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[b]Rich wrote:[/b]
[quote][b]Downing Street Cat wrote:[/b]
[quote]British comedy was always rooted in characters more than jokes. Or it used to be. Dads Army, Fawlty Towers, Rising Damp, Steptoe etc. US sitcoms are more about wisecracks and one-upmanship. Many of the old British sitcoms had characters who were terminally frustrated, pompous, making the best of their miserable lot, but always desperate to break free. Reflecting the British very well I think. I do find a lot of new comedy tries way too hard to be irreverent and is much too self conscious and often pretentious. Funny is funny. I still laugh out loud at Laurel and Hardy.[/quote]

Very well said DSC, I agree with all of that. Some of Laurel & Hardy's earliest films are now just about a century old (yikes!) and yet they manage to make me smile, laugh and feel happy any time I see them. I watched their 1933 film Busy Bodies only about 2 weeks ago, the one with the car cut in half. I just wish the BBC would show them again. How they made people laugh and empathise with their frustrations in the 1920's and 30's still does exactly the same in the 2020's and will for as long as I can imagine decades hence. That's the genius even they may not have realised at the time themselves at the height of the fame putting out those movies.

There's another quite remarkable thing about Laurel & Hardy, and I don't think I am wrong about this, I've been trying to think it through just now to recall any obvious ones but can't, but there are none of the 'isms' in their films that obsess people nowadays. No racism, no misogeny, no homophobia, none of it, or very little if any. Things also don't play to stereotype either. The wives are often the strong side of the marriage who they the men are scared of upsetting and give them a roasting if they mess up, they are played as strong assertive independent women with lives of their own apart from their husbands. No swearing either of course.

But plenty of violence and GBH!  :laugh:[/quote]

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Topic History of: What counts as comedy nowadays?
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)

Author	Message
Rich	Today is 60 years since Stan Laurel left us, 23rd February 1965. www.itv.com/watch/news/ulverston-marks-6...aurels-death/y06gnb2
Green Man	Downing Street Cat wrote: Yes GM. Quite iconic sets too. One Foot is perhaps the last of the great sitcoms. Along with Father Ted. Was never that keen on Vicar of Dibley. Not sure why. Had all the right ingredients. Odd. I think the Likely Lads writers said this along the lines, I am paraphrasing "With the right cast, you are almost there". We all know what a clusterfuck the film Vice Versa was in the 1980s. It was written by Clement and La Frenais. I don't think every episode of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was good; some were better than others. When Gary Holton died, it didn't feel right; something was missing. Even Clement and La Frenais admit they wrote poor episodes. However, I do think Kevin Whatley saved some episodes. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet may have sounded good on paper. They did try to write a third series of Whatever Happened to Likely Lads. This time, Terry was the social climber, and Bob was out of work due to a collapse in the firm. Bolam still rejected it. Yet he agreed to do Andy Capp, which I am surprised he still found work after. It would have been nice to have a reunion series in the 80s or 90s. I have been told by few amateurs in theatre that both actors are a pain to work with. I think Bolam was like Dennis Waterman acting is work and they took pride in it. Dennis Waterman career did go a bit south. Vice Versa was noncy in places with Sam going to snog Fred Savage, even back then it made a few cinema-goers uneasy even in 1988. Judge Reinhold came and went very quickly.
Rich	It's worth giving a shout out to the Scottish born actor James Finlayson who was an excellent foil to Laurel & Hardy with that furious trademark look he gave at their antics. www.comicbookandmoviereviews.com/2024/10...james-finlayson.html
Downing Street Cat	Yes GM. Quite iconic sets too. One Foot is perhaps the last of the great sitcoms. Along with Father Ted. Was never that keen on Vicar of Dibley. Not sure why. Had all the right ingredients. Odd.
Green Man	Downing Street Cat wrote: British comedy was always rooted in characters more than jokes. Or it used to be. Dads Army, Fawlty Towers, Rising Damp, Steptoe etc. US sitcoms are more about wisecracks and one-upmanship. Many of the old British sitcoms had characters who were terminally frustrated, pompous, making the best of their miserable lot, but always desperate to break free. Reflecting the British very well I think. I do find a lot of new comedy tries way too hard to be irreverent and is much too self conscious and often pretentious. Funny is funny. I still laught out loud at Laurel and Hardy. The set itself was also a character, like the bedsits in Rising Damp, who rarely left the house. In Steptoe most episodes only take place in the living room. Desperate Hours is a cracking episode. If you think about the On The Buses episode Foggy Night about 99% is on the bottom deck of the bus. Three episodes of One Foot In The Grave come to mind. Two were set in a house, and one was just set in a solicitor's waiting room. Only When I Laugh would have worked as a radio sitcom, most of the time they were in the ward apart from a few cutaway scenes like the corridor, office or the TV room.