The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
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Captive Audience
This column has occasionally observed how lamentably easy it is to laugh at North Korea. It is one of the most brutal and inhuman regimes in the world, a living hell for some 24 million people. Yet the regime is so ludicrous as to be comedy gold. In a dispatch titled “There’s Little Funny About North Korea’s Comedy Show,” Reuters makes exactly the opposite point:
Stern, serious, socialist North Korea has carved out a spot in TV history for having one of the world’s longest running comedy shows, despite it being mostly devoid of jokes for the decades it has been on the air.
The show now called “It’s So Funny” is meant to uplift the morale of troops and extol propaganda about the virtues of serving under “The General” Kim Jong-il. Laughter is optional–unless the soldiers in the audience are ordered to do so. . . .
The latest version that came out in the past week extolled the virtue of beans, while avoiding any flatulence humor.
It opened with the man soldier saying to the woman soldier he feels better and looks more handsome because he has been taking medicine made from beans.
“If we soldiers see beans, we become happy,” he said and laughs. “If we farm in the way the General tells us, we will become happy,” she said and laughs. . . .
There was one long send-up that did gather a few chuckles. The two talk about how bean-fed North Korean soldiers were able to fight off U.S. imperialist troops during the Korean War.
The women soldier [sic], playing the part of an old woman, said bean-fed troops including her husband had amazing strength on the battle field. “But he died,” she said.
We guess you had to be there. Seriously, you had to be there–if you tried to escape, you’d be tortured and killed.
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