Lasting Humor
mra...@willamette.edu
That is, stuff that made our grandparents or parents laugh just doesn't
do it anymore. While dramas are re-released decades after they are
made, I can't think of this every happening with a comedy. Humor seems
to be too fleeting. There are exceptions however and my question to
the group is: What commediies of the last 15 years do you think will
stand the test of time?
Will people still be laughing at South Park in 2025? The Simpsons?
Seinfeld? What will last?
--
Mike Ralls
Andrew Reeves
> It seems to me that humor is the type of art that is most perishable.
> That is, stuff that made our grandparents or parents laugh just doesn't
> do it anymore. While dramas are re-released decades after they are
> made, I can't think of this every happening with a comedy.
*Ahem* The Marx Brothers? The Three Stooges? A short from the mid
1930's of Curly flipping out still puts me in stitches.
Humor seems
> to be too fleeting. There are exceptions however and my question to
> the group is: What commediies of the last 15 years do you think will
> stand the test of time?
Well, I think that humor that is contingent on certain cultural
circumstances *does* come with something of a sell-by date. OTOH,
there are the time-honored universals that will almost always make
people laugh, viz., poop and sex.
>
> Will people still be laughing at South Park in 2025? The Simpsons?
> Seinfeld? What will last?
>
In 2025, people will still laugh at the crasser parts of South Park.
Historians of the late 20th century will laugh at certain of the jokes
based on our current preoccupations. The Simpsons, OTOH, seems to me
to be to be made too much of those contingent aspects of American
culture of the 1990's/00's (or whatever the hell we're calling this
decade) to last very long.
A good rule of thumb for figuring out which humor will survive involves
looking at humor that has already survived over decades and centuries.
Everyone still loves the Miller's Tale after all.
Andrew Reeves
> --
> Mike Ralls
Old Toby
>
> It seems to me that humor is the type of art that is most perishable.
> That is, stuff that made our grandparents or parents laugh just doesn't
> do it anymore. While dramas are re-released decades after they are
> made, I can't think of this every happening with a comedy. Humor seems
> to be too fleeting. There are exceptions however and my question to
I have to disagree totally. Comedy is eternal, we still laugh at
comedies from ancient Athens. There are groaners in Homer that still
get a chuckle.
Nobody laughs at the puns in Genesis, but I chalk that up to poor delivery.
We may not always get the topical references, and puns are language dependent,
but even if the specifics are vague, the situation itself often
suffices.
George Bush parodies will still get laughs as long as people know what a
President is. They might not know Bush from Adam, but "the leader is
a bumbling, double talking oaf" is only not funny when it's too true.
OTOH, while some drama draws on universal human emotions, it is all too
easy to be caught up in cultural specifics. If your cultural situation
is too far removed to be readily understoon (on an emotional level),
or you don't put the effort into comprehending the foreign situation,
your sympathy can evaporate, leaving you with a frustrating, and
sometimes bizarre, empty spectical.
Old Toby
Least Known Dog on the Net
The Horny Goat
wrote:
>A good rule of thumb for figuring out which humor will survive involves
>looking at humor that has already survived over decades and centuries.
>Everyone still loves the Miller's Tale after all.
Yup.
And I'll bet "I wish to register a complaint..." (the first line of
the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch) will still leave folks in
stitches when I'm six feet under
David Tenner
news:7a2u32p58ebtaiqqu...@4ax.com:
"A little song,
A little dance.
A little seltzer down your pants..."
http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/attic/marytylermooreshow-607.txt
(and of course "you know how hard it is to stop after one peanut"...)
--
David Tenner
dte...@ameritech.net