[WikiEN-l] Conventions and movie vs. film

[james duffy]

'Taking the piss' means ironic teasing. It is something done the world over, 
understood the world over. If Stan is incapable of understanding the 
difference between ironic teasing and being deliberately rude, that is a 
reflection on him and his humour bypass. But no, Stan, I did not mean to 
offend you. And if you misunderstood what I was saying as being offensive 
then I apologise, but that was not what I was doing. I was being sarcastic 
and ironic, using a standard form of humour in Europe that people do not 
usually take offence at, they 'getting' the joke.

I was making a standard joke which is made all the time about how movie is 
used to imply Hollywood blockbuster, film is often used to refer to arthouse 
film or film with intellectual content or a film is in itself a quality 
piece of work. So 'Dumb and Dumber' is often described as a movie in Europe, 
Casablanca, The Dead, Schindler's List, American Beauty, The Big Chill, etc 
are described as films. It is subjective opinion by definition. In any case 
'movie' is generally seen as an American term (though it is used 
occasionally outide the US), film as a worldwide one.  There is no one 
'right' term unlike formal names or definitions. I think it unacceptable 
that wiki wants to use an American term that most non-americans don't use, 
or if they do, they use it as a code for bland, Hollywoodized, heavily 
merchantised produce.

JT

>Taking the piss means you were being rude to him, and now think you're 
>allowed to be
>rude because he didn't think it was funny. No. Taking the piss, like many 
>forms of humor,
>only works if all involved agree. The phrase you're looking for is "I'm 
>sorry, Stan, I didn't
>mean to offend you."
>--
>Vicki Rosenzweig
>vr at redbird.org
>http://www.redbird.org
>
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