Here's a question only screen-l'ers might be able to answer . . .
 
Last night I watched (why, I don't know) the NBC's Laugh In 25th Anniversary
Special.  I don't find the show particularly funny, but I am fascinated by
certain aspects of it (e.g., its early use of extremely fast jump-cuts that
have since been associated with MTV).
 
Last night I noticed on at least four occasions a cast-member or guest whose
face was blotted out electronically.  The entire show was done in the sort
of fast-cut, laugh-in style that often didn't allow the viewer a particularly
good look, but one of the shots with the mysterious person (I think it was
a woman, although it was hard to tell, and s/he appeared to be blond(e)) was
of a number of people, all of whom had nooses around their necks, another
featured the mystery person in the "joke wall", a third (featuring her/him
standing among cast members) was shown during the show's first or second
montage of shots from Laugh In.  Who could this be?  Why would someone be
so concerned about their association with a (in retrospect) fairly innocuous
show that they would, 25 years later, want their identity hidden?
 
I don't know why, but this has been bugging me all day!
 
 -- Ben Alpers
    Princeton University
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