In my constant search for my
true self—ain’t we all?—, I asked myself what, or rather who, I think is funny.
It’s like a test. I said: Yo, Dude, who do you think is funny? Well, actually, I
was jerking around on Youtube, and I bumped into the Smothers Brothers. Oh
yeah. I got a few yucks from each vid. Oops, that really dates me, those guys
are old men now! But laughs are like gold, dig all you can. You were looking for
health pills? You wanted more and better life?
The Smothers Brothers Comedy
Hour (the best), Tommy (the funny one), Dickie (the annoying one), Pat Paulsen
(still votable), David Steinberg (better than he ever was), Booga Booga! Now
that isn’t so funny now, but in context it was because it was such stupid
nonsense, like you could say absolutely anything and get a laugh. Whereas the
Smothers always had well-written, well-rehearsed, well-timed bits. They
were/are the best. And John Hartford was on the show. And Steve Martin and
Albert Brooks.
I’m talking about stand-up comedians
that truly got me going: George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Rowan & Martin,
Woody Allen, Andy Kaufman, Rita Rudner, Monty Python.
You’ll notice lots of names
missing from my funny-to-me list: Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, the nightclub
types: Don Rickles, Alan King, Mel Brooks, Mort Sahl, Rodney Dangerfield, Joan
Rivers, Phyllis Diller, Carol Burnett, Johnny Carson, Cheech & Chong. It’s
personal. And it’s a sin to follow the crowd.
You’re saying there are
generations of comedians? Duh. Wanna go earlier: Jack Benny, George
Burns/Gracie Allen, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Martin & Lewis,
Three Stooges, Lucille Ball. Good but few true laughs.
The one I liked most from the
pre-60’s was Groucho Marx. And Danny Kaye.
Even before that: Chaplin,
Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy,
W.C. Fields. Clever, sometimes boring and no laughs.
The Saturday Night Live Gang
and everyone after 1975, take a lesson. There are lots of funny people
nowadays: Ricky Gervais, Stewart and Colbert, Steven Wright, Robin Williams,
Bill Mayer, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David (kinda), but watch out for movies. Too
many funny people got into unfunny movies and kind of lost themselves along the
road to Hollywood: Steve Martin, Dan Ackroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx, Billy
Crystal, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock. Movies kill comics.
The obvious deduction from
all this is that you like what you heard in high school when you first started
laughing at grown-up stuff. Maybe so, but maybe comedy doesn’t get better
in quality or quantity as the decades roll on. It’s not like computers. Maybe anyone
who wants to minister to the humor needy, to doctor our funnybones, to give out the
giggles, should look backwards at the masters from whenever, wherever. Some
humor gets old, most doesn’t. I think Mark Twain said that.
Happy trials, Martin
Mutt: What’s with the boss, a
month of golden silence, was he sick?
Jeff: Yes. Had nothing to
say.
Mutt: Why is that a problem?
Jeff: T’ain’t. He’s got no
contract.
Mutt: We don’t either. Maybe
we should move to Wisconsin. Oh, never mind.
Jeff: Heard any good jokes
lately?
Mutt: In Wisconsin?
Jeff: No.
Mutt: In Wisconsin?
Jeff: No.
Mutt: “Karate is a
form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training
can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the
history of the world.”
Jeff: Who said that?
Mutt: I just did …
okay, Dave Barry.
Jeff: “If a woman has
to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will
choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on
base.”
Mutt: Mark Twain?
Jeff: Dave Barry.
Mutt: “Suppose you
were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
Jeff: I love Dave
Barry.
Mutt: That was Mark
Twain. And so is, “Sacred cows make the best hamburger.”
Jeff: No way. I got
one: "Time's fun when you're having flies."
Mutt: Mark Twain?
Dave Barry? George Carlin?
Jeff: Kermit the
Frog.
Mutt: Say goodnight, Jeff.
Jeff: Goodnight Jeff.
