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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Ermintrude said:
Whilst setting-up an indoor 'film show' of some classics (including Laurel & Hardie) I played a few excellent shorts of 'Tom & Jerry' (the unforgettable Fred Quimby originals, such as "Night Before Xmas" and "Dog Trouble").

This was on DVD (a recently-bought disk) and possibly what gets described as a being remastered version. But the images weren't what surprised me, in all their 1950s soft glory.

It was the voice of the unidentified black 'Mamma' housekeeper/owner.

She's been digitally replaced. Unless my ears are going faulty (which they're not). She now sounds to have been re-voiced by a much-younger person, with a 'thinner' voice (ie spoken by an unfat speaker) in far-too-good (obtrusively-so) quality.

The voice, to me, sounded like a stereotypical post-2000 African American tv accent, and nothing like the deep throaty growl of the lady we've all known+loved, forever. So, "Táaahmuss!!?!" has now become "Thômmaş(!)".

Hopefully I'm wrong about this. Or it was some (identifiable) technical effect??

And not some weird marginal political correctness. Anyway, for now, this goes in Minor Strangeness. But it might have to go major, later. And awaits further investigations (nb I do not have the disk- currently)
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I'd know her voice anywhere, I grew up listening to her "Thomas! Thomas!" can you post some links?
 
Ermintrude said:
Whilst setting-up an indoor 'film show' of some classics (including Laurel & Hardie) I played a few excellent shorts of 'Tom & Jerry' (the unforgettable Fred Quimby originals, such as "Night Before Xmas" and "Dog Trouble").

This was on DVD (a recently-bought disk) and possibly what gets described as a being remastered version. But the images weren't what surprised me, in all their 1950s soft glory.

It was the voice of the unidentified black 'Mamma' housekeeper/owner.

She's been digitally replaced. Unless my ears are going faulty (which they're not). She now sounds to have been re-voiced by a much-younger person, with a 'thinner' voice (ie spoken by an unfat speaker) in far-too-good (obtrusively-so) quality.

The voice, to me, sounded like a stereotypical post-2000 African American tv accent, and nothing like the deep throaty growl of the lady we've all known+loved, forever. So, "Táaahmuss!!?!" has now become "Thômmaş(!)".

Hopefully I'm wrong about this. Or it was some (identifiable) technical effect??

And not some weird marginal political correctness. Anyway, for now, this goes in Minor Strangeness. But it might have to go major, later. And awaits further investigations (nb I do not have the disk- currently)
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fuck me you are right

 
Naughty_Felid said:
fuck me you are right

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They were edited - fucking idiots. :(

The original versions of the cartoons were reinstated when Turner Broadcasting System acquired ownership of the Tom & Jerry property on August 4, 1986. But in 1992, the cartoons featuring Mammy were edited again; this time, to replace Lillian Randolph's voice with that of Thea Vidale, who re-recorded the dialogue to remove Mammy's use of potentially offensive dialect. These re-recorded versions of the cartoons are aired to this day on Turner's Cartoon Network-related cable channels, and have at times turned up on DVD as well. However, some European TV showings of these cartoons, especially the UK, as well as the US DVD and Blu-ray release of Tom and Jerry Golden Collection, retain Randolph's original voice. The Region 2 Complete Collectors Edition DVD boxset has Vidale's voice on the first DVD and Randolph in a number of the episodes after that (such as A Mouse in the House and Mouse Cleaning).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_Two_Shoes
 
They edited it? Sacrilege.
 
Naughty_Felid said:
They were edited - fucking idiots. :(

The original versions of the cartoons were reinstated when Turner Broadcasting System acquired ownership of the Tom & Jerry property on August 4, 1986. But in 1992, the cartoons featuring Mammy were edited again; this time, to replace Lillian Randolph's voice with that of Thea Vidale, who re-recorded the dialogue to remove Mammy's use of potentially offensive dialect. These re-recorded versions of the cartoons are aired to this day on Turner's Cartoon Network-related cable channels, and have at times turned up on DVD as well. However, some European TV showings of these cartoons, especially the UK, as well as the US DVD and Blu-ray release of Tom and Jerry Golden Collection, retain Randolph's original voice. The Region 2 Complete Collectors Edition DVD boxset has Vidale's voice on the first DVD and Randolph in a number of the episodes after that (such as A Mouse in the House and Mouse Cleaning).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_Two_Shoes
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Nooooooooooooooo!
 
graylien said:
Politicians also frequently use lists of threes. Blair famously referenced this rhetorical device with his "Education, Education, Education". It probably goes all the way back to Aristotle.
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I thought it was because he was heavily influenced and possibly permanently earwormed by the classic Abba hit 'Money Money Money'
 
