Pilot to control tower: Missed it by that much
Much of Brendan O'Carroll stand-up comedy act could probably not be repeated on a family blog, but he's accurate when it comes to accents; most Americans really do talk like that.
He's also dead on about Ryanair and the surreal results of its ultra-low fares and ultra-high, ultra-rigid service fees. (Ryanair is the airline that has recently contemplated charging passengers to use the lavatories on its flights.) The airline is such a figure of fun that O'Carroll got big laughs at the Millennium Forum in Derry with a mere allusion to an incident in which one of its pilots landed at the wrong airport.
The politics are pretty funny here, too, or should I say they provide rich material for comedy. I'd been impressed that Garbhan Downey could turn out that much fine political crime comedy in just a few years. After a chat with Downey today, I'm surprised the lazy so-and-so has not written three times as much.
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
He's also dead on about Ryanair and the surreal results of its ultra-low fares and ultra-high, ultra-rigid service fees. (Ryanair is the airline that has recently contemplated charging passengers to use the lavatories on its flights.) The airline is such a figure of fun that O'Carroll got big laughs at the Millennium Forum in Derry with a mere allusion to an incident in which one of its pilots landed at the wrong airport.
The politics are pretty funny here, too, or should I say they provide rich material for comedy. I'd been impressed that Garbhan Downey could turn out that much fine political crime comedy in just a few years. After a chat with Downey today, I'm surprised the lazy so-and-so has not written three times as much.
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
Labels: Garbhan Downey, Ireland, Northern Ireland, what I did on my vacation
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 3:59 AM
7 Comments:
What cracks me up on Ryanair is the recorded applause when the plane lands!
American accents are way up on the list of must-acquire-things-with-that-first-foreign-trip here in India.
And Ryanair seems to be just the sort of example our low-cost airlines would wish to emulate.
Paul, I don't remember the applause, but I do remember the jaunty announcement to the effect of "Welcome to the conclusion of another on-time flight!!!"
We had, in fact, arrived on time, but the forced jauntiness that pervaded the short flight was a little weird. The captain's jocular reference to the flight attendant (name of Deirdre) and her crew as Deirdre and the Fabulous Deirdrettes would have seemed less odd had it not been set against a background of Ryanair's rigid, arguably hostile attitude toward customers.
Sucharita, I suspect that eagerness to acquire American accents offers Indian comedians a rich vein of comic material. Brendan O'Carroll did another amusing extended routine on the differences between airport announcements in London, Paris and Knock (Ireland), part but by no means all of whose effect relied on differences of accent.
With respect to other low-cost airlines' emulation of Ryanair, that airline seems to rely heavily on humor and jauntiness to distract attention from its service. That may sound cynical, but it seems to be working as a business model.
Speaking of things Irish, humorous, and cheap:
Bono's status is precarious at best in the latest installment of
The Lady M Epic Crime PoemBegin with part 1, called "The Hit," which is an April post. Continue up to part 9, entitled "Good Voice," which is Latin for Bono.
A state trooper, a restauranteur, and a shoestore clerk have already expired at the hand of Lady M. Is Bono next?
"Fiona saw
that Bono loved
the sound of
his own voice"
Very nice.
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