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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 8, July 27th, 1949.

Up with Yankee Hoomour

Up with Yankee Hoomour

American humour has no counterpart in present-day cinema. Indeed, the honesty of the American film has been very largely due to its humour. The wise-crack so beloved of Hollywood has very often been deliberately aimed at allegedly sacred national institutions in order to please an international audience—so we find Bing Crosby stating in the "Emperor Waltz" that he is "a Presbyterian, a commercial salesman, and a member of the 'Junior Chamber of Commerce'," with such an earnest note in his voice that Smiles of derision bubble upon the lips of the audience [bubble-gum?—Ed.]. Perhaps one of the main reasons why American humour is unsurpassed is that it is the humour of the new world—it is irreverent. It does not, as does the English manner, mock existing institutions with the implied proviso that they really are the best you could hope for, so that the audience is [unclear: luued] into remarking upon the "honest candour" of British films. Rather do they openly attack anything which to them is founded upon a false base—so we find Danny Kaye in "The Secret Lives of Waltr Mitty" relentlessly exposing the various legends of the deep south, the impossible heroic hero and the casual reticence of the English with ingenious mimickery of a Texan gambler, cocking his thumb at the old melodrama of the sea captain who stayed at the wheel despite all mishaps—

"Come down Cap'n"
"I'm all right, I've only broken my arm"—

and gleefully satirising English reticence in the RAF officer who upon being faced with the seductive query of a rhumba girl—"You like me, huh?"—replied as he gazed longingly at the maiden—"Rather!"