In her memoir, TV journalist Barbara Walters wrote that although audiences found the late comedian Gilda Radner's caricature of her as "Baba Wawa" on Saturday Night Live "hysterically funny", Walters at first found the spoof "extremely upsetting". Radner exaggerated Walters' speech impediment (not a geographical accent) wherein she pronounced l and r like w. She remembered seeing a sketch during the time she was leaving NBC to join ABC News with Harry Reasoner, and Radner as "Baba Wawa" said: "This is my wast moment on NBC and I want to wemind you to wook fow me awong with Hawwy Weasoneh weeknights at seven o'cwock ... anotheh netwohk wecognizes in me a gweat tawent for dewivering wewevant news stowies with cwystal cwahity".
One time Walters' daughter Jackie was watching the characterization and laughing, much to Walters' dismay. She said her daughter "set her straight" by saying "Oh, Mom. Lighten up." Walters wrote in her memoir: "Hearing that from Jackie made me realize that I was losing all perspective. Where was my sense of humor?" Walters later met Gilda Radner and told her that she thought the caricature was funny. When Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer at age forty-two, Walters sent a simple note to her husband, Gene Wilder, and said: "She made me laugh. I will miss her. Baba Wawa."
Barbara Walters should be mindful of an observation of the historian Peter Gay about Wagner's caricature of the Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick in the character Sixtus Beckmesser in Wagner's masterpiece, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. Peter Gay writes: "Had he [Hanslick] been merely ridiculous, Wagner would not have taken the trouble to ridicule him." Peter Gay, Freud, Jews and Other Germans.
http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2010/04/justice-department-yes-i-am-angry.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment