[Vocabulary] Goebbels and St Ralph

[patran]

Dear Teachers

I am watching "The Black Adder I". When the narrator reads "Goebbels" and "St Ralph", there is a laugher voice over. What these two names imply or mean? Please advise.

Anthony the learner



History has known many great liars. Copernicus, Goebbels, St Ralph the Liar [he is shown holding a sign which reads `St Benedict the Liar'] -- but there have been none quite so vile as the Tudor king Henry VII.

 

[probus]

Jokes cannot be explained.

 

[5jj]

Jokes cannot be explained.

They usually can, but all humour is lost in the process.

It's difficult to say exactly - there may have been some facial expression involved - but some of the humour may come from the the facts that there is no St Ralph the liar (so the announcer was lying) and that he said that the non-existent St benedict the Liar was St Ralph the Liar (so he was lying again).

 

[SoothingDave]

I think it is simply that his sign (St. Benedict) that is supposed to be the joke.

There are many funny things in this series. I wouldn't worry about this little joke. (The series improves greatly after the first season.)

 

[Tdol]

And Copernicus was not lying- he was right.

I agree with SoothingDave- the first series was the weakest. However, I don't think the rest has aged that well.

 

[konungursvia]

Jokes cannot be explained.

My thesis was an attempt to explain humor (more precisely, the problem of the comic). So naturally I think you're mistaken.