Carioca's Revenge
My girlfriend called it: As soon as that Times piece about fat Brazilians came out, she said "somebody is going to sacanear (take the piss out of) that guy during Carnaval." Lo and behold, this year's samba for the bloco (neighborhood samba band) Imprensa que Eu Gamo: "Larry Rohter, será que ele é?":
Não gosta de cachaça
Não entende de mulher
O Larry Rohter, será que ele é?
Rough Translation: He don't like booze, he don't understand women, that Larry Rohter, you think he might be, you know, funny?
(Cultural disclaimer for non-Brazilians/connoisseurs: Actually, "funny" doesn't appear in the original, but is implicit. For better or worse, the P.inC.ness of the lyrics draws on a long tradition of gay jokes associated with Carnaval songs, in particular the old favorite "Olha a cabeleira do Zezé, será que ela é? será que ela é?" -- "look at Zezé's haircut, you think he might be...etc" Is this homophobic / morally wrong? Please. It's Carnaval. I've seen huge crowds of gay men at the infamous Banda de Ipanema sing 'Zezé', some even shouting 'bi-cha!' to complete the question. If bloco lyrics had to be PC, the whole holiday would grind to a screeching halt. And we would never have gems like this, from the great bloco Que Merda é Essa? (What is this Shit?) in 2002, on the brink of the Iraq invasion:
Que merda é essa, seu Bush?
Você só quer saber de brigar.
Arranje um estagiára,
Não vem aqui perturbar.
What is this shit, mistah Bush?
You're just spoiling for a fight.
Go find yourself a nice intern,
and stop making trouble.
Besides, in all fairness to Larry, he was given partial songwriting credits. Along with Harry Potter.)
Não gosta de cachaça
Não entende de mulher
O Larry Rohter, será que ele é?
Rough Translation: He don't like booze, he don't understand women, that Larry Rohter, you think he might be, you know, funny?
(Cultural disclaimer for non-Brazilians/connoisseurs: Actually, "funny" doesn't appear in the original, but is implicit. For better or worse, the P.inC.ness of the lyrics draws on a long tradition of gay jokes associated with Carnaval songs, in particular the old favorite "Olha a cabeleira do Zezé, será que ela é? será que ela é?" -- "look at Zezé's haircut, you think he might be...etc" Is this homophobic / morally wrong? Please. It's Carnaval. I've seen huge crowds of gay men at the infamous Banda de Ipanema sing 'Zezé', some even shouting 'bi-cha!' to complete the question. If bloco lyrics had to be PC, the whole holiday would grind to a screeching halt. And we would never have gems like this, from the great bloco Que Merda é Essa? (What is this Shit?) in 2002, on the brink of the Iraq invasion:
Que merda é essa, seu Bush?
Você só quer saber de brigar.
Arranje um estagiára,
Não vem aqui perturbar.
What is this shit, mistah Bush?
You're just spoiling for a fight.
Go find yourself a nice intern,
and stop making trouble.
Besides, in all fairness to Larry, he was given partial songwriting credits. Along with Harry Potter.)
posted by Benjamin Lessing at 11:31 AM
2 Comments:
Do you have copy writer for so good articles? If so please give me contacts, because this really rocks! :)
You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view
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