Origami Sightings - Comedy

Compiled by Janet Hamilton

The comedy/musical "Prom Queens Unchained" focuses on prom queen candidates for the Robert Underwood (RU) High senior class of 1959.  One of the characters tries to bring her dead boyfriend back to life, and when she reaches the point in her instructions where she is supposed to use an ouija board, she says "But, I don't have an ouija board.. I know, I'll use this!" and pulls out a cootie catcher which she uses to spell his name throughout the play as she keeps trying to resurrect him.

A comedy album was recorded by Orson Bean called "Orson Bean at the Hungry i" for Fantasy Records in 1960. One of the tracks is called “How to make a paper eucalyptus tree".

On Comedy Central (The Comedy Channel on cable TV), there's a show called "Harry Leaves for the Orient". At one point, the advertisement for it showed artwork of an origami crane (9/1999).

In the October 1998 issue of "Reader's Digest", in the "Campus Comedy" section (a section where people send in humorous things that have happened to them at college/school) is the following article:

Because of its intensity, organic chemistry has long been known as the "weed out" course at the University of Maryland. One day, for a change of pace, my professor distributed filter papers for us to practice folding for our lab. After detailed instructions and various folds, however, our fluted papers didn't quite match the instructor's.  Dismayed, I leaned over and asked my friend, "What is this?" He replied, "Origami chemistry."

Variety magazine, August 10-16, 1998, Destination Entertainment: Las Vegas, page 28, Penn and Teller are shown wearing origami hats with the caption, ``Hat Trick: Penn and Teller's Sin City, shot in Las Vegas, will debut Aug. 10 on cable's F/X network as a weekly variety show.'' And from the September 7, 1998 issue of People magazine under a photograph of Penn & Teller in paper hats:  "Penn Jillette and sidekick Teller make fashion magic in their origami hats."  "Penn & Teller - Sin City Experience" on the Fox Cable channel FX featured a guest (Jay Marshall) performing a routine with a paper hat that unfolded through a series of hats to a sheet of newspaper. The routine was apparently based on Steve & Megumi Biddle's "The New Origami" (ISBN 0-09-177667-8). Their version starts with a "party hat" (or "G.I. hat"), progresses to the "printer's hat", with stops along the way for a "jester's cap" and a "mortar-board" ("graduation cap"), before becoming a "bishop's mitre".

The last page of the Jan 5, 1999 New Yorker magazine, the 3rd item in Christopher Buckley's satirical piece, "1998: The Year in Headlines," announces "NEW YORK TIMES TO PUBLISH ORIGAMI SECTIONS IN EFFORT TO MAKE IT 'EVEN HARDER' ON READERS". To non-readers of the NY Times, this is a dig at the NY Times' decision this past year to publish the paper in many more sections, making it much harder to hang on to and read in the subway.

MAD Magazine  carried a regular "Fold-In" feature by Al Jaffee, where a picture was folded to reveal another, sometimes related, picture. These features are collected in the book “MAD: Fold This Book!”, by creator Al Jaffee (with Charles M. Schulz, ISBN 0446912123). Complete with preliminary sketches, photographs, and commentary, each Fold-In even comes with its own solution. Guiseppe Baggi, who was a wiz at all kinds of sculpture, did some money folds for Mad magazine. They were used as illustrations for subscription ads between 1963 and 1968. Baggi also did at least two origami features for Mad magazine, "Orgygami", and "Mad Origami Zoo of Cliche Creatures". Here is a summary of origami related ads and article that have been reported, though the list may not be complete:

There was a segment on TV 4/30/2000, made by Bill Clinton and friends, and featuring the White House staff, showing the last "lame duck" days of  Clinton's term in a humorous way. The video makes it seem as if he hasn't got much to do, so there is a short part where Clinton is seen folding an origami swan, and putting it on the table next to an origami penguin.  The piece was shown at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/04/30/correspondents.dinner/

The improvisational comedy show, "Whose Line is it Anyway", on 4/5/2001 featured a game called "Improbable Mission", where two of the cast has to act out an action scene based on an 'improbable mission' a third member makes up, Colin Mochrie pretended to fold an origami flower to garnish the breakfast tray of the Ambassador from Snackitoba (their mission was to make him breakfast or die trying :)

"Thin Blue Line" is a comedy set in a police station in the UK. The episode on 4/20/2001 showed a scene where police were getting ready to move on a group of protesters camping out. Inspector Fowler was pretending to be a tree and the others were decorating him. Constable Habib said she had done origami and put a model of a folded crane on his head. She called it a swallow.

In "The Late Night with David Letterman Book of Top Ten Lists”, on page 43, is a list of Top Ten Indy 500 Pit Crew Pet Peeves, and #8 is "Racers in such a hurry to get out of pit they run over your origami birds."

In James Gorman humorous book "First Aid for Hypochondriacs", he offers an origami toilet seat cover made from toilet paper as protection against venereal diseases. (ISBN 0894801732)

From the Dribbleglass.com feature “Billboards we’d like to see” http://www.dribbleglass.com/subpages/billboards12c.htm

Fom a humor newsgroup: "CNN has just won the rights to broadcast the World Origami Championships. Unfortunately it's only available on paper view."

Tongue in cheek update on the Japanese Banking Crisis:
"According to our inside contacts the Japanese banking crisis shows no signs of ameliorating. If anything, it's getting worse.
Following last week's news that Origami Bank had folded, we are hearing that Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank plans to cut back some of its branches. Karaoke Bank is up for sale and is (you guessed it!) going for a song.
Meanwhile, shares in Kamikaze Bank have nose-dived and 500 back office staff at Karate Bank got the chop. Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank and staff there fear they may get a raw deal."

Origami Beer Labels 5/4/06 shows a photo with 3 beer bottles. The first has a label that says "Origami Lager". The second shows the label partially folded into what looks like a traditional waterlily. The third shows the label completely folded. A project from Designer’s Block + Lund University, by Clara Lindsten) - http://www.notcot.com/archives/2006/05/origami_beer_la.html  

Oct 14, 2006 "From Basil Fawlty to Mr. Incognito" - John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, in talking about various experiences at hotels: "Cleese ended his entertaining rant with the question all hotel guests ask: Why is the end of the toilet paper folded into a triangle? “What is it for? Is it proof that your housemaid has studied origami?” he thundered." http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=126&ContentID=9807 

November 12, 2006 - Comedian Craig Ferguson, host of CBS's The Late, Late Show paid tribute to recently-resigned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on his show. The skit features clips of Rumsfeld with hands superimposed in front of the clip to make it look like he is folding origami, drawing pictures, rolling a joint, cutting a paper doll chain, manipulating a Rubik's Cube, juggling, playing cards, and making a rude gesture to reporters. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/11/12/craig-ferguson-salutes-ru_n_33917.html 

"BA unveils new enviromentally friendly plane" by Dr Will C U Now on September 27, 2008 in "The Spoof": "BA have unveiled plans to replace its short haul fleet with a range of environmentally friendly planes. The new planes will be made from recycled paper and powered using a revolutionary 'human arm launching' system. A BA spokesman said 'We have recruited a team of javelin throwers to propel the planes. This will lead to a dramatic reduction in noise pollution and greenhouse gasses.' There are concerns that the new planes may be less than accurate and difficult to control in flight however, BA were convinced that the extensive trials that have taken place were successful enough to plan a mass rollout. A team of origami experts have been recruited to design and build the new planes." If you did not figure it out from the name of the site, a box at the bottom of the page states, "The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious." http://www.thespoof.com:80/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i41292 
Enviro plane and launch system unveiled.

March 2009 - A LOLCat captioned "Origami gone wrong". http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/03/30/funny-pictures-origami-gone-wrong/

At the Alternative Comedy Fest 2009, Leo Allen wondered why being drunk did not make people do more usual but less dangerous things. Rather than drunk dialing exes or contracting gonorrhea, we might try, say, origami. Waking up the next morning, we’ll wonder “Who made all these cranes?” http://bostonist.com:80/2009/05/10/altcom_2009_concludes_tonight_with.php 

December 2009 - "Santa Claus is coming to town - An exclusive interview with the jolly old elf by The Selma Times-Journal" by By Laura Fenton. "Santa Claus claims Blitzen is an excellent origami expert. Years ago, in Japan, Blitzen walked off from the sleigh to look in a window of a home displaying intricate origami pieces on a table in the middle of the room. ... “Since that day, he has been hooked,” Santa Claus said. “We built him a room solely to display his creations.”" http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/news/2009/dec/16/santa-claus-coming-town/ 

December 2009 - On BBC1, comedian Tim Vine stated. "The advantages of simple origami are twofold..."

Copyright © Janet Hamilton 2009

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