Thursday, July 2, 2020

When You Try to Explain a Joke 2



Once again my warped sense of medieval humor caused confusion. I got a lot of "I don't get it" comments. This happened back in February when I had to explain another Drollery

To refresh, drolleries are illuminated drawings found in the margins of some Medieval manuscripts. They are basically doodles, but they may have also been used for political commentary. In the above example we have a rabbit posed as a knight riding a snail. Perhaps, meaning lower classes riding above their station. The grotesque face may have been a way to get back at a colleague or a superior for some slight, real or imagined.

The first part of the text:

"Twas Brother Maynard doth feasted upon the aberrant mushrooms..."

Some mushrooms contain psillocybin which would make someone hallucinate. So Brother Maynard has some of these magic mushrooms at the noon day meal. He goes back to work in the scriptorium, but he's hallucinating. 

"And the abbey art supplies were expended in a corrupt manner. " 

Because Brother Maynard is hallucinating instead of illuminating the manuscripts with beautiful, religious or floral themes, Brother Maynard, still on Mr. Toad's wild ride, draws weird things. Like rabbits pretending to be knights and riding snails with grotesque human faces. He paints the rabbit's shield with the expensive blue pigment made from the mineral, Lapis Lazuli. That pigment should be used to paint the garment of a saint not the armaments of a ridiculous rabbit/knight.(Abusing the art supplies in a corrupt manner)

For his punishment, Brother Maynard will probably have to crawl around the abbey 1,000 times saying "I will not draw drolleries. Mea culpa, mea cupla, mea maximum culpa. (through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault)

20 comments:

  1. Too funny! Some of the ancient manuscripts I got to see in the University here had wonderful drolleries, mostly poking fun at the abbot or portraying him in rather errr - special - poses. The pictures were very tiny and well hidden among 'harmless' decorations. Naughty monks! Have a fun day, Valerie

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  2. LOL If it makes you feel any better, I got it before you explained it. (Maybe I shouldn't admit to knowing about 'aberrant mushrooms'.......lol.) ;)

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  3. N we bet de midd eevil man ewe scriptz could knot understand trout speech ~~~ sew we call it a tie !!! ☺☺♥♥

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  4. Gosh, once you mentioned magic mushrooms, I started to get it. Yes, it totally went over my head. sorry, but glad you took time to explain it.

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  5. I didn't know any of the details, but the words on the meme said that this drawing was not as serious. But what I didn't know was why they might have drawn this. Fascinating. Thanks so much for sharing. I guess political or other types of cartoons have been around for a long long time. Hugs-Erika

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    1. Yup, people have found a way of expressing their ideas since the Lascaux Cave drawings.

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  6. wow fascinating explanation.

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  7. Nah, I still think it is just ME LOL!!!

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  8. So funny! Thanks for the clarification, I wouldn't have known unless you explained it ...lol 😀. Happy wishes! Hugs, Jo x

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  9. Funny to see the explanation lol Sometimes jokes don't reach everybody who sees them.

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  10. Thanks for explaining …

    All the best Jan

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