What is Comedy?

[hondarobot]

I've been thinking about the basic elements of comedy lately. What "is" funny, there has to be some common denominator.

The movies I laugh at have been things like "Caddyshack", it's just screwball funny, or "Whithnail And I", which is brilliant. There's also movies like "Airplane", Robert Stack whipping his sunglasses off at a moment of high tension, to reveal he has another set of sunglasses on as well. Only a truely tough mother fucker would wear two sets.

The Monty Python stuff was great, and the show was one of the funniest things I watched as a kid. Faulty Towers was even better. But I'm not sure it ever got as good as the best Looney Tunes, Bugs and Daffy stuff. Marx Brothers had their moments, but too much singing and dull spots. I mean, I could go on and on.

But what is funny? As a phenomenon or a theory or idea or whatever. I guess it's all in the way a person tells a joke, but I'm trying to dissect what exactly the mechanics are.

I guess I'm just curious as to things that have made other forum members laugh, I think it's an interesting subject, and kinda fun.

What is good comedy?

[johnb]

The Big Lebowski was the funniest movie i ever saw

[hondarobot]

Not my favorite Coen Brothers movie, but not bad.

[thmack]

The Big Lebowski was the funniest movie i ever saw

the 40 year old virgin is the best :actionsmiley :actionsmiley :actionsmiley :actionsmiley

[scroller]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy



Comedy is the use of humor; sometimes, but not always, in the form of theater, in contrast to a tragedy. A recognized characteristic of comedy is that it is an intensely personal enjoyment. People frequently don't find the same things amusing, but when they do, it can help to create powerful bonds.

Humor being subjective, one may or may not find something humorous because it is either too offensive or not offensive enough. Comedy is judged according to a person’s taste. Some enjoy cerebral fare such as irony or black comedy; others may prefer scatological humor (e.g. the "fart joke") or slapstick. A common gender stereotype that plays on this convention is that men love the comedy of The Three Stooges, while women do not.

[LG]

Just some of my choices for funniest movies ever in random order:

The Jerk (You mean I'm gonna STAY this color?)
Blazing Saddles
High Anxiety
The Odd Couple
There's Something About Mary
Take the Money and Run
Airplane!
Throw Momma off the Train
This is Spinal Tap
Raising Arizona
Withnail and I
Shaun of the Dead
Keeping Mom
Team America- World Police
All of Me
Duck Soup
The Producers
Shrek
Animal House

That said, there have been some comedies that have been excellent, but they haven't produced a laugh a minute like the films above. These would include films like Some Like it Hot and La Vita e Bella, two of my favourite movies.

Finally, when it comes to TV comedy my choices would be Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, The Office (I have not seen the US version, though, only the original), Little Britain, Goodness Gracious Me, Father Ted, Seinfeld, Ali G (original UK version and the US version). And for cheap slapstick, I actually like Mr Bean and the Benny Hill show.

As for film and standup comedians, I'd rate Peter Cook at number one, then, in random order, Steve Martin, Peter Sellers, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Rowan Atkinson, Robin Williams and Ben Elton.

[hondarobot]

Soooo. . . interesting input thus far. I would have to strongly disagree with This Is Spinal Tap, but I do know countless people who are fanatics about that movie. I don't get what the big deal is, I think I chuckled a couple times but I'm sure I never laughed out loud. I like that dry sort of humor, but Spinal Tap just seemed like it was trying to hard to be funny.

I mean no offense to fans of it, but I thought it sucked. So there. :P

I think two crucial elements of comedy are surprise and wit, but that's just me. I hate surprises in real life, prefere to know whats going on involving my personal enviroment, but in entertainment it's the key to humor.

There's a commercial out now where a guy is telling this other guy about his new phone and all it's features. It's set-up like a normal commercial, then. . .

Well, I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but it's funny. And clever, and that's what I like about comedy.

Another question is: if a person intends to make a living producing comedy is it better to figure out what would be more successful commercially, or just be true to their own form and make things they think are funny, the masses be damned! I think it's actually best to go for the money, then go for. . . well, "art" seems a bit strong a word, but it's all I can think of at the moment.

Heh, I can just see this thread becoming another mini blog where I rant on and on once a day about a subject that most people who frequent a TS board wouldn't have any possible interest in (Thanos is probably going to start charging me for use of the forum space).

But I'm goofy that way.

[Kramer]

You definetly have a good list LG.

I say: Animal House, Blazing Saddles and Duck Soup. I think Young Frankenstein is up there too. :lol:

[ezed]

I've been thinking about the basic elements of comedy lately. What "is" funny, there has to be some common denominator.

