self-deprecation is the heart of true comedy. ?
What's Good Comedy to You
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I love the Austin Powers movies, and other Mike Myers movies as well. It's all over the top and goofy, but something about him is just hilarious to me.
Bill Burr is one of the greatest stand up comedians ever. Anthony Jeselnik is great as are Ricky Gervais, Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard and Stuart Lee.
Some of my favourite comedy shows are The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, The Office (UK original), Peep Show, The League Of Gentlemen, I'm Alan Partridge and Fawlty Towers.
Some of my favourite comedy shows are The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, The Office (UK original), Peep Show, The League Of Gentlemen, I'm Alan Partridge and Fawlty Towers.
I am always reminded of the children's program from the 1970s called 'Rainbow' and then Jim Davidson did his own take on it incorporating a popular car show.......
Hahaha! I loved Rainbow as a kid.?
I think George the pink hippopotamus had undiagnosed aspergers. And Zippy had undiagnosed ADHD. Or maybe a crack cocaine problem or something.
Discussions of humor tend to be humorless, but that's okay. I like a fairly wide spectrum of humor. The Three Stooges looks so tacky, but when you pay attention, the physical aspect and quickness becomes funny fast. Likewise, Soupy Sales does his broad physical comedy with such assumed innocence and energy, it is a good laugh. On the other end of the spectrum, Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest," where the humor is almost entirely conveyed through the dialogue, is hugely witty. The plays of Moliere in good translation, or if you read French, are wise and droll. Seinfeld is a comedy of manners and snappy and insightful, if you can look past it being facile and glib; I admit, I'm a fan. The funniest moments in life, that make me gasp with laughter, when it is difficult to stop laughing, are mostly live, in person, not staged or televised, when a remark just opens up the absurdity of life. When I can unleash one of those jokes, it is infinitely pleasing. The Marx Brothers have it all, from corniest physical comedy to intricate word play, the Einsteins of performed comedy.
Fat people falling down (quote from The Hangover).
Fart jokes and slap stick for me.
Old school SNL and Mad tv where shows i always looked forward to watching and where good for lots of laughs.
Yeh, I don't really smoke pipes. I'm just here to steal material.
I love comedy that makes me laugh (Monty Python, The Three Stooges). I also love comedy that makes me think (immediately George Carlin and Richard Pryor come to mind). And ... just about everything in between.
I like comedy that messes with your head. I’m still blown away when I catch the old Jack Benny Show and its show within a show (and sometimes a show within a show within a show) concept. Ernie Kovacs worked wonders with an artistic level of visual comedy I still can’t get enough of. I’m thinking old timers here, since a lot of good comedy have followed these veins since.
I’m also a big fan of epic comedy. I will argue to my last that It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (mind-blowing cast of legends, gorgeous time-machine cinematography, and exhilarating vehicular stuntwork blended together by Stanley Kramer’s on-point direction) and The Blues Brothers (protagonists as antagonists, some truly magic musical numbers, and shamelessly hilarious property destruction, directed with a virtuosity of comic timing) belong on any long greatest films list.
I like comedy that messes with your head. I’m still blown away when I catch the old Jack Benny Show and its show within a show (and sometimes a show within a show within a show) concept. Ernie Kovacs worked wonders with an artistic level of visual comedy I still can’t get enough of. I’m thinking old timers here, since a lot of good comedy have followed these veins since.
I’m also a big fan of epic comedy. I will argue to my last that It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (mind-blowing cast of legends, gorgeous time-machine cinematography, and exhilarating vehicular stuntwork blended together by Stanley Kramer’s on-point direction) and The Blues Brothers (protagonists as antagonists, some truly magic musical numbers, and shamelessly hilarious property destruction, directed with a virtuosity of comic timing) belong on any long greatest films list.
I like some of the British comedies, like "Are You Being Served," "As Time Goes By," "Faulty Towers," "Mr. Bean," and two or three others I'll remember as soon as I "post reply."
Big +1 on that. And Seinfeld, of course.
If I had to name one or two of the all time greatest comedians, the first two names that come to mind are Peter Sellers and Jonathan Winters.
For you younger guys who only Know Bob Newhart from his TV shows, go google some of his stand up. He was hilarious, and his comedy was very cerebral, yet delivered in a very approachable way. Funny stuff.
I'm very fond of slapstick, Buster Keaton and John Ritter style. Stand ups that I get a bang out of are Sarah Silverman, Iliza Schleshinger, and (I know this isn't politically correct, but) Louis C.K. On the Big Screen, it's hard to beat Ken Jeong, Sasha Baron Coen, Steve Buscemi, Catherine O'Hara, Mila Kunis, and Steve Carrell.
Interesting how flat humor can fall on an individual basis. "A Fish Called Wanda," with John Cleese, who I usually find truly funny, just struck me as sadistic. I didn't laugh through the whole movie, not once. Yet it was a big hit, and many found it hilarious. I wasn't being stiff; it just didn't reach me as humor. In the Jonathan Winters line, his heir apparent was Robin Williams, another improvisational genius. Though he was full of egotistical bluster, Jackie Gleason was a good performer, with a sense of comic timing, and as a really large guy who could really dance. And Jimmy Durante was another do-it-all vaudevillian. Bob Hope ran out some of his popularity with the generation gap, but he was always an astute comic who did his homework and bravely entertained the troops, no matter where. For two years or so, in my childhood, I wanted to be a stand-up comedian, and my dad had me tell jokes at family gatherings so I wouldn't look so spaced out. He didn't tell me that, but I got the drift.
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