4 ms·

Ha! My dad, to this day, makes Alan Ford references on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure he even used to make those same references when talking to his native Br

Ha! My dad, to this day, makes Alan Ford references on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure he even used to make those same references when talking to his native British colleagues, using them to describe life in the former Yugoslavia & assuming they'd read the same comics as kids. What's funny is that at one point, I realised I reference random episodes of South Park in conversation in exactly the same way (to people who mostly have no idea what I'm talking about). Those comics must have been pretty on point.

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
> I'm pretty sure he even used to make those same references when talking to his native British colleagues, using them to describe life in the former Yugoslavia & assuming they'd read the same comics as kids. Reminds me of the claim – possibly apocryphal – that some undercover Soviet spies in the UK were outed because, when the conversation turned to Blue Peter (which supposedly every real Brit knew from childhood) they had no idea what that was.
disabled 6y ago
The messages from the comics still very much apply to places like Croatia (ex-Yugoslavia) today. > In a society that mixed internationalist idealism with bureaucratic dysfunction, Alan Ford was an ideal form of social satire It is Croatian to emigrate, and Croatia does do a lot for the diaspora abroad. > We make no promises and aim to carry them out to the letter Croatian laws often have a lot of room for subjective interpretation. Often when you deal with the bureaucracy you have to make clarifications several times, and whatever the government servant needs from you, whether others needed it or not, you better give them. But, in this case, everyone knows that it is nearly 100% about the government servant trying to CYA, whether reasonable or not.

4 ms·

Ha! My dad, to this day, makes Alan Ford references on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure he even used to make those same references when talking to his native Br

by boomskats 6y ago

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
> I'm pretty sure he even used to make those same references when talking to his native British colleagues, using them to describe life in the former Yugoslavia & assuming they'd read the same comics as kids. Reminds me of the claim – possibly apocryphal – that some undercover Soviet spies in the UK were outed because, when the conversation turned to Blue Peter (which supposedly every real Brit knew from childhood) they had no idea what that was.
disabled 6y ago
The messages from the comics still very much apply to places like Croatia (ex-Yugoslavia) today. > In a society that mixed internationalist idealism with bureaucratic dysfunction, Alan Ford was an ideal form of social satire It is Croatian to emigrate, and Croatia does do a lot for the diaspora abroad. > We make no promises and aim to carry them out to the letter Croatian laws often have a lot of room for subjective interpretation. Often when you deal with the bureaucracy you have to make clarifications several times, and whatever the government servant needs from you, whether others needed it or not, you better give them. But, in this case, everyone knows that it is nearly 100% about the government servant trying to CYA, whether reasonable or not.