But this thread from Fark—what if FOX News was around during other historical events?—is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in quite a while.

(Via Testify!)

So I decided to TiVo the variety of Oscar shows (should any of them actually be on tonight, of course). In the background as I was hitting the various buttons was a 1933 movie of Noel Coward’s Cavalcade. A British family has just returned from some sort of holiday and is getting their house in order. I have no idea of the relationships between these characters, but the dialogue floored me:

   INT. DRAWING ROOM - DAY
   
   JOE, a young man, offers MARGARET, an older woman, 
   a cigarette.
   
            JOE
      Pretty thrilling, isn't it?
   
            MARGARET
      Just a bit too thrilling, my dear.
   
            JOE
      Oh, right on, Margaret. It's absolutely 
      marvelous. Passing all those supply trains 
      and guns. Being pushed aside to make way 
      for the troops. The crowds waiting for 
      something to happen. Ah, it was wonderful.
   
   
   FATHER enters, carrying a tray with a bottle of wine 
   and glasses.
   
   
            FATHER
      Jane's hollering for you in the kitchen, 
      Margaret.
   
            MARGARET
      Oh, all right.
   
   Margaret EXITS.
   
   
            FATHER
        (holding up bottle)
      Well, I can't find anything but (unintelligible). 
      We have to drink to Germany's downfall with 
      their own damn wine.
   
            JOE
      I rather like Germans. Don't you, father?
   
            FATHER
      Enormously. Give me a hand, Joey. 
   
            JOE
      If there is a war, how long do you think 
      it will last?
   
            FATHER
      Ooo, three months at the outside. 
   
            JOE
      We shall win?
   
            FATHER
      We shall win.
   
            JOE
        (excited, gleeful)
      Perhaps it'll last six months. 
   
            FATHER
      Economically impossible. Do you have 
      any idea what a war costs? 
   
            JOE
      Hell of a lot, I suppose.
   
            FATHER
      A hell of a lot. The Germans can afford it 
      even less than we can. Then there's Russia--
   
            JOE
      Good old Russia!
   
            FATHER
      --France, Italy...and America.
   
            JOE
      Japan, China, Nicaragua, Guatemala... 
      We've got them licked before we start.
   
            FATHER
      Don't be silly, Joey.

We’ve always thoughts wars were pretty cool and would be pretty short. Until they started, of course.

Well. We definitely seem to have gotten our fucking war on already.

Like everybody else, I don’t really have much to say about this.