Over the weekend, I checked out Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and had no idea that Child was born and raised in Pasadena and that she worked for the OSS in Shanghai during WWII. To many people growing up in the 70s and 80s, Julia Child was that old lady who had a cooking show on PBS that Dan Akroyd famously lampooned in a classic SNL skit. However, for me, growing up in Hawaii, we had our own comedic variant of Child in the form of Auntie Marialani’s Cooking Show as portrayed by the seminal Hawaii comedian, Rap Reiplinger.

Rap who? He’s virtually unknown outside Hawaii but if you were born and bred, then this guy was a major part of your life. In 1974 he helped create the comedy ensemble Booga Booga with James Grant Benton and Ed Ka’ahea. His humor is an integral part of Hawaii today. His comedic work and talent helped shaped local humor. He was working during a “Hawaiian Reinassance” of the 1970s and early 80s, a politically charged time for the Hawaiian people, who were beginning to politically organize and re-learn their customs and traditions. Hawaii’s local dialect, “Pidgin”, was also embraced by entertainers and academics, fortifying its usage in essays, short stories and comedy routines. It was a time of great artistry and creativity, from music and yes, comedy.

Rap was masterful in capturing the essence of being “local” and his wordsmith use of pidgin was amazing. Like a chameleon, he could transform himself into people that were a part of our everyday lives growing up in Hawaii – from the drunkard auntie, to the overzealous politician, to the lovestruck surfer dude.  His arsenal was limitless. Hey, he even graduated from Punahou, the same school as President Obama! Sadly, Rap would die from a cocaine overdose in 1984.

Anyway, I digress… Back to my Hawaiian Julia Child, Auntie Marialani. Check out the skit and make sure to write down the “ingrediments” The “Not too sweet… Not too rancid… Juuust riight!” quote, if told to someone in Hawaii, will really separate the kama’ainas from the recent transplants. I’m sure for people not from Hawaii, this comedy is an acquired taste. But that’s what makes Hawaii so unique.   We’re a bunch of cowpoke mutts in the middle of the Pacific. Here’s two more skits that always leaves me in stitches:

“Room Service” is absolute hilarity, making fun of haole tourists in Waikiki: “Eh Russell, trow me off!”

“Fate Yanagi” is a love ballad to a ditsy shoyu bunny that Rap adores. One of the great mysteries in my life, to this day is “who is Mits Funai?” Fate Yanagi was a placeholder name that my friends and I would use to refer to said shoyu bunnies; Another example of a placeholder name in Hawaii vernacular is Glenn Miyashiro; is used in referencing a bland local Asian guy who works in an office with a mundane job.

You can see the influences from Laugh-In or Benny Hill. These clips are part of a TV special that ran locally back in the early 80s called simply, Rap’s Hawaii, which is available on DVD. Comedy TV specials were pretty frequent on Hawaii television. Andy Bumatai, another Hawaii-born comedian,  was also pretty prevalent, and even the late Pat Morita had his own Hawaii comedy special, since he was a part-time resident.

But, Rap Reiplinger was one of a kind. A true comedy and performance artist legend. His work came from a bygone era that hasn’t been replicated since.