A time lord who saves worlds! an eco hero! Drawn by Edward Evans @Evansianl
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda (Welsh) - Happy New Year 2014 from one of the oldest languages
I seem to be on a Welsh - environmental spin err - roll at the moment. I stumbled on to some new tweeters on twitter when I was looking up my Welsh words for the day or month (as the case may be depending on how wordy Say Something In Welsh are feeling at the time) and discovered some environmental humour from a funny and articulate man, who happens to be a welsh learner/blogger/talented illustrator with tweets and historical photographs of an exceptionally high calibre.
He was clearly having trouble with deciphering the welsh word for 'rest' which is apparently (I am still learning) gorffwys or some such. It's tricky learning a language with so few vowels and so many consonants but there are many thousands of us learning the language with the purpose of keeping the language alive. I do believe the Welsh are unusually striking to look at (Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys, Michael Sheen are 3 examples) and fiery and proud (our first female PM in Australia - Julia Gillard tough lady that she is, is Welsh born), and a little bit crazy and funny (Rhod Gilbert is evidence of this) and creative, imaginative (well, Doctor Who is Welsh and Wales is the home of Eisteddfods).
Now, no one said environmental humor is easy - after all, us greenies can be quite prescriptive about what kinds of humour we will tolerate (and we can be prescriptive on a whole lot of stuff can't we!). Really in a nutshell green humor/humour is fine if it's good- natured (not attacking the environmental movement), and well, has a subtle undertone suggestive of positive environmental action. There's more discussion about environmental humour on the Resources page. And probably the best environmental humour is effortless and subtle and actually doesn't have to be gut-wrenchingly funny at all. It takes the message outside of the realms of seriousnessness and preachiness, and that's what counts.
Edward Evans on twitter - here are some of the eco friendly tweets -
'30 Dec: Hawaii 1910 Tom Jones is charged with hitting his wife and Mr Wakita with hitting his horse. Both are fined $13. Equal rights for horses!'
Now horse lovers should like that one - but I'm not sure about staunch feminists. I'm more of a greenie non-speciesist, so I rather like the equal penalty for hitting, especially as horses are less able to defend themselves! Of course the reality is horses get hit by a crop all the time when on a race course!
'One thing you should never do if you don't want to offend a tree is take a bough. Yes I know. I have no shame.' End of Quote on twitter: Edward Evans @EvansianI
Then he posted a picture of a ye olde worlde bike with a caption: 'A bicycle can't stand on it's own because it's two tired ...' And it's well accepted that environmentally worthy jokes aren't easy to carry off!
And he retweeted a historical picture of a Victorian woman hugging a polar bear while waiting at Lime St. railway station! Where do people find these things? This illustrator was clearly foretelling climate change long before it was even thought of.
Speaking of Welsh and environmental humour here is Rhod Gilbert and his potato animation with strong 'reduce styrofoam waste' connotations -
http://www.comedy.co.uk/videos/4631/rhod_gilbert_and_the_loose_potato/
I seem to be on a Welsh - environmental spin err - roll at the moment. I stumbled on to some new tweeters on twitter when I was looking up my Welsh words for the day or month (as the case may be depending on how wordy Say Something In Welsh are feeling at the time) and discovered some environmental humour from a funny and articulate man, who happens to be a welsh learner/blogger/talented illustrator with tweets and historical photographs of an exceptionally high calibre.
He was clearly having trouble with deciphering the welsh word for 'rest' which is apparently (I am still learning) gorffwys or some such. It's tricky learning a language with so few vowels and so many consonants but there are many thousands of us learning the language with the purpose of keeping the language alive. I do believe the Welsh are unusually striking to look at (Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys, Michael Sheen are 3 examples) and fiery and proud (our first female PM in Australia - Julia Gillard tough lady that she is, is Welsh born), and a little bit crazy and funny (Rhod Gilbert is evidence of this) and creative, imaginative (well, Doctor Who is Welsh and Wales is the home of Eisteddfods).
Now, no one said environmental humor is easy - after all, us greenies can be quite prescriptive about what kinds of humour we will tolerate (and we can be prescriptive on a whole lot of stuff can't we!). Really in a nutshell green humor/humour is fine if it's good- natured (not attacking the environmental movement), and well, has a subtle undertone suggestive of positive environmental action. There's more discussion about environmental humour on the Resources page. And probably the best environmental humour is effortless and subtle and actually doesn't have to be gut-wrenchingly funny at all. It takes the message outside of the realms of seriousnessness and preachiness, and that's what counts.
Edward Evans on twitter - here are some of the eco friendly tweets -
'30 Dec: Hawaii 1910 Tom Jones is charged with hitting his wife and Mr Wakita with hitting his horse. Both are fined $13. Equal rights for horses!'
Now horse lovers should like that one - but I'm not sure about staunch feminists. I'm more of a greenie non-speciesist, so I rather like the equal penalty for hitting, especially as horses are less able to defend themselves! Of course the reality is horses get hit by a crop all the time when on a race course!
'One thing you should never do if you don't want to offend a tree is take a bough. Yes I know. I have no shame.' End of Quote on twitter: Edward Evans @EvansianI
Then he posted a picture of a ye olde worlde bike with a caption: 'A bicycle can't stand on it's own because it's two tired ...' And it's well accepted that environmentally worthy jokes aren't easy to carry off!
And he retweeted a historical picture of a Victorian woman hugging a polar bear while waiting at Lime St. railway station! Where do people find these things? This illustrator was clearly foretelling climate change long before it was even thought of.
Speaking of Welsh and environmental humour here is Rhod Gilbert and his potato animation with strong 'reduce styrofoam waste' connotations -
http://www.comedy.co.uk/videos/4631/rhod_gilbert_and_the_loose_potato/
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