Naughty_Felid said:
They were edited - fucking idiots. :(

The original versions of the cartoons were reinstated when Turner Broadcasting System acquired ownership of the Tom & Jerry property on August 4, 1986. But in 1992, the cartoons featuring Mammy were edited again; this time, to replace Lillian Randolph's voice with that of Thea Vidale, who re-recorded the dialogue to remove Mammy's use of potentially offensive dialect. These re-recorded versions of the cartoons are aired to this day on Turner's Cartoon Network-related cable channels, and have at times turned up on DVD as well. However, some European TV showings of these cartoons, especially the UK, as well as the US DVD and Blu-ray release of Tom and Jerry Golden Collection, retain Randolph's original voice. The Region 2 Complete Collectors Edition DVD boxset has Vidale's voice on the first DVD and Randolph in a number of the episodes after that (such as A Mouse in the House and Mouse Cleaning).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_Two_Shoes
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Aw if they had to do it they should have had someone who sounded the same.
 
MorningAngel said:
Aw if they had to do it they should have had someone who sounded the same.
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That wouldn't do though because the idea seems to have been to replace the stereotypically 'funny' African American voice with a more modern one.
 
There's a detailed feature on the Mammy two-Shoes character at the Jim Crow Museum website:

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/jan13/index.htm

I can see both sides of the argument. I love those magnificent early Tom and Jerrys, but can appreciate how the Mammy caricature and scenes where for example, something explodes in Tom's face and he suddenly sprouts big lips and picanninny ringlets or starts talking in a "plantation drawl", could be perceived as racially insensitive today.

My two all-time favourite T & Js don't even feature the Mammy character (although the second one includes a sequence in which the little cat does a hilarious impersonation of banana-hatted Latina chanteuse Carmen Miranda and could just possibly be described as a racial stereotype too):


 
I was reminded of this odd occurance recently.

When I was eight or nine- ish, i was playing with an Evel Kneival figure that had originaly come with the stunt motorbike and winder. Well, the bike and winder discarded I was in the back garden of my childhood home spinning the Eval figure around my head with a piece of string that was tied to his leg, letting go of the string to shoot him higher and higher into the air. It ended up stuck high in a large Sycamore tree, the string wound around the fine end branches holding it up there, out of reach for years.

When I was thirty two, my recently widowed mother sold the house and I helped move and clear every room. The day the house was finally empty and the new owners were waiting to move in, I walked around just reminiscing for what would be my last time. In the garden as I was mentally saying my goodbyes - in full line of view (not out the corner of my eye, right in front of me) I watched Evel Kneival fall out the tree onto the lawn.
 
Amoradala2 said:
I was reminded of this odd occurance recently.

When I was eight or nine- ish, i was playing with an Evel Kneival figure that had originaly come with the stunt motorbike and winder. Well, the bike and winder discarded I was in the back garden of my childhood home spinning the Eval figure around my head with a piece of string that was tied to his leg, letting go of the string to shoot him higher and higher into the air. It ended up stuck high in a large Sycamore tree, the string wound around the fine end branches holding it up there, out of reach for years.

When I was thirty two, my recently widowed mother sold the house and I helped move and clear every room. The day the house was finally empty and the new owners were waiting to move in, I walked around just reminiscing for what would be my last time. In the garden as I was mentally saying my goodbyes - in full line of view (not out the corner of my eye, right in front of me) I watched Evel Kneival fall out the tree onto the lawn.
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thanks that was beautiful. Also I put action man as well as Evel through similar tortures.
 
That Evel Knieval stunt toy was much prized when I was a kid. Never had one myself, but it was an object of great desire. Still is.
 
Here's one that unfolded for me (no pun intended) recently.

When my granddad passed a few years ago, on of the things I got from his things was a pocket multi-tool. I used to carry it with me everywhere. But after awhile it started to crack, so I put it away to prevent any further damage.

Recently, I decided I wanted to carry a multi-tool again. So I pulled it out of storage to see exactly what sort of tools it had on it so, I could get a similar one. That proved unnecessary, to my surprise, because the crack was no longer there. In fact, it was reinforced with stainless steel, making such a crack almost impossible. Yet I distinctly remember it cracking when I opened it.

It's the only such tool I've ever owned and I've never owned anything similar, so I can't be mistaking it for something else.

Given some recent stress and uncertainty in my life, I like to believe that it's my granddad still watching over me and sending me a sign.
 
Amoradala2 said:
I was reminded of this odd occurance recently.

When I was eight or nine- ish, i was playing with an Evel Kneival figure that had originaly come with the stunt motorbike and winder. Well, the bike and winder discarded I was in the back garden of my childhood home spinning the Eval figure around my head with a piece of string that was tied to his leg, letting go of the string to shoot him higher and higher into the air. It ended up stuck high in a large Sycamore tree, the string wound around the fine end branches holding it up there, out of reach for years.

