cloud_wolf

Decided to try this out as well.

the meme

My violin teacher broke her right wrist! This is pretty much horrible. I feel really sorry for her, but also sorry for myself. I don't know what to think of the replacement violin teacher. She's so different. She keeps asking me questions and ends all her sentences with an inquisitive look and "Well?" These kind of people unnerve me, but I suppose change is necessary every once in a while.

Anyway, my little conversation with

chisakami about the viola and viola jokes (Warning: like all musician jokes these are incredibly lame, though hilarious) led to me checking out Wikipedia to see what they've written about violas and how we're the buttmonkeys of every orchestra (We're like the Night's Watch, ignored, undermanned and very necessary :P) and I was dismayed to find out that they removed the viola jokes part! Only one measly mention on the Jokes page. Reading the Wiki Viola discussion page was a blast, though:

I have a psychology book somewhere (a quite serious one) that has something like half a chapter on the viola joke (mainly musing on why the viola and not some other useless instrument like the flute). And I see even Google is getting in on the act of slating violists now: if you search for "virtuoso violist" it mocks "Did you mean:virtuoso violinist"... --Camembert

Viola jokes were the one source of amusement during the long hours I spend languishing in 2nd violins. http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/jokes/viola.html -- Tarquin

Viola is a common misspelling of the French word voila, often used as a demonstrative exclamation (e.g. ... you mix the ingredients, bake for 40 minutes, take out of the oven, and voila!)

- I can't make up my mind - is it appropriate for this article? Does an encylopedia usually bother to define near-miss misspellings?? Nevilley

and I think that violins suck because they are all so whiney and they look down on us when, more often than not, they are the ones that have the greatest amount of problems with their parts. is it just me, or do the violas seem to be more talented. people always say that it is because our music is easier, but when both instruments get the same part, it is the violin that seems to have more problems.

The bigger question is why would anyone ever want to spoil the wonderful sound of a viola by tuning it like a violin. Probably a "converted" violist (one who switched from violin to viola) who misses the violin. If you are an "original" violist (one who started on the viola) you wouldn't desicrate such a fine instrument. (lol) In all seriousness, wouldn't a 5 string viola viola meet your needs better?

Teh viola: SRS BZNZ

By saying that violists are the object of fun any more than any other instrument (which they are not- they simply are not well known enough to be the laughing stock*) we are destroying the neutrality of the section, and thus the article. Any biased article is one too many, and this is one section which appears to want to lean to the negitive. If it cannot be neutral, which it certainly was not before the editing, then I say it ought to be deleted, and left at that.

There are some IPs (they all start with 21-something) who keep making pro-violist POV edits to the "Jokes" section (like this, this, this, and this) and vandalizes the page (like this. What do I do with them? --Frosty

I noticed how much shorter this article is compared to violin.....

Pro-violist POV edits. Seriously, violists? Never change. (I don't get the part about the neutrality though. It's simply a fact of life that musicians will make fun of the violas. Even the no-good second violins XD)

Tomorrow EHBO exam. After this I am qualified to save people's lives. Hell yeah! >:D
(ETA: Sorry there, EHBO is Dutch for First Aid)