Not only was Skelton not funny, he also laughed at his own stuff, which even as a child I found very annoying and unprofessional.
It’s not really, though I think Jim Carrey does a better job of making a character and not being just “Soandso Making A Face” in some instances, which is where I think Skelton fails. It’s the same school of comedy, but I think Jim Carrey is (god forbid!) a better actor. Compare Ace Ventura, The Mask, The Cable Guy, and he plays each differently, whereas all Red Skelton’s characters were just “Red Skelton making a funny face and wearing a silly hat.”
I respect Red Skelton as an innovator, I just don’t think he’s that funny.
Skelton’s movie career was earlier than his TV career, and he was a successful movie actor before TV. I don’t see that much difference in Carrey’s movie roles, but remember good movcie acting in the 30s and 40s required that the actor does not stray from what the audience expects.
As far as sketch characters are concerned, Skelton trumps Carrey (from “In Living Color”) by a mile. Clem Kedidlehopper, San Fernando Red, and the Mean Widdle Kid are all great comic creations; Carrey just made funny faces.
One of the channels on our satellite plays Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Being 25, I remember my dad fondly recalling the show, but had never seen it myself.
So I checked it out. I don’t know if it was just a bad episode or what, but the jokes were about as funny as “Why did the chicken cross the road?” It was so terrible that I felt embarrassed for the “comedians” and had to turn it off.
Note to self: Dig this thread up in 10 years time and submit Carrot Top’s name.
Does Chevy Chase count?
For the record, I will say that don’t necessarily find Red Skelton unfunny. I only have vague memories of this weekly variety show but I do remember breaking up at his “Guzzler’s Gin” sketch and the short routine he did at the 1977 Academy Awards. The reason why I compared him to Jim Carrey was not so much to argue one was funnier than the other but to point out that, regardless of how “sophisticated” we may think we are today, the “funny face and pratfall” type of comedy is still thriving.
Jerry Lewisis not now and has never been funny. At all.
Andy Kaufman. So unfunny, I wanted him to die. Thanks, God.
Steve Martin’s 70s stand-up. Nah, too high-brow. I don’t think he was obnoxious enough.
Between these two, I’ve laughed harder at THE SORROW AND THE PITY.
Hey, nice LAAAAdyyyyy! I got your preciousssssss!
sorry.
Chevy Chase is eligible, because his career, for all practical reasons, is over.
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I’ll agree that a lot of comic stuff doesn’t work outside of its time, not only because of the subject matter, but also because something that was once fresh and original gets copied and overused.
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That said, some old stuff is still hilarious. If you don’t think so, rent the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera, or Buster Keaton in his prime (The General, for instance), or Charlie Chaplin in his. Great stuff.
I rediscovered The Three Stooges in college. I’d liked them when I was a kid because of the slapstick, but I rediscovered them becauser of their wonderfully atrocious puns and verbal humor when I was older. (“I was a hot-dogger in the Army, just waiting to get mustered out.”)
- I haven’t watched Red Skelton in ages, but I recall him being very funny.
4.) Don’t judge Bob Hope by his later work alone (although I thought he quipped well and had great timing even late in his career). Look at his stuff from the 30s and 40s when he was a great wisecracking and physical comedian.
5.) Although I was impressed by Carrey’s physical comedy on In Living Color, I gotta admit that he’s never made me laugh out loud.
I could give you a long list of UK comedians (most of whom the average US Doper won’t have heard of) that aren’t dead. But sticking to the spirit of the OP, here’s a handful of the deceased…
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I’ve posted my opinions on him before. Spike Milligan. Slightly amusing when he started, embarrassingly unfunny from then on.
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Benny Hill. The 'merkins seemed to love him, but it was the same joke repeated for 30 years.
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Kenny Everett. Benny Hill re-hashed, even less funny.
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Tony Hancock. Man who made a career on the back of two talented script-writers’ jokes. Career went down the pan when he convinced himself he could do it without them.
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Peter Cook. Practically sacrilege to suggest it to most UK comedy fans, but I didn’t think he was funny and I thought he had petty, nasty streak that made some of his humour quite unpleasant. He pioneered improvisational comedy with Dudley Moore, but the resulting skits were painfully obvious (as a lot of bad improv still is.). You could see the gags clumping over the horizon from miles away.
Did Ray Jay Johnson ever have anything going for him besides that tired “Youse can call me Ray, or youse can call me Jay…” bit?
Is there anyone anywhere who actually found Rip Taylor funny?
Most comedy from the 50-60s I enjoyed when I was younger, but find that it is no longer funny as an adult.
I loved Andy, but I can see how most wouldn’t. I will avoid the clichéd “you just didn’t get him” since, well, that’s the whole point of comedy, init?
Hmmm… I remember a comedian I used to enjoy when I was young (before high school). I think his name was Dava Allen. He was Irish, I believe, and he sat on a stool on stage and told stories/jokes in between comedy sketches.
I have never scene or heard of him since then. Seems most other shows pop up somewhere eventually.
Do they have to be dead? Otherwise I’d nominate **Norman Wisdom. **
Ditto on Andy Kaufman and Chevy Chase. Both were/are decidedly unfunny.
John Candy was highly overrated too, but he was a lot funnier than Chris Farley.
Sam Kinison. Ye gods, I hated that man. Not funny.
And Chris Farley was much more talented than the fat jokes he was pigeonholed into. That’s the shame of his career.
Sometimes Lucille Ball made me laugh, but her childish whimperings were just awful.
Red Skelton cracked up too much in the midst of his won gags. His guests, too. Kinda hated that. But then, Carole Burnett and company did the same thing and yet, I adored them all.
I grew up listening to Bob Hope on radio, and watching him in WWII movies. Even as a pre-teener, I got all his jokes, but never thought they were funny, or even witty. But he busted his ass for our people in uniform and they loved him. Therefore, so do I.
There are folks here who can watch Abbott and Costello do “Who’s on First.” and NOT laugh? I sit here chortling in reminiscence. Okay, other than that, they were often unfunny.
These are the ones I’ve lived through.
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Sam Kinison. Um, you’re just yelling.
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Chris Farley. Um, you’re just really fat and yelling.
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Chevy Chase. You have no comedic timing or rhythm. And yes, I’ve seen you do the SNL news and you weren’t funny. The only thing you were remotely good in was Caddyshack and that’s only because you were playing the semi-straight man.
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Benny Hill. Um. OK.
Farley could be funny at times. He did a skit on SNL with Patrick Swayze that just had me in tears; they were both male strippers competing for the last spot on a Chippendales squad. Swayze does a little dance, competently, and then Farley dances like a man possessed for a good three minutes, his flab bouncing and jiggling. Afterwards the judges pick Swayze, and the two guys act like they’re sort of surprised he won. It was hysterical. It’s a simple visual joke - fat man trying to be a Chippendale - but he sold it extremely well; it suited his delivery and style, and the contrast with Swayze helped sell it.
Farley wasn’t usually funny, but I could UNDERSTAND why people might think he was. His screaming fat-dumb-guy act was boring to me, but I can see where the punchline was. Same with Cheech and Chong. I never found them very funny, but I can see the punchline.
Now, a comedian I just never got was Andy Kaufman. He was sure different. But he wasn’t funny. Benny Hill, too; why people find him funny I will just never understand.
Pauly Shore’s career is over so he’s eligible, and I never thought he was funny, either. I watched an entire Pauly Shore movie, “In The Army Now,” and never laughed once. It is probably the only full-length feature billed as a comedy I have ever watched that did not make me laugh a single time.