MW9@PSUVM.BITNET (03/05/86)
For this topic I think we need to set down guidelines about what is meta.
Looking right at the camera to, in effect, communicate w/ the audience
I don't consider to be meta. Meta is the character stay in character
and stay in his surroundings and throw off a line that betrays he is
a character. Previous examples posted:
Moonlighting's "viewer mail": IS NOT
Groucho line about character names: IS
Croucho speaking to camera apologizing for pun: IS NOT
Marilyn (sp?) Monroe character comment: IS
George Burns speaking to audience: IS NOT
Hart to Hart "murder every week": IS
I hope this clarifies my viewpoint, which I am not saying is right, but
such is life on the net...
That's my opinion. What's yours? I'd like to know...
-------
Michael S. Weiss
The Pennsylvania State University
MW9@PSUVM.BITNET
<* The opinions expressed by me do not reflect those held *>
<* by my school nor those of my employer. (If I had one.) *>
boren@randvax.UUCP (Pat Boren) (03/07/86)
> Meta is the character staying in character and surroundings and > throw off a line that betrays he is a character. Yes! And let's call the other types AN ASIDE: a comment directly to the audience. Used in old Bob Hope movies, Marx Bros films, etc. INSIDE JOKE: the St. Elsewhere type humor. Or in Airplane!, when they played the theme to Mission Impossible when Peter Graves is shown. Now here's a test for you (and no need to answer). In an old movie with Cary Grant, he's describing Mr. Doe (played by Dan Dailey, I think) to someone else, who asks: "How will I know him?" Grant's reply: "He looks like that actor, Dan Dailey." -- Patricia Boren decvax!randvax!boren boren@rand-unix.arpa