The movies I laugh at have been things like "Caddyshack", it's just screwball funny, or "Whithnail And I", which is brilliant. There's also movies like "Airplane", Robert Stack whipping his sunglasses off at a moment of high tension, to reveal he has another set of sunglasses on as well. Only a truely tough mother fucker would wear two sets.

The Monty Python stuff was great, and the show was one of the funniest things I watched as a kid. Faulty Towers was even better. But I'm not sure it ever got as good as the best Looney Tunes, Bugs and Daffy stuff. Marx Brothers had their moments, but too much singing and dull spots. I mean, I could go on and on.

But what is funny? As a phenomenon or a theory or idea or whatever. I guess it's all in the way a person tells a joke, but I'm trying to dissect what exactly the mechanics are.

I guess I'm just curious as to things that have made other forum members laugh, I think it's an interesting subject, and kinda fun.

What is good comedy?

Fucking Honda, to answer this would require a thesis of extraordinary length. And it in of itself would not be funny. Funny is funny. there are so many components and avenues of aproach. You're right, so much in comedy depends on timing, delivery and presentation...the manipulation of language, phrases, and words. ENOUGH OF THIS PALAVER! ..... I almost got sucked into writing a thesis. Movies: Blazing Saddles, Caddyshack, Airplane, the first Austin Powers Movie, are all classic laugh out loud funny. And more will come to mind. Jay and Silent Bob in Clerks. W.C. Fields, Groucho understated humor.

TV - South Park (fantastic), Three Stooges, damn I could go on and on...

Duos - Opie & Anthony (straight man/funny man) one sets up the other, Laurel & Hardy, Abbot & Costello

Stand up- Denis Leary, Lenny Clark, Jim Norton, Billy Burr, Patrice O'Neil- fucking hilarious.

Warner Brothers Cartoons, Rocky & Bulwinkle, Underdog and other series by it's creator like Tennessee Tuxedo

Enough! I can't write anymore...there are so many I left out! Sanford and Sons! STOP

AND HAS ANYONE SEEN THIS UNKNOWN MOVIE...EVIL ROY SLADE?

[ezed]

Robin Williams, Monty Python, Peter Sellers, Douglas Addams, Joseph Heller......

DAMN YOU HONDA ROBOT! I'CAN'T STOP! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

The Farrelly Brothers, Jay Leno, Bernard McGirk, Rob Bartlett.......

[BeardedOne]

Funny is relative.

Back around 1991 or so I almost shit my pants when I saw a newsapaper machine with the broadside on the front reading: "Kermit Justice Indicted".

As it was rumored that I might actually be concidered for that man's =JOB=, you can be sure that I thought it was damned fucking FUN-nee! :lol:

[BeardedOne]

DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

How many people noticed that Charlton Heston re-uttered this line as one of the apes in the remake of Planet of the Apes with Mark Walberg? :lol:

[DJ_Asia]

Just some of my choices for funniest movies ever in random order:

The Jerk (You mean I'm gonna STAY this color?)
Blazing Saddles
High Anxiety
The Odd Couple
There's Something About Mary
Take the Money and Run
Airplane!
Throw Momma off the Train
This is Spinal Tap
Raising Arizona
Withnail and I
Shaun of the Dead
Keeping Mom
Team America- World Police
All of Me
Duck Soup
The Producers
Shrek
Animal House

That said, there have been some comedies that have been excellent, but they haven't produced a laugh a minute like the films above. These would include films like Some Like it Hot and La Vita e Bella, two of my favourite movies.

Finally, when it comes to TV comedy my choices would be Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, The Office (I have not seen the US version, though, only the original), Little Britain, Goodness Gracious Me, Father Ted, Seinfeld, Ali G (original UK version and the US version). And for cheap slapstick, I actually like Mr Bean and the Benny Hill show.

As for film and standup comedians, I'd rate Peter Cook at number one, then, in random order, Steve Martin, Peter Sellers, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Rowan Atkinson, Robin Williams and Ben Elton.

Nice list...forgot the Police Academy movies...."Say...Nice Beaver!"

Spinal Tap is an alltime classic...hilarious!

[Budoshin]

TV:
Mr. Show With Bob & David
Upright Citizens Brigade
Arrested Development
Da Ali G Show

Movies:
Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Death Race 2000
Killer Clowns From Outer Space
The 40 Year Old Virgin


Thats the kinda stuff cracks me up.
http://www.sightssounds.net/images/return26.jpg[/u]

^George Cloony with 80's hair from Return of the Killer Tomatoes

[Jaymz]

Maybe it's because I'm a former stoner but Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back came to mind right away.

