• definitely_AI@feddit.onlineEnglish
    26·
    6 hours ago

    “Oh my god, this man is going to die! Is anyone here a doctor??”

    “I’m a doctor!”

    “He’s having a heart attack!”

    “I’m a doctor of philosophy.”

    “Oh my god he is going to die!!!”

    “…We’re all going to die.”

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    5 hours ago

    If we’re talking about stuff like Hieronymus Bosch, then that’s the least bizarre and thought-provoking stuff he’s done. But you don’t need a doctor to puzzle it out. Discovering that people that lived over 700 years ago had the same sense of humor as you and your friends is always fun.

    To answer the question: I think it’s both. You might painstakingly render life-like butt-trumpets to take a jab at the church, but you’d absolutely do it for a fart joke after doing portraits all the time. At the same time, such works were the domain of well-off people - both the artists and their patrons - so I find it hard to believe that a pithy subtext isn’t on offer too.

  • Technus@lemmy.zipEnglish
    492·
    8 hours ago

    I say this in the most loving and accepting way possible, but I 100% think autism was somehow involved in the creation and spread of the butt trumpets.

    I’m convinced of this because I know with absolute certainty in my heart that if any of my friends on the spectrum were alive in the 13th century, they’d be sent to the seminary for being weird and would spend their days doodling butt trumpets in the margins of manuscripts.

    • dumples@piefed.socialEnglish
      14·
      6 hours ago

      Are you implying that a lifestyle where you do the same thing everyday and never have to meet new people would attract autistic people? Crazy

    • definitely_AI@feddit.onlineEnglish
      13·
      6 hours ago

      My belief is that it’s a bunch of scholars mocking the powers-that-were. Like, they were assigned their tasks, they had to do this boring shit, they had to copy this and that, but some bombastic ruler or whatnot was full of hot air and claiming to be God’s representative on Earth or whatever, just basically dumb Trump shit, and this was their way of calling bullshit. Like, yeah, we have to portray you as the second coming, but, well, we’re gonna do it with butts.

      Very tentative of course, not dying on this hill. But likewise, I think the knights on snails thing is like, satire, clever people who knew that whichever prince or baron was promising to destroy the evil enemies of wherever-the-fuck was just spewing bullshit to garner support when in reality he was just prolonging it forever because he had neither the means nor intent to do any such thing- giving rise to these images of valiant knights that were simultaneously heroic and amazing in every way yet for some reason never actually accomplished shit.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 hours ago

      I’m convinced of this because I know with absolute certainty in my heart that if any of my friends on the spectrum were alive in the 13th century, they’d be sent to the seminary for being weird and would spend their days doodling butt trumpets in the margins of manuscripts.

      Holy shit that tracks.