Sometimes comedy wears well and to my mind this is an example. Would younger people recognise the stereotypes though? Will anyone recognise them after a few more decades?
It's brilliant, isn't it? The timing, and the little details. I think that no comedy lasts indefinitely. Either social change sweeps away the stereotypes, or the ways of talking and fashions of humour change. Like the fondness Elizabethans and Jacobeans had for puns.
The further back in history we go, the less is humour comprehensible. I suspect that even Victorian humour which I like (Three Men in a Boat; Mr. Pooter) only makes sense to me because I can just about recall people who were like that in real life.
Sam - I agree. Although Mr Pooter is still funny, would a much younger person find him funny? Reminds me of W. W. Jacobs' short stories. Still amusing in places but not always - slapstick thuggery and dishonesty among the lower orders for example.
4 comments:
It's brilliant, isn't it? The timing, and the little details. I think that no comedy lasts indefinitely. Either social change sweeps away the stereotypes, or the ways of talking and fashions of humour change. Like the fondness Elizabethans and Jacobeans had for puns.
The further back in history we go, the less is humour comprehensible. I suspect that even Victorian humour which I like (Three Men in a Boat; Mr. Pooter) only makes sense to me because I can just about recall people who were like that in real life.
Marvellous timing - hilarious!
Peter Cook's biography is one of the best I've ever read!
As for old comedy - 'gadzooks and odds bodkins'...
For the heaving masses it was usually at coming up to 14 or so in the bushes at the local municipal park where discoveries of this nature were made.
Sam - I agree. Although Mr Pooter is still funny, would a much younger person find him funny? Reminds me of W. W. Jacobs' short stories. Still amusing in places but not always - slapstick thuggery and dishonesty among the lower orders for example.
Scrobs - I'll take a look at the biography.
Demetrius - more accurate discoveries too.
Post a Comment