Originally Posted by
Tasty Rabbit
Why was a Scotsman's booze covered in cob webs & dust ?!
I reckon it's because of the vaudeville characterization of Scots as being "mean"…frugal to the point of obsessiveness. "Cheap" would be the most common way to describe the image. It was done for comedy purposes…somewhere out there you'll find Bugs Bunny cartoons where the comic Scotsman figure opens his purse and moths fly out suggesting that the opening of the purse is such a rare event that moths have had time in the dark to proliferate.
…as we all know, this is strictly untrue and is yet another stereotype from a time when such things were somewhat more socially acceptable than they are in the enlightened times that we now live in…it does have it's roots in vaudeville where almost every ethnic group got lampooned…think Chico Marx's portrayal of an Italian and you get the gist of it. If you're a theatre major (lord have mercy on you), you know that this sort of caricaturing goes back to the Ancient Greek Theatre. I always argue that this sort of thing was done mainly for a cheap laugh and was generally not done out of malice but we probably all agree that it's out of place these days.
I really don't expect to see cobwebs on anybody's bottle of "the Scots Broth" nowadays….
Best,
AA
Last edited by auld argonian; 9th March 15 at 08:30 AM.
ANOTHER KILTED LEBOWSKI AND...HEY, CAREFUL, MAN, THERE'S A BEVERAGE HERE!
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