I’d like to discuss stand-up routines, or other comedy routines, that are still funny years after their original “air date,” so to speak.
I’d like to keep this thread to stage-oriented comedy, thus leaving out sit-coms, movies, slapstick, etc. The kind of comedy I’m talking about is a comedian, on the stage, with nothing but the mike and maybe some props.
Here are some of my suggestions:
[ul]
[li]Andy Griffith’s Romeo and Juliet. Like most (all?) Andy Griffith stage routines, he looks at the subject matter from the point of view of a startled, yet fascinated, country bumpkin.[/li][li]Andy Griffith’s What it Was, Was Football. Another country bumpkin describing something new to him.[/li][li]Abbot & Costello’s Who’s on First?[/li][/ul]
Steve Martin on “Let’s Get Small” and “Wild and Crazy Guy” Timeless because his jokes are simple, self-reflective, and not wrapped into the current events of the time.
We just saw Charlie Chaplin’s THE GOLD RUSH and laughed like crazy. It’s wonderfully enjoyable.
Political humor obviously gets dated fairly quickly, but other humor can endure, although tastes do change. One can still read Oscar Wilde for amusement, f’rinstance.
Back in 1991 I was producing books-on-tape and Mr. Winters came in to record a book for us.
The owner, actress Deborah Raffin, was sitting in the sessions with me. Mr. Winters would frequently deviate from the written script, going off on a tangent in one or more of his many characters.
After about the fourth outburst, I moved to stop the tape. Deborah stopped me.
“I’m trying to save tape!” I protested.
“Screw the tape,” Deborah said. “This is classic stuff. We might be able to use it someday.”
Sure enough, the book should have taken two reels of tape, we ended up with 9 reels, and after cutting, we had a one-reel book and 5 reels of hilarious outtakes.
I wish I would have kept a copy of those tapes. Absolute classic material, and no one there to hear it but Deborah and me.
As far as I know, they were never released in any form.
That is comedy that will last forever. At least in my mind.
Hold on no one has mentioned George Carlin and Richard Pryor yet… Thats amazing. Those are hands down the two best ever. With Carlin’s play on words and Pryor’s ability to make race jokes funny… people will always be laughing.
I agree with Monty Python.
There is also a 1930-1940’s group called the Bowery Boys. Hilarious stuff if you can ever get the chance to see it.
*Auntie Mame- damn, but Rosalind Russell was one classy good lookin’ broad. The scene in which she entertains the Upsens has lost nothing in almost 50 years anymore than her disastrous theater debut or her crash course in horseback riding. Cher has massive shoes to fill for the remake.
*Desk Set with Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn- an oddity about this movie is that he’s a long-term executive with IBM and she’s the head of reference at a major corporate library and they develop romantic feelings for each other even though, can you believe it, they both look like they’re over 30! Odd.
*Harvey- after all this time, invisible 8 foot tall rabbits and their genteel lush friends are still funny. (“I’d like to have you for dinner sometime… here’s my card… now that’s the old number, call me at the second number there…”)
*Cat Ballou- Lee Marvin as Kid Shelleen is one of the most undeservedly forgotten Oscar winning performances of all time, and the scene in which he transforms from drunken derelict would-be-killer for hire to slick, rhinestone studded and besilked killer for hire is a total gem.
When I was a kid my Mother used to play her cassette of Bill Cosby: Himself in the car and My brothers, sisters and I thought it was hilarious, no matter how many times we heard it.
No I’m a grown-up and I still think it is Hilarious. When I take my friend’s kids out, I play it in the car and they think it is Hilarious.
Dad is Great!
He gives us the Chocolate Cake!
I looked out the window, saw my daughter, and she was eating dirt
My wife announced to everyone in the delivery room that my parents were never married
First of all, Lenny Bruce didn’t say it. If you go back and read the OP, you will see that the statement you are disagreeing with was made by someone using the screen name “occ”.
Second of all, it is not true of Lenny Bruce’s comedy. I still listen to it, and laugh my ass off. While some of his material no doubt has dated badly, like the names of politicians and celebrities he is referencing, the ACTS of those people that he makes fun of are still going on and worthy of lampooning.
But as far as it not being true of all comedy, you are right on the money.
Sam Kinison - A primal scream that vented the frustrations of a generation.
Bill Hicks - An insight unparalleled in history of stand-ups (my opinion, of course, as are all these statements).
George Carlin - One of the finest minds ever to turn his talents to the comedy stage.
Richard Pryor - The most naturally gifted, best comedian EVER.
Bill Cosby - A classic in every sense of the word. I do wish he had been nice to Wanda Sykes though. Lowered my opinion of him as a person.
And believe it or not:
Bill Engval - Unlike Foