alanultron5 wrote:Raven. It is ONLY my personal view and not a stated fact! I do not find humour in WW1 at all, but I know that for others it can be so! Blackadder 4 was good in the final ep, prior to that-not for me! I'm only giving my opinion not stating the law! Honest!
Hi, alanultron5. I know it was your opinion. It was your opinion I was interested in and querying.
I think Snoopy's imaginary exploits as a World War 1 Flying Ace, on his Sopwith Camel kennel and battling his arch enemy the Red Baron, are an interesting example, as they seem to stem from Snoopy having watched a lot of old films - they're obviously based more on, and more a parody of, Hollywood's romanticised interpretation of the war than the actual historical situation.
And I think that's what happens as the decades pass - things can be more a parody of film or all the other media interpretations we've been fed over the years, rather than being an insensitive literal take on the original thing. I think Monty Python's couple of World War I sketches, for example, parody schmaltzy Hollywood war films rather than the genuine "hellish backdrop" that ISPYSHHHGUY mentions, itself. Possibly seeming tasteless at a superficial glance till you realise they're really parodying Hollywood.
To me the Baron is a *slightly dodgy* strip, but only really because it's a 'funny foreigner' strip, based on a crude foreign stereotype (though it's very lively and seems to fit Sparky's later madcap style well.) I think it's actually a take on the stereotype comedy Hun, with very little to do with the actual First World War.
Most of the strips I've seen seem to focus a lot on him being back at his camp and being a general dolt, or in-the-air mishaps usually against his own side. I don't think there was ever anything to do with making light of people "going over the top" - i.e. leaving the safety of their trenches; it was all well away from that kind of action and reality.
Just suggesting that I don't think the Baron was necessarily insensitive in quite the way that was being implied. Mention of things like people "going over the top" made me wonder if people are slightly misremembering the strip.