photo by Chris Glass
It is or was common for a crowd of extras in acting to shout the word "rhubarb" repeatedly and in an unsynchronised manner, to cause the effect of general hubbub. As a result, the word "rhubarb" sometimes is used to mean "length of superfluous text in speaking or writing", or a general term to refer to irrelevant chatter by chorus or extra actors. The American equivalent is walla. Stage actors in the United States also use word "rhubarb" repeated asynchronously in a low or murmured tone to provide background voice ambience in crowd or party scenes. A variation of this is the repetition of the phrase "peas and carrots"
Ofcourse the regular viewers of French & Saunders already knew this. They've been rhubarbing a lot over the 25 years of making television!
4 comments:
ooooooooh, i loves me some strawberry rhubarb pie in the peak of summertime. yummers.
sometimes draq queens who forget their lyrics will mouth the words "strawberry rhubarb" ... weird.
They do?
Well, my experiences with drag queens are very little, so I am glad you added that to my knowledge base:)
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kind of the story of my life! ;-)
i think i'm gunna go pluck me some rhubarb from the garden now and make muffins!
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