“I Wonder Which of You is Real”

IF 0.9 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Studies in American Humor Pub Date : 2021-10-01 DOI:10.5325/studamerhumor.7.2.0329

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

In response to Judith Yaross Lee's introduction of a framework designed to probe the relationship between empire and American humor, this article analyzes John Kneubuhl's “The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo,” a 1966 episode of The Wild Wild West (1965-69). Kneubuhl (1920-92) was a Samoan American playwright who wrote for theater, television, and film. Like Mark Twain, he demonstrated a lifelong interest in the trope of the confidence man. In “The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo” he depicts protagonists and antagonists alike in the US borderlands as con artists contending for power. While agents Jim West and Artemus Gordon emerge as cultural impersonators who serve the ideology of Manifest Destiny, the Prince of the South Sea Coral Islands, a Polynesian aristocrat, deploys American hegemony in Oceania. Kneubuhl draws on conventions of the fale aitu, a Samoan theatrical genre, as well as his association with Sam Amalu, a Native Hawaiian humorist and con man known for his elaborate pranks and swindles. As a site of contest between what Lee terms “neocolonial hybridity” and “postcolonial discontinuity,” “The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo” exemplifies Kneubuhl's unique trickster aesthetics.

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“我不知道你哪一个是真的”

朱迪思·亚罗斯·李(Judith yarross Lee)引入了一个旨在探讨帝国与美国幽默之间关系的框架，本文分析了约翰·克纽布尔(John Kneubuhl)的《两条腿的水牛之夜》(the Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo)，这是1966年《狂野的西部》(1965-69)中的一集。克努布尔(1920- 1992)是萨摩亚裔美国剧作家，为戏剧、电视和电影创作。和马克·吐温一样，他一生都对“自信的人”这个比喻感兴趣。在《两条腿的水牛之夜》中，他把美国边境的主角和对手都描绘成争夺权力的骗子。特工吉姆·韦斯特(Jim West)和阿特默斯·戈登(Artemus Gordon)是为天定命运意识形态服务的文化模仿者，而波利尼西亚贵族、南海珊瑚群岛王子(Prince of the South Sea Coral Islands)则在大洋洲部署美国霸权。克努布尔借鉴了萨摩亚戏剧类型的传统，以及他与萨姆·阿马鲁(Sam Amalu)的关系。萨姆·阿马鲁是夏威夷土著幽默家和骗子，以精心设计的恶作剧和骗局而闻名。作为李所说的“新殖民杂交性”和“后殖民不连续性”之间的较量场所，《两条腿水牛之夜》体现了克纽布尔独特的骗子美学。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Studies in American Humor HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

1.40

自引率

90.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Welcome to the home of Studies in American Humor, the journal of the American Humor Studies Association. Founded by the American Humor Studies Association in 1974 and published continuously since 1982, StAH specializes in humanistic research on humor in America (loosely defined) because the universal human capacity for humor is always expressed within the specific contexts of time, place, and audience that research methods in the humanities strive to address. Such methods now extend well beyond the literary and film analyses that once formed the core of American humor scholarship to a wide range of critical, biographical, historical, theoretical, archival, ethnographic, and digital studies of humor in performance and public life as well as in print and other media. StAH’s expanded editorial board of specialists marks that growth. On behalf of the editorial board, I invite scholars across the humanities to submit their best work on topics in American humor and join us in advancing knowledge in the field.