A gospel choir sang Foreigner's 'I Want to Know What Love Is' as the bride strolled the aisle on her dad's arm. Later, the groom crooned 'Save the Best for Last.'The funny thing is, I think I had a nightmare where the very same thing happened.
Speaking of nightmares, the other day I tried to amuse my nephews by showing them this clip the fiance and I dug up on YouTube.
My affianced and I were just looking for classic Ernie and Bert routines (I can never get enough), but we were excited to uncover this early appearance by the Count, who was much spookier when first introduced. They hadn't settled on his signature post-counting laugh at this point, and I find the sinister freeform cackle deeply unsettling. And I don't remember him having the ability to stun others into silence, deployed several times here. Still, the Count is not so very menacing, strictly speaking, and the things that make him "scary" are mostly cultural references not yet part of my nephews' vocabulary. So, I wondered, without any exposure to Bela Lugosi or Vincent Price or monster movies, would the boys still register this character as "scary"? And now I can tell you that there is something about a guy in a cape with an Eastern-European accent, pointy ears and sharp incisors that is inherently frightening. Or maybe it's the throaty laugh, or the widow's peak, or the minor-key organ music that accompanies his entrance and departure. In any case, my nephews watched the entire clip in silence, until the Count skulked off for the last time, prompting my not-quite-three-year-old nephew to shout, "I think he's coming back!" He never took his eyes off the screen, but when the clip ended he jumped down from my lap and ran from the room, shouting, "Hurry, before he comes on again!" I turned to his older brother, still standing on the chair next to me, and said, "I guess the Count is a little scary, huh?" He nodded and observed, trying to sound nonchalant, "He has kind of a scary voice." I had to promise: no more Count. Too bad, because this is totally awesome.
I believe the fiance said it best: "The Count is a trip."
1 comment:
Coincidentally, I read this post about the Count right after reading this story about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
-Garvin
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