From: jwalz Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 20:38:54 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Dig up an actual Kop quote. X-Git-Tag: MOVE2GIT~2146 X-Git-Url: https://granicus.if.org/sourcecode?a=commitdiff_plain;h=d90083bba34508b2bca8750327ceda7aaf15afe7;p=nethack Dig up an actual Kop quote. --- diff --git a/dat/data.base b/dat/data.base index 77e0597a7..786985727 100644 --- a/dat/data.base +++ b/dat/data.base @@ -2045,13 +2045,34 @@ knight Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble for Elves at any time. *kop* - The typical policeman of 1920's movies, the Keystone Kop was - modeled like the English "bobby", with a long brass-buttoned - overcoat, carrying long nightsticks that he (more often than - not) whapped himself with, rather than anyone else. The - Keystone Kops were very slapstick-like, relying on speed and - numbers to achieve their comedy, rather than sophisticated - wit. + The Kops are a brilliant concept. To take a gaggle of inept + policemen and display them over and over again in a series of + riotously funny physical punishments plays equally well to the + peanut gallery and the expensive box seats. People hate cops. + Even people who have never had anything to do with cops hate + them. Of course, we count on them to keep order and to protect + us when we need protecting, and we love them on television shows + in which they have nerves of steel and hearts of gold, but in + the abstract, as a nation, collectively we hate them. They are + too much like high school principals. We're very happy to see + their pants fall down, and they look good to us with pie on + their faces. The Keystone Kops turn up--and they get punished + for it, as they crash into each other, fall down, and suffer + indignity after indignity. Here is pure movie satisfaction. + + The Kops are very skillfully presented. The comic originality + and timing in one of their chase scenes requires imagination + to think up, talent to execute, understanding of the medium, + and, of course, raw courage to perform. The Kops are madmen + presented as incompetents, and they're madmen rushing around + in modern machines. What's more, the machines they were operating + in their routines were newly invented and not yet experienced + by the average moviegoer. (In the early days of automobiles, + it was reported that there were only two cars registered in all + of Kansas City, and they ran into each other. There is both + poetry and philosophy in this fact, but most of all, there is + humor. Sennett got the humor.) + [ Silent Stars, by Jeanine Basinger ] kos "I am not a coward!" he cried. "I'll dare Thieves' House and fetch you Krovas' head and toss it with blood a-drip at