Happy Holidays from Colonial Williamsburg! Our Founding Fathers were so excited about this holiday season, they couldn’t help but get their dance party on.
Wishing all of you a great holiday season! How are you planning to celebrate?
Inspiration for the Modern Revolutionary
Happy Holidays from Colonial Williamsburg! Our Founding Fathers were so excited about this holiday season, they couldn’t help but get their dance party on.
Wishing all of you a great holiday season! How are you planning to celebrate?
I like much of what new management is doing and enjoy a good laugh at least as well as the next person, but this video is getting dangerously close to jumping the shark!
they could have smiled. Today is the first time I was able to view it.( wouldn’t come up)I’m not thinking founding fathers.. But the upper class need to be a Little more happy!
For heaven’s sake, people, lighten up! Do you think the “Founding Fathers” didn’t have a sense of humor?
Thank you guys for being such good sports!
I DO think the “Founding Fathers” had senses of humor. However, they also had strict senses of decorum. Even Jefferson, who purportedly greeted guests (including an ambassador!) wearing bedroom slippers, had his own sense of decorum. Read Washington’s “Rules of Civility” for an idea on how strict.
Humor, when shared, is great for bringing down barriers and loosening things up a bit. Humor, when it stoops to ridicule, or making someone look stupid or foolish WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT, can be antagonistic or nasty and cruel. Do you really think that George Washington would appreciate being portrayed that way? I wish you could go back to the 18th c and show him that video - I think you would probably see a fine example of his temper! My point is that those people represent those founding fathers on a daily basis to thousands of people, based on incredible research, authenticity where possible, and a willing suspension of reality on the part of the visitors. In this video, they are identified as the “Founding Fathers” - not as CW employees. Do you really think that visitors familiar with the CW program who have seen this video and its buffoonery won’t have it in their minds the next time they meet with one of the “Founding Fathers”, and that it won’t diminish their credibility and message? I enjoy a good laugh as much as the next person, but there is a time and a place. Maybe I love CW so much because it represents an age that understood the concept of decorum. I cannot understand “humor” that diminishes others in this manner.
Who said it was without their consent? If it was done without their knowledge or consent, thtn, yes, it was inappropriate.
It’s not the faces of the real Founding Fathers, it’s the pictures of employees. People need to learn to chill.
It is represented as “Our Founding Fathers were so excited about this holiday season, they couldn’t help but get their dance party on.” Not as “our employees” - there is a video of employees, and I have no problem with that. It diminishes the extraordinary work these people do to make the founding fathers “real” people to generations of adults and children. Maybe people need to learn what is tasteful, what is humorous, and what is disgraceful.
Joyce Fitz says
I agree with the other comments that the video is disrespectful and not funny at all. When I read a blog, I expect correct and informative information.
I was just there for four days and have changed my mind about the ice rink. It is close enough to Merchant Square to not spoil the atmosphere of CW but if the tailor moves into the building close to the rink, I think then you are losing that expected atmosphere.
I think most of the moves of the trades is good. I am waiting to see the windmill run again. I miss Neal and his information about the mill and his running it. It was a sad time when he retired. What I saw at Great Hopes was encouraging. Many interpreters and work being done.
I look forward to vising again in March or April and several more times in 2016.
Agreed! SO looking forward to the resurrection of the windmill! I hope they bring the gunsmith back to the level of interpretation they used to have; there is almost nothing on gunsmithing now at the supposed “Gunsmith & Foundry.” I HOPE CW didn’t diminish the gunsmith interpretation for politically correct reasons. LOVE the new outdoor market, and Charlton’s Coffeehouse is lots of fun while giving a great historic interpretation. Both are excellent models of how CW can make history fun.
This video is great! So funny! A fun festive video for a fun festive season!
Even my very un-stuffy 18 year old says the video of the “founding fathers” is really bad! Neither of us have a problem with the video of regular employees clowning around - the problem is the one representing itself as the founding fathers busting a move.
Ummmmm - no. Just . . . . no. I have a sense of humor, but that’s just not funny. Frankly, I think it’s disrespectful.
I thought I would look at this again today, in case my inner Grinch didn’t let me appreciate something humorous. Sorry, but this is more painful to watch the second time around. Having your employees clown around is fine, but you are portraying this as the “founding fathers” busting a move. How would those founding fathers feel about being portrayed this way? And did the people who are so knowledgeable about these people, are so respectful of them, and so careful to accurately portray them actually AGREE to this?!?!?!?! This is just wrong. This on top of the ice skating pavilion on DOG St, advertising DOG St. for dog walking - it already stinks enough from all the dog urine - and then finding out CW will be basically closed for January? That’s my favorite time of year, because you can really see the trades, talk with the tradesmen, and tour the buildings at a time you can really see the rooms and talk with the interpretive staff. What, are you trying for Busch Gardens II? What is going on down there? I have been going to CW since 1960, and I know things have to change - but these are NOT changes for the better. The changes you need are in your marketing department.
I agree the videos hsve yo go and do does the ice rink. What’s next Donald Trump in historic cw