Susan Jacobson wrote:
Actually, they're right. Comedy is _hard work_. And while life _can_ be funnier than most jokes, it isn't always funnier than _any_ joke.O, I can just see that my posting was a mistake... :-p
Just for clarification - this is an exercise for undergrads in broadcasting, most of whom think that jokes are funnier than life, and creating comedy is really hard. But the reality is that life is far funnier than any joke.
<> Jokes stop the action, they
become stale really quickly. Just look at your favorite funny movie that's more
than 5 years old - it's not the jokes that cause it to hold its charm. Good
example: Groundhog Day. Sample joke:
NEWSCASTER: Have fun in Punxatawney, Phil!
PHIL: For your information, hairdo, there's a major network interested in me.
LARRY: Yeah, that would be the Home Shopping Network.
bah-dump-dum
Actually, I'd read that line as more an example of character banter-- not much of a laugh-getter, but simply lively dialogue. The real laughs in _Groundhog Day_ are more subtle. (And that's a movie that's aged very well.)
On the other hand, I can think of a lot of movies that are more than five years old, and which contain any number of jokes and routines which have remained funny. Here's a few examples:
The "Tootsie-Frootsie Ice Cream" sequence, and the Call to the Florida Medical Board, from _A Day at the Races_.
Bringing Neidermeyer's Horse into the Dean's Office in _Animal House_. (In fact just about all of that movie's aged well.)
Bugs, Daffy and Elmer debating pronouns in "Rabbit Seasoning."
Peter Sellers' phone call to the Russian premier, and George C. Scott explaining to Peter Sellers why a nuclear holocaust is practically inevitable, in _Dr. Strangelove_.
"I Speak Jive" in _Airplane!_
The diner conversation between Alan Arkin and Peter Falk in _The In-Laws_.
Pinback chasing the alien in the elevator shaft in _Dark Star_.
Just about all of _The Producers_ and _Blazing Saddles_.
_South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut_, six years old this year.
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