead!

[Peter]

Peter (and others), would you care to share "un baby" next time you happen to be in Strasbourg? I'm afraid I don't possess a Bechstein (my piano is something far more modest, but functional; at least it is tuned, though my regular tuner this time round [3 weeks ago] makes me think he is not committed to equal temperament!).
Talking of equal temperament, I have a comment to make on the regular (general) forum : please see the thread Pitch recognition and key colour.

Oui - un baby avec toi would be delightful I'm sure, though not quite sure when I'll be in that lovely part of the world.