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| Am I the only Victoria Wood fan in New York? | Am I the only Victoria Wood fan in New York? |
| (4 months later) | |
| New York, along with everywhere else, went into convulsions at the news of Prince’s death last week, but it was more shocking to be in the city a day earlier, when Victoria Wood died. Wood wasn’t famous in the US, and none of the major media outlets covered her death. As a result, when the news broke on Twitter, it felt profoundly odd to be on the subway, look up from my phone, and assume that no one else in the carriage knew why “vinyl flooring” or “Nana Mouskouri” was funny. | New York, along with everywhere else, went into convulsions at the news of Prince’s death last week, but it was more shocking to be in the city a day earlier, when Victoria Wood died. Wood wasn’t famous in the US, and none of the major media outlets covered her death. As a result, when the news broke on Twitter, it felt profoundly odd to be on the subway, look up from my phone, and assume that no one else in the carriage knew why “vinyl flooring” or “Nana Mouskouri” was funny. |
| Nor, of course, was anyone upset. It is an advantage and a drawback of expat life that you are often at odds with the culture around you, and remembering Wood, it felt like one of those times when there is no substitute for the specificity of home. This is particularly true since the rise of Netflix and other streaming services, which have enabled entire continents to enjoy the same shows at the same time, and whittled down the things that speak to smaller numbers of people. | Nor, of course, was anyone upset. It is an advantage and a drawback of expat life that you are often at odds with the culture around you, and remembering Wood, it felt like one of those times when there is no substitute for the specificity of home. This is particularly true since the rise of Netflix and other streaming services, which have enabled entire continents to enjoy the same shows at the same time, and whittled down the things that speak to smaller numbers of people. |
| Increasingly, these feel more generational than geographical. British comedy in the US can get away with accents the Americans find funny, or out-of-reach regional vocabulary – but not, say, the relatively tiny catchment area for jokes made by Alan Partridge that revolve around Sue Cook. For this, you need not only to be British, but British and born at the right time to understand who Sue Cook is, and why Alan’s obsession with her is hilarious. Same goes for Bill Oddie and Dale Winton. | Increasingly, these feel more generational than geographical. British comedy in the US can get away with accents the Americans find funny, or out-of-reach regional vocabulary – but not, say, the relatively tiny catchment area for jokes made by Alan Partridge that revolve around Sue Cook. For this, you need not only to be British, but British and born at the right time to understand who Sue Cook is, and why Alan’s obsession with her is hilarious. Same goes for Bill Oddie and Dale Winton. |
| Victoria Wood occupied this same category, and on the journey up to 92nd Street and Broadway, I thought about all the joy that she gave us. In no particular order, and adding to the huge list already celebrated: “You’ve had a sex life? Where have you had it?”; “I’m diagnosed pastry-dependent!”; “Right big dogs sniffing up my espadrilles”; “Mmm, they look comfy!” And of course, “I couldn’t get you raspberry yogurt. So I got you a meat and potato pie instead.” Sometimes the best jokes don’t travel. | Victoria Wood occupied this same category, and on the journey up to 92nd Street and Broadway, I thought about all the joy that she gave us. In no particular order, and adding to the huge list already celebrated: “You’ve had a sex life? Where have you had it?”; “I’m diagnosed pastry-dependent!”; “Right big dogs sniffing up my espadrilles”; “Mmm, they look comfy!” And of course, “I couldn’t get you raspberry yogurt. So I got you a meat and potato pie instead.” Sometimes the best jokes don’t travel. |
| Missing Richard Madeley | Missing Richard Madeley |
| Cultural dislocation happens in reverse, too. All week in New York, media commenters have been chattering about Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan, two morning TV stars at loggerheads. It’s a boring story to do with contracts and “communication” that has me wistfully recalling the great faux pas of British morning telly. | Cultural dislocation happens in reverse, too. All week in New York, media commenters have been chattering about Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan, two morning TV stars at loggerheads. It’s a boring story to do with contracts and “communication” that has me wistfully recalling the great faux pas of British morning telly. |
| I like Ripa a lot, but her contretemps can’t hold a candle to, say, Richard Madeley forgetting to pay for the booze at the front of his supermarket trolley or Fern Britton quitting after finding out Phillip Schofield made three times what she did. | I like Ripa a lot, but her contretemps can’t hold a candle to, say, Richard Madeley forgetting to pay for the booze at the front of his supermarket trolley or Fern Britton quitting after finding out Phillip Schofield made three times what she did. |
| Google comes up Trumps | Google comes up Trumps |
| I’ve been feeling a little guilty about Melania Trump lately, after referring to her derisively as a “Slovenian model”. Surely this won’t do as the reason to disparage her. Even the fact that she’s married to Trump shouldn’t entirely undermine her, since most of us know at least one person who’s OK-ish and married to a monster. | I’ve been feeling a little guilty about Melania Trump lately, after referring to her derisively as a “Slovenian model”. Surely this won’t do as the reason to disparage her. Even the fact that she’s married to Trump shouldn’t entirely undermine her, since most of us know at least one person who’s OK-ish and married to a monster. |
| I typed “Melania Trump worst quotes” into Google and there isn’t much to go on. She talks about the key to married life being separate bathrooms, calls life “a balancing act” and urges us to follow our dreams because “nothing lasts for ever, so live it up, drink it down, laugh it off, avoid the drama, take chances and never have regrets. Because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted.” And then this, from a recent and rare interview she gave to CNN. “What he said is it would be temporary, and it is not for all the Muslims. He wants to protect America.” Bingo! No revision needed. | I typed “Melania Trump worst quotes” into Google and there isn’t much to go on. She talks about the key to married life being separate bathrooms, calls life “a balancing act” and urges us to follow our dreams because “nothing lasts for ever, so live it up, drink it down, laugh it off, avoid the drama, take chances and never have regrets. Because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted.” And then this, from a recent and rare interview she gave to CNN. “What he said is it would be temporary, and it is not for all the Muslims. He wants to protect America.” Bingo! No revision needed. |
| • This article was amended on 29 April 2016. An earlier version said “Slovakian” where “Slovenian” was meant. | • This article was amended on 29 April 2016. An earlier version said “Slovakian” where “Slovenian” was meant. |