[hondarobot]

DJ_A, I think the "Nice Beaver" line was from Police Squad or whatever that Leslie Neilson series of movies was, not Police Academy. That stuff was fuckin funny, especially the television series, but that only lasted a season.

And stop posting that damn Charleton Heston pic, I start laughing every time I seen that damn thing, Ezed!

Whoops, this is suppose to be my "later in the evening" thread. Too early to realy dissect comedy at the moment.

[BeardedOne]

Nice list...forgot the Police Academy movies...."Say...Nice Beaver!"

"Thanks, I stuffed it myself." :lol:

Actualy from one of the Police Squad movies: Naked Gun, NG 1/2, NG 33 & 1/3.

Loved Jay & Silent Bob in all of the Askewniverse flicks. J & SB Strike Back can only be fully appreciated if you've seen all of its predecessors (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy) and other key flicks that it pokes fun at (Good Will Hunting, Star Wars, SW Emipre Strikes Back, etc.). It's one of those you-hadda-be-there-member-of-the-culture flicks like Free Enterprise (Featuring William Shatner as himself - "Call me Bill!").

A recommended documentary DVD is An Evening With Kevin Smith. a collection of clips from Smith's speaking tour of US colleges following the successes of the Askewniverse films. Some of the tales he tells are hilarious and the audience interaction is a trip. There are even some bits where 'Jay' joins him on the tour. :)

[Quinn]

Loved Jay & Silent Bob in all of the Askewniverse flicks. J & SB Strike Back can only be fully appreciated if you've seen all of its predecessors (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy) and other key flicks that it pokes fun at (Good Will Hunting, Star Wars, SW Emipre Strikes Back, etc.). It's one of those you-hadda-be-there-member-of-the-culture flicks like Free Enterprise (Featuring William Shatner as himself - "Call me Bill!").

A recommended documentary DVD is An Evening With Kevin Smith. a collection of clips from Smith's speaking tour of US colleges following the successes of the Askewniverse films. Some of the tales he tells are hilarious and the audience interaction is a trip. There are even some bits where 'Jay' joins him on the tour. :)

No doubt, Smith is a genius. As someone who spent most of his teen years (and some of my early twenties) in Jersey, I can totally relate to many of the charecters in his movies. I don't know if it's all the Superfund site or what, but Jersey produces some of the strangest and funniest people I've ever met anywhere.

-Quinn

[hondarobot]

I've been thinking a lot lately about trends in cartoons. I think the first good, more mature oriented ones were the Looney Tunes stuff. That was classic, dialog and story driven humor (well, most was).

Current prime time cartoons like Beavis & Butthead (well, somewhat current) had their moments, I think the Simpsons were classic (not so much the current ones), but I never really got into South Park (although not bad). I just think about how primative the tools were to make the early Simpsons, South Park and Beavis and Butthead, and how successful those toons have become.

I think I'm gonna make some stuff over the weekend. If I get anything posted next week, I know you guys will let me know how retarded it is.

:)

[Quinn]

What is comedy? A lot of things make me laugh, many of them being very dark and some of them being very light. The thing that always makes me laugh the hardest though is seeing someone trip and fall.

When I was around fifteen, my friends and I used to get sauced and go down to Seaside Heights, New Jersey. At the far end of the boardwalk, near the sky ride, there was this one bench you could sit on and watch people trip all night.

For whatever reason, one of the wooden planks on that part the boardwalk was considerably thicker than the rest (or warped), though you would never notice when you were walking towards it. Since that was, and probably still is, a well traveled part of the boardwalk, you could watch people trip on that damn plank all night. More than a few people took some really good spills. That used to bring tears to my eyes on a regular basis. Good times… Good times…

-Quinn

[hondarobot]

Hehe. . . the dark humor is good stuff, but I'm getting to be a softy and try to avoid being mean lately. I actually have some pretty damn demented stories on that front, though.

Here's one:

When we were in grade school, one of my sisters and I would wait outside this apartment building for the bus every school day. There were a bunch of other kids who would wait with us, and there was this goofy kid with huge ears that would stare at us out of the ground floor window every morning.

We hated that kid. I don't know why. His parents would leave all his toy cars on the sidewalk outside the building over night.

Who knows why we did this, but one day we decided to entertain the kid by whipping his toys into the road so that cars could drive over them. It was horrible and sick, but being a kid can proove to be a pretty dark time.

Anyhow, after the toys were smashed, we picked up the pieces and threw those at passing cars. We weren't very nice kids. One of these hit a windshield and the car stopped, a woman got out and yelled at us.

