Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Eudora Welty's "Death of a Traveling Salesman"
http://writing2.richmond.edu/jessid/eng423/restricted/2welty.pdf
Monday, October 27, 2008
Well-Read People Laugh More
Check out all of the references in modern day television to Death of a Salesman. Read the play, get more jokes! :)
Source: Wikipedia
***Death of a Salesman is alluded to in the Seinfeld episode "The Subway". Jerry Seinfeld reminds George Costanza not to whistle in the elevator (the same advice Willy gives Biff). Jerry then continued to call George "Biff" (This can also be seen in "The Boyfriend, Part 1" when Jerry mocks George's idea of becoming a buff, saying, "So Biff wants to be a buff."). Furthermore in "The Boyfriend, Part 2" George's date Carrie refers to him as Biff Loman; and at the end of the episode Jerry says to George, "So Biff, what's next?"
****In the Seinfeld episode "The Summer of George", after accidentally winning a Tony Award, Cosmo Kramer tells his new friends of a discussion with "Arty" that he should have called his play Life of a Salesman. Life of a Salesman is also the name of a song by the band Yellowcard, narrated by a boy looking up to his father
In the movie Soapdish, Kevin Kline's character, a formerly-famous soap actor, stoops to playing Death of a Salesman to near-deaf senior citizens in a dinner theater.
****In an episode of Family Guy, Meg Griffin plays the part of Linda, reciting the line "Willy Loman never made a lot of money, his name was never in the paper, but attention must be paid to such a person." Then a hitman, playing the role of Happy Loman, recites the following lines before attempting to assassinate Lois Griffin, the wife of the show's protagonist.
****During an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Richard Lewis asks Larry David "Who are you, Willy Loman?", whilst Larry is selling cars at a car dealership. Larry David was the executive producer of Seinfeld, which also includes character references
****In the movie American Beauty, Carolyn Burnham (Annette Benning) tells Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) that "'the Lomans just moved out next door" - alluding to the family in Death of a Salesman.
****In "Burns, Baby Burns", the fourth episode of The Simpsons' eighth season, Mr Burns opens a door to a theatre in his home, an actor is saying "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit." --- Willy Loman, Act 2, Death of a Salesman
****In another episode of The Simpsons Goo Goo Gai Pan, the family travels to China and sees a Chinese interpretation of the play, which includes dragons and Chinese opera. After the curtain closes, Homer says that he finally understands the play.
****In Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, John Wilkes Booth uses Linda's line, "Attention must be paid..." while talking to the suicidal Lee Harvey Oswald. Samuel Byck also uses Willy's frequent exclamation of "The woods are burning!" in one of his monologues.
****In an episode of Roseanne, a traveling salesman dies in the Connor's kitchen and Dan refers to the corpse as "Willy Loman."
****In the 1997 film Orgazmo, Mormon missionary Joe Young (Trey Parker) gets a job as a porn star and lies about it to his fiancée Lisa (Robyn Lynne Raab) by saying that he is starring as Biff in a Hollywood remake of Death of a Salesman. Later on in the film, Young continues the lie and claims that a sequel to Death of a Salesman is being made and that he will be playing Biff's evil twin brother.
****In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 'Restless' Willow dreams that she and her friends are in a production of Death of a Salesman, although it appears as a parody - Riley is dressed as a cowboy and says : "I'm lookin' for a man! A sales man!"
****In the Jimmy Neutron episode Birth of a Salesman, Jimmy Neutron enters a candy bar selling competition in which he battles his archrival, Cindy Vortex, so that he, Carl, and Sheen can get tickets to Retroworld. After Goddard recommends creating a smarter salesman in order to outsell Cindy, Jimmy creates a sales robot which he calles the Willy Loman 3000.
****In the Arthur episode Buster's Sweet Success, Buster fails at selling chocolate and says "What happened to me, Mom? I used to be someone in this town. I was well liked!"
Source: Wikipedia
***Death of a Salesman is alluded to in the Seinfeld episode "The Subway". Jerry Seinfeld reminds George Costanza not to whistle in the elevator (the same advice Willy gives Biff). Jerry then continued to call George "Biff" (This can also be seen in "The Boyfriend, Part 1" when Jerry mocks George's idea of becoming a buff, saying, "So Biff wants to be a buff."). Furthermore in "The Boyfriend, Part 2" George's date Carrie refers to him as Biff Loman; and at the end of the episode Jerry says to George, "So Biff, what's next?"
****In the Seinfeld episode "The Summer of George", after accidentally winning a Tony Award, Cosmo Kramer tells his new friends of a discussion with "Arty" that he should have called his play Life of a Salesman. Life of a Salesman is also the name of a song by the band Yellowcard, narrated by a boy looking up to his father
In the movie Soapdish, Kevin Kline's character, a formerly-famous soap actor, stoops to playing Death of a Salesman to near-deaf senior citizens in a dinner theater.
****In an episode of Family Guy, Meg Griffin plays the part of Linda, reciting the line "Willy Loman never made a lot of money, his name was never in the paper, but attention must be paid to such a person." Then a hitman, playing the role of Happy Loman, recites the following lines before attempting to assassinate Lois Griffin, the wife of the show's protagonist.
****During an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Richard Lewis asks Larry David "Who are you, Willy Loman?", whilst Larry is selling cars at a car dealership. Larry David was the executive producer of Seinfeld, which also includes character references
****In the movie American Beauty, Carolyn Burnham (Annette Benning) tells Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) that "'the Lomans just moved out next door" - alluding to the family in Death of a Salesman.
****In "Burns, Baby Burns", the fourth episode of The Simpsons' eighth season, Mr Burns opens a door to a theatre in his home, an actor is saying "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit." --- Willy Loman, Act 2, Death of a Salesman
****In another episode of The Simpsons Goo Goo Gai Pan, the family travels to China and sees a Chinese interpretation of the play, which includes dragons and Chinese opera. After the curtain closes, Homer says that he finally understands the play.
****In Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, John Wilkes Booth uses Linda's line, "Attention must be paid..." while talking to the suicidal Lee Harvey Oswald. Samuel Byck also uses Willy's frequent exclamation of "The woods are burning!" in one of his monologues.
****In an episode of Roseanne, a traveling salesman dies in the Connor's kitchen and Dan refers to the corpse as "Willy Loman."
****In the 1997 film Orgazmo, Mormon missionary Joe Young (Trey Parker) gets a job as a porn star and lies about it to his fiancée Lisa (Robyn Lynne Raab) by saying that he is starring as Biff in a Hollywood remake of Death of a Salesman. Later on in the film, Young continues the lie and claims that a sequel to Death of a Salesman is being made and that he will be playing Biff's evil twin brother.
****In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 'Restless' Willow dreams that she and her friends are in a production of Death of a Salesman, although it appears as a parody - Riley is dressed as a cowboy and says : "I'm lookin' for a man! A sales man!"
****In the Jimmy Neutron episode Birth of a Salesman, Jimmy Neutron enters a candy bar selling competition in which he battles his archrival, Cindy Vortex, so that he, Carl, and Sheen can get tickets to Retroworld. After Goddard recommends creating a smarter salesman in order to outsell Cindy, Jimmy creates a sales robot which he calles the Willy Loman 3000.
****In the Arthur episode Buster's Sweet Success, Buster fails at selling chocolate and says "What happened to me, Mom? I used to be someone in this town. I was well liked!"
Friday, October 17, 2008
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
Please share your responses to this poem by leaving a comment on this post!
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