A Soldier And An Inventor Walk Into The Pub…
… and Hliník moved to Humpolec so he’s going to be absent the whole year.
The Czech nation likes to be a little silly. Read that: A lot silly. We take our pretty little fictional characters
and we inflate them into humongous proportions.
Hliník
A man whom we have never seen, yet he makes us laugh, or at least smile. He was only
mentioned in the movie ‘Marečku, podejte mi pero’ (Mareček, pass me the pen), where he
was supposed to be one of the adult students of the night school but, sadly, he moved into
Humpolec before he could attend any of the classes.
With added information that Hliník means ‘Aluminium’ in English, I assure you that I’ve heard
this line quite enough during our chemistry lesson when we were talking about said metal.
Just a little gag to make us giggle.
Josef Švejk
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Sol
dier_%C5%A0vejk#/media/File:Lada2.jpg
This man, on the other hand, is somewhat more tangible. Upon the
outburst of the WWI, this soldier displays such enthusiasm that everyone
thinks him either entirely stupid or a spy. The book ‘Osudy dobrého
vojáka Švejka za Světové války’ (The Fateful Adventures of the Good
Soldie Svejk During the World War) tells the story about his brief time in
jail, in madhouse and in the field hospital.
He never loses the smile on his lips. He always obediently reports to
anyone who listens to him (not many people do).
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1ra_Cimrman#/media/File:Cimr
man_autobusta.jpg
Jára Cimrman
Being an inventor,
philosopher
and
something Cimrman sportsman, criminalist, poet, writer,
overall a renaissance man, is there
couldn’t do? Well, yes. Exist.
This character is one
in 2005 he had almost
lack
of
physical of the most famous in the Czech country –
been declared the ‘Greatest Czech’, his
existence somewhat getting in the way.
He has his own
and 13 plays to his
group with which he
play the low-budget
Hamlet
without
Alibaba
and
40 theatre group – ‘Divadlo Járy Cimrmana’
name. He ‘of course’ had his own theatre
would drive around the countryside and
interpretations of famous plays, such as
Hamlet or The Loner Alibaba (variations on
Highwaymen).
But
wait, there’s more. He also helped to
construct the first airship, yoghurt, CD
(Cimrman’s disk), dynamite, the web and many more. Unfortunately he had been beaten
almost every time by other inventor. The only thing he got patented was a two-piece
swimming suit.
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