What reoccuring staples of comedy never fail to work for you? Mine are:
Benny Hill parodies - always welcome with me, love’em more than the original. Favorites include the ending to the space racist sketch on Mr. Show and the ending to that Simpson’s episode where the parody snuck up on them (you heard the theme in the distance and the Simpsons groaned about it. Suddenly, everything was in fast-motion. What episode was that?).
Political ad parodies - one of those situations where the target begs kicking and screaming for parody. Favorite is that old SNL one: “Senator Soenso opposes prayer in public school. And it’s no wonder. She’s a Jew!”
Unrequited love, especially with a twist (i.e. interracial, intergenerational, or closeted gay aquaintence) - The obsession mixed with hoplessness mixed with the usually unappealing image of what the couple would look like if the obsessor actually got his wish always entertains. Favorites include: Interracial - Erwin and Mandy from Grim Adventures of Bill and Mandy, Chad and Monie from Hey Monie!; Intergenerational: Chad and Monie from Hey Monie! (that show was funnieeee!), Closeted gay aquaintence - the son’s best friend on War at Home (the only entertaining aspect of that show IMHO, and sadly, their relationship isn’t exploited in every episode), and Marsha’s best friend in the Brady Bunch Movie.
So…what counts as a comedy free-pass for you guys?
Author Kurt Vonnegut and his sister Alice agreed that the pinnacle of comedy was a character making an emotive speech, followed by a dramatic exit straight into a broom cupboard. It works on so many levels.
This is a topic I’ve pondered many a time (which tells you something about my life). I’ve concluded that there are several things which automaticall make anything funnier:
-Batman. See the Shortpacked webcomic. Click the search button at the bottom and search for “Batman.”
-Jesus. Jesus Hebediah Christ on a cracker! LASER JESUS! I rest my case.
-MEAT. Just general meat. If you specify which type, it can sometimes still be funny, but random insertions of “MEAT” is always funny. See Patch Adams for a good example.
A man being shot in the ass. (See Gene Wilder’s monologue in Blazing Saddles.)
The Simpsons episode with J.K. Rowling ended with that Benny Hill parody. Adult Swim’s show Robot Chicken had a great sketch with a similar theme - I think it was supposed to be Hill’s own funeral, and the casket slides away down a hill with people chasing it and “Yakety Sax” playing.
People falling down. Simple as that. I saw Along Came Polly in the theater (for some reason) when it came out, and while the movie itself was so predictable that I started to feel embarrassed for the actors, it was redeemed by one thing:
Right at the beginning of the movie, Philip Seymour Hoffman took one of the most perfect pratfalls I’ve ever seen. He was walking across the floor, and then WHAM! he hit the floor full-body. It was so perfectly unexpected (not to mention totally gratuitious) that I laughed for several minutes afterward. It was so good that I left the theater thinking, “Hey, that movie wasn’t half bad!” and it was only on reflection that I realized it was only that one pratfall that made me like it.
It helped, of course, that he was crossing a dance floor in a tuxedo; anyone who’s worn those super-slick rental tuxedo shoes on a shiny dance floor can sympathize.
Do you watch Arrested Development? David Cross did the best fall I’ve seen in one episode there. The way he sticks one leg up in the air makes it great.
Also: crazy stuff happening in the background that has nothing to do with the conversation on the screen. Example: in the show Titus, Titus is in a coma after a drag racing accident. His girlfriend and father are talking in the foreground while in the background, you see his brother and friend climbing on top of him trying to get him to wake up.
How about when a male character has to dress as a woman for some reason? And one of his male friends doesn’t know it’s really him, and thinks he’s really a woman? And tries to have sex with him?
The funniest person-falling-over moment is Lara Flynn Boyle crashing her bike into a car in Wayne’s World.
Something else that is always funny is over-the-top creative, hilarious and unexpected profanity, such as, from an article in The Onion giving advice on how to raise your kids:
“Shop for them at upscale mall stores like Wooden Toys your Kids Will Hate and Professor Faggot Q. Boredom’s Lame-u-cational Cocksuckery”
