LAMPOON

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Dr. Goodword
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LAMPOON

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:03 pm

• lampoon •

Pronunciation: læm-punHear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, Verb

Meaning: A satire ridiculing something or someone.

Notes: Today's Good Word is sometimes confused with caricature or parody. A caricature exaggerates a striking characteristic of its object, as a political caricature in a newspaper. A parody exaggerates the style of writing of someone for facetious effect. A lampoon, however, covers all these styles to ridicule someone or something. The nature or collection of all lampoons is lampoonery. Someone who engages in lampoonery may be called either a lampoonist or lampooner.

In Play: The classic lampoon is A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. In it Swift proposes that the impoverished Irish ease their economic woes by selling their children to the wealthy as food. Swift was lampooning the heartless attitudes of Irish politicians toward the poor. He goes into great detail, keeping a straight face throughout.

Word History: Today's Good Word comes from French lampon, said by French etymologists to be from lampons "let us drink". This word was popular in 17th century bar songs, which often lampooned aspects of French society and culture. It is the 1st person plural imperative of lamper "to drink, guzzle", a nasalized form of laper "to lap", borrowed from Old English lapian "to lap up, drink". This word today is lap, akin to Dutch lepel and German Löffel "spoon". Beyond the Germanic languages, we find Greek laptein "to sip, lick" and Latin lambere "to lick". The suffix -oon was used historically to transliterate French words ending on accented -on. We see it also on balloon (French ballon), cartoon (French carton), and macaroon (French macaron)—all accented on the last syllable. (Let's not lampoon Rob Towart, but rather thank him for suggesting today's very Good Word.)
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Re: LAMPOON

Postby MTC » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:20 am

buffoonery: (noun) a target of lampoonery

10/25/12-(Jubastate)- US President Barack Obama on Wednesday lampooned Donald Trump, saying the real estate tycoon’s feud with him dated back to “when we were growing up together in Kenya.”

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Re: LAMPOON

Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Mar 20, 2013 12:32 pm

Strange word, for sure: had no idea it was Japanese origin.

(This should have been on the tycoon thread, sorry.)
Last edited by LukeJavan8 on Wed Mar 20, 2013 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: LAMPOON

Postby Perry Lassiter » Wed Mar 20, 2013 1:18 pm

Another semi-synonym is satire, which should be more sophisticated. Her's Ambrose
Bierce's take, followed by Samuel Johnson

Satire, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are 'endowed by their Creator' with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a sour-spirited knave, and his every victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent. [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]


Proper satire is distinguished, by the generality of the reflections, from a lampoon which is aimed against a particular person, but they are too frequently confounded. [Johnson]

Both are writing in a satirical mode, appropriately enough.
pl

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Re: LAMPOON

Postby MTC » Wed Mar 20, 2013 3:49 pm

About Bierce's remarks on Wit, see Swift:

I cannot imagine why we should be at the expense to furnish wit for succeeding ages, when the former have made no sort of provision for ours.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

P.S.
President Obama's quip about Trump on the Tycoon thread would qualify as a "lampoon" under Johnson's definition.

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Re: LAMPOON

Postby gailr » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:07 pm

About Bierce's remarks on Wit, see Swift
Ah, you anticipated me with Swift, MTC. Perry's post on satire reminded me of A Modest Proposal.

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Re: LAMPOON

Postby MTC » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:58 pm

I was uncharacteristically Swift in my reply, gailr. As for A Modest Proposal, in light of the increasing disparity of wealth in the U.S., this classic has unfortunately become more relevant.

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Re: LAMPOON

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:01 am

There are factors other than wealth distribution that may cause us to entertain a "modest proposal". People who want us to return to organic farming using "unmodified" seed are asking for a world famine. It is not possible to feed the world using organically grown food. I believe it is unnecessary to try. Foods that have been genetically modified, have been fertilized with chemically produced fertilizers, and have been protected by chemical pesticides are the only option, unless we want to cut the population of the world by a large fraction. Here is where the modest proposal comes in. But could we actually eat today's Irish Children, and others of the unwashed? After all they have been fed on chemically grown foods.

Most of you thought me incapable of writing a lampoon. Now you can judge by this example.
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Re: LAMPOON

Postby call_copse » Fri Mar 22, 2013 7:23 am

@philip
Lampoonery aside, on the agricultural front we walk a narrow line. Whilst we cannot afford to discard modern methods, we also cannot afford to continue to destroy the insect populations of the world with excessive pesticide usage and the more extreme monoculture methods currently practised, which drastically affect the viability of supporting the diversity of species we enjoy and require to fertilise our crops. See the current concern on the death of bee populations. I know you were not entirely serious but I work in the agricultural field and it is a subject close to my heart.
Iain

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Re: LAMPOON

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:06 am

call_copse: We certainly have the environmental concerns you have discussed. The diversity of species is important, and maintaining various strains of the same species is required. If wheat A is attacked by a new plant enemy, we need wheats B-Z to develop a resistant strain. Chemical treatment of insects presents problems. My father had cancer as a direct result of working with agricultural chemicals. He lived fifty years after the cancer.

We have had bee scares in the USA but the honey industry is going strong. First it was the "killer bees", then a bee infection. I know some countries have almost totally lost their bee population. This appears to have come from a new disease that attacked bees. I have read Portugal was very hard hit.

While I am not currently an agriculturist, it was my first work and is dear to me. In North Texas, now is the time to set out tomatoes. Soon it will be time to plant cow peas. As a son of the South (USA), cow peas are a major part of my diet. I have my vegetable garden ready for planting. As a youth we grew cotton, corn (American corn) and broom straw.

I understand the Prince of Wales is an agriculturalist.

There is nothing more beautiful than a field of yellow mustard like the ones grown in England. I am not sure what they are called in England. It is the plant that produces canola oil.

The Good Doctor has something of an agricultural background. Now he cultivates words.

I hope this provides a balanced discussion after my attempt at a lampoon. It will probably be my last lampoon.
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Re: LAMPOON

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:25 pm

The Prince of Wales has agrarian interests all over
Cornwall, of which he is Duke. He is often featured
in the British online Newspapers I receive, talking
with his managers.
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