We ran like hell, made it across the neighborhood and to the next bus stop in time. When the bus arrived at school, there was that same lady waiting for us. It turns out she worked at the school office.

I think that was my first time in Detention. Not my last, though.

:wink:

[BeardedOne]

No doubt, Smith is a genius.

That's a given. C'mon, he owns a comic store. I owned a comic store, I'm a genius. That's how it works. :lol:


As far as my own taste in comedies, I am a big Coen brothers fan as well.

The dark/serious comedy of the Coen brothers is really disturbing. :lol: My fave is The Hudsucker Proxy. The scene where the kids discover the joy of the Hula-Hoop is priceless. Their direction is incredible. For the scene where Norville (Tim Robbins) falls from the Hudsucker building, they actually strapped Robbins into a rig that dropped/shot him down several feet towards the camera. The facial distortions, and the sheer =terror= on his face, are very, very real. :shock:


I think the first good, more mature oriented ones were the Looney Tunes stuff.

Not long ago, WB issued a collection of the early Looney Tunes/Bugs Bunny cartoons on DVD. Good. In an effort not to 'offend' any particlular ethnic group (Japanese) they censored or left out some of the WWII pieces which, IMHO, were the pick of the crop. Bad. Oops, my bad, we bombed your harbor. :roll: Hey, we got even. Let's see the damned cartoons, many of which were War Bond ads.


Current prime time cartoons like... *Snip*

Simpsons. Good. Beavis and Butthead. Bad. Southpark. *Retch* *Vomit*. Sorry, that's where I stand. :shrug


I think I'm gonna make some stuff over the weekend.

More film stuff? Way cool! Have you pinged the DAVE school yet?[/quote]

[hondarobot]

Dammit, I forgot all about the DAVE school. Thanks for the reminder, B1, I'm going to check it out tonight. Although I'm going out soon and might end up loaded and forgetting again.

I'll write a note, I do want to check that out.

[Quinn]

The dark/serious comedy of the Coen brothers is really disturbing. :lol: My fave is The Hudsucker Proxy. The scene where the kids discover the joy of the Hula-Hoop is priceless. Their direction is incredible. For the scene where Norville (Tim Robbins) falls from the Hudsucker building, they actually strapped Robbins into a rig that dropped/shot him down several feet towards the camera. The facial distortions, and the sheer =terror= on his face, are very, very real. :shock:


That is definitely a great movie. The Coen brothers are have done some really clever stuff: Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, etc.

-Quinn

[BeardedOne]

Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, etc.

Both incredible films. To this day I can hear the words in my head: "Turn to the raht!" and "Would you buy furniture from a store called 'Unpainted Huffhinds?!?" :lol:


Dammit, I forgot all about the DAVE school.

NO! Don't forget! After seeing the Batman sequence at a seminar in Seattle last year, I immediately pinged their site, just to get that for my random collection. The school has produced some incredible stuff and I am prodding my son to attend (At my painful expense).

"Look! Is that Madonna?" :lol:

[ezed]

Death Race 2000...I completely forgot about that one. Good one.

So no one saw Evil Roy Slade? :cry:

[tsluva]

Just some of my choices for funniest movies ever in random order:

The Jerk (You mean I'm gonna STAY this color?)
Blazing Saddles
High Anxiety
The Odd Couple
There's Something About Mary
Take the Money and Run
Airplane!
Throw Momma off the Train
This is Spinal Tap
Raising Arizona
Withnail and I
Shaun of the Dead
Keeping Mom
Team America- World Police
All of Me
Duck Soup
The Producers
Shrek
Animal House

That said, there have been some comedies that have been excellent, but they haven't produced a laugh a minute like the films above. These would include films like Some Like it Hot and La Vita e Bella, two of my favourite movies.

.

some of my favorite COMEDY movies:

Liar, Liar

Don't be a Menace to Society without
drinking your Juice in da' Hood

Austin Powers: the Spy who Shagged me

Rush Hour 2

Coming to America

Friday

CB4

Harlem Knights

Duece Bigolo 2: European Gigolo

Money Talks

Bruce Almighty

Rush Hour

Napoleon Dynamite

Duece Bigolo: American Gigolo

Which way is Up

Austin Powers: Goldmember

Scary movie

I'm gonna Get ya Sucka

Nutty Professor ( eddie murphy)

Naked Gun

Spy Hard

Stripes

`

[BeardedOne]

How could you forget DOGMA?

Just on a side-note, anyone see Alanis in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back?

I knew I left one out. Sorry, Buddy Christ. :D

Yah, loved the finishing touch of 'God' closing the book on the Askewniverse. :)