Auntie Marialani

The reader "M" who I am going to out as my parents mentioned that the Sunday Supper Series post #3 reminded them of Auntie Marialani. And I thought the same thing myself, so I am going to explain.

Rap Replinger was arguably the best Hawaiian comedian evah. He died young, cocaine I think. One of his most enduring characters was Auntie Marialani. I hesitate posting this video here, as I think you have to have lived in Hawaii in the late 70s and early 80s to get the humor. It was done in the idyllic time before we created the term "politically correct". In fact, perhaps it was a good thing Rap never lived to see the day when he would have had to clean up his routines.

Those were the days when we in Hawaii could jokingly poke fun at ethnic differences and no one minded. Why? Because we were all made fun of in one way or another and no one took it personally. Later artists have tried to capture that celebration, for lack of a better word, of our ethnic differences by ridicule, but no one ever got as close as Rap did to how we acted and felt. Pureheart and Israel Kamakawiwoʻole sang songs about it, both were good, but not as good as Rap.

But don't take my word for it. Watch it. Go, go, go watch it now, go...