Friday, March 28, 2008

Pirates and Vikings (History twisted, tweaked and revamped)



Everyone likes Vikings. After all, they do have an NFL football team named after them. They are funny too. There is Hagar the Horrible in the funny pages and those Vikings in the commercials are hilarious. And what about Pirates? They have a MLBA baseball team bearing their name. There is "talk like a pirate day," kids movies about pirates, action figures and cartoons. Pirates are funny, right.

If memory serves me correct, Vikings were Norse warriors who were known for pillaging villages. Although pillaging sounds funny, I’m pretty sure that its not so funny if you were the one being pillaged. And what about pirates. Weren’t pirates thief’s and murders. To be a pirate was to be a brutal, ruthless thief.

Isn’t it funny how history can be twisted, tweaked and revamped until it bears no resemblance to reality? I wonder at what point Nazi guards and American slave owners will become humorous. Kids will dress as Nazis to trick or treat and movies will be made about the hilarity of being someones master. Yea, not too funny I know. In my mind there can be nothing funny about either Nazis or slave owners. Vikings and Pirates are still funny though, right?

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