Dig up an actual Kop quote.
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@@ -2045,13 +2045,34 @@ knight
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Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble
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for Elves at any time.
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*kop*
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The typical policeman of 1920's movies, the Keystone Kop was
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modeled like the English "bobby", with a long brass-buttoned
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overcoat, carrying long nightsticks that he (more often than
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not) whapped himself with, rather than anyone else. The
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Keystone Kops were very slapstick-like, relying on speed and
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numbers to achieve their comedy, rather than sophisticated
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wit.
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The Kops are a brilliant concept. To take a gaggle of inept
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policemen and display them over and over again in a series of
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riotously funny physical punishments plays equally well to the
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peanut gallery and the expensive box seats. People hate cops.
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Even people who have never had anything to do with cops hate
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them. Of course, we count on them to keep order and to protect
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us when we need protecting, and we love them on television shows
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in which they have nerves of steel and hearts of gold, but in
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the abstract, as a nation, collectively we hate them. They are
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too much like high school principals. We're very happy to see
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their pants fall down, and they look good to us with pie on
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their faces. The Keystone Kops turn up--and they get punished
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for it, as they crash into each other, fall down, and suffer
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indignity after indignity. Here is pure movie satisfaction.
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The Kops are very skillfully presented. The comic originality
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and timing in one of their chase scenes requires imagination
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to think up, talent to execute, understanding of the medium,
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and, of course, raw courage to perform. The Kops are madmen
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presented as incompetents, and they're madmen rushing around
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in modern machines. What's more, the machines they were operating
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in their routines were newly invented and not yet experienced
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by the average moviegoer. (In the early days of automobiles,
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it was reported that there were only two cars registered in all
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of Kansas City, and they ran into each other. There is both
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poetry and philosophy in this fact, but most of all, there is
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humor. Sennett got the humor.)
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[ Silent Stars, by Jeanine Basinger ]
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kos
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"I am not a coward!" he cried. "I'll dare Thieves' House
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and fetch you Krovas' head and toss it with blood a-drip at
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