When I was thirty two, my recently widowed mother sold the house and I helped move and clear every room. The day the house was finally empty and the new owners were waiting to move in, I walked around just reminiscing for what would be my last time. In the garden as I was mentally saying my goodbyes - in full line of view (not out the corner of my eye, right in front of me) I watched Evel Kneival fall out the tree onto the lawn.
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Love it! Evel's giving you a second chance - just so long as you've learned your lesson!
 
I tend to wear 5 rings, including my wedding ring, this morning I took them off to wash my hands at my kitchen sink. My wedding ring fell into the base of an oil burner i keep on my kitchen windowsill. I thought to myself "I must remember to get that out before i think its lost", I then went about several chores before returning to put my rings back on. To my surprise my wedding ring had moved back out from the bottom of the oil burner and moved about 2 inches onto the sill. No one else is in the house. :confused:
 
Naughty_Felid said:
fuck me you are right

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I will second that it is definitely an impostor and not the original voice I remember from my early Saturday evening viewing back in the 70s.

Or...

Maybe it is the original in this dimension and we have all passed through a glitch in the matrix from the other dimension where the old negro woman's voice ruled.

So shouldn't this thread be in the timeslip other dimension thread?
 
cherrybomb said:
I tend to wear 5 rings, including my wedding ring, this morning I took them off to wash my hands at my kitchen sink. My wedding ring fell into the base of an oil burner i keep on my kitchen windowsill. I thought to myself "I must remember to get that out before i think its lost", I then went about several chores before returning to put my rings back on. To my surprise my wedding ring had moved back out from the bottom of the oil burner and moved about 2 inches onto the sill. No one else is in the house. :confused:
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Happens to me frequently. They thought you had forgotten.

And I recently lost my keys and, feeling very foolish, followed the advice given in this forum and asked out loud if my keys could please be returned to me. My eyesight immediately turned to the place where I had in fact left the keys (very carefully so I would know where to find them again, and where I would never have thought to look). We do share our homes with others who take care of us in their good-natured way.
 
Oddness this morning.
Woke up and had to go to the loo. Looked at my battery-powered digital alarm clock - 1.30 am.
Went back to bed and slept for a bit.
Woke up and had to go to the loo again. Looked at my alarm clock - 3.00 am.
I thought 'heck, it's a bit light for 3 am - WTF is going on?' and I checked my watch. Watch said 6 am.
So, mysteriously, my alarm clock lost exactly 3 hours.
I looked at the alarm time that had been set, and it was 6.30 - as it should be.
Bought new batteries because it could just be a power drop.



Oh yeah, and my bumhole was sore.
 
Ain't that the truth.
 
Today's minor strangeness was seeing a man who was the absolute spitting image of my partner, driving a car the same exact make, model and colour as mine. Which is an impossibility given that a) he can't drive and b) we live 150 miles apart(at the moment)
 
Minor strangeness of sociological sort -

Only once IIRC have I ever accidentally come across a person on the internet who I've known in real life.
Last night I came across 2 of them, plus a person I know online, together on a message board. These people don't live in the same city and don't know each other offline, as far as I'm aware.

The message board, which I stumbled across by pure happenstance, was for people with unusually long hair (talk about a niche, eh?). As a long-haired person (and formerly even longer-haired person) I took some time to peruse the picture thread. That's how I know for sure who they were.

What's kind of funny about this is that I never really noticed that we all had long hair, as this had nothing to do with the reasons we knew each other. Then I started to think about other friends, male and female, over the years who also had unusually long hair. The numbers are significant, especially considering we lived in places where the average hair length was short for men and medium-length for women.

So I suppose what's strange about this is that apparently my social group has been drastically slanted in favor of long-haired people and this is the first time I've ever noticed it. Even funnier when you consider that we've never bothered to talk about hair one way or another. o_O
 
Ulalume said:
Minor strangeness of sociological sort -

Only once IIRC have I ever accidentally come across a person on the internet who I've known in real life.
Last night I came across 2 of them, plus a person I know online, together on a message board. These people don't live in the same city and don't know each other offline, as far as I'm aware.

The message board, which I stumbled across by pure happenstance, was for people with unusually long hair (talk about a niche, eh?). As a long-haired person (and formerly even longer-haired person) I took some time to peruse the picture thread. That's how I know for sure who they were.

What's kind of funny about this is that I never really noticed that we all had long hair, as this had nothing to do with the reasons we knew each other. Then I started to think about other friends, male and female, over the years who also had unusually long hair. The numbers are significant, especially considering we lived in places where the average hair length was short for men and medium-length for women.

So I suppose what's strange about this is that apparently my social group has been drastically slanted in favor of long-haired people and this is the first time I've ever noticed it. Even funnier when you consider that we've never bothered to talk about hair one way or another. o_O
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bunch of hippies the lot of ya...
 
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