Monday, September 23, 2019

Comedies

Great line by Ann Althouse: Why bother to make comedies for people with no sense of humor? 

And yet they do.  There is much to learn from contemplating this.

10 comments:

james said...

Or perhaps it's the same urge that prompts some of us to make "dad jokes" to the apparently unappreciative.
There may be some resistance from the woke vanguard, but some people are still snickering inside.

Donna B. said...

You're going to have to spell it out for me. What is to learn?

And start from the beginning because I laughed at something from Captain Underpants last week.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Maybe this will give context: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/09/how-do-you-watch-fleabag.html

I was thinking how much of modern comedy has deteriorated into recitation of political pieties, making fun of the right people and shocking the right people, but not being actually funny.

Donna B. said...

I read that post but since I'd never heard of Fleabag, I didn't get it. As for making fun of/shocking the right people... that's been going on since All in the Family. That's when I noticed it anyway.

Perhaps my sense of humor never grew up. I've been known to quote "Airplane".

Grim said...

“Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe.”

Assistant Village Idiot said...

@ Grim - yes. There are a group of people who go to comedies who aren't interested in humor but in having their opinions validated. As that is a bottomless pit, there isn't much point in making movies for them. Yet film producers do, because they have the same goal of validating as a form of entertainment.

Choosing comedy is not a manipulation of their audience, but a way of disguising their motives to themselves.

Sam L. said...

There's an audience for humor, but every individual has a different trigger for what's funny to them.

Texan99 said...

What's not to like about "Airplane!"?

Donna B. said...

Looks like I picked the wrong week to understand comedy.

Christopher B said...

When analyzing All in the Family, it's useful to remember that despite the best efforts of Norman Lear and Carroll O'Connor Archie was still the most popular and well-liked character on the show, and Rob Reiner was (and still is) a meathead.

I think AVI's point is that the current crop of 'comedy' writers are making darn sure that error doesn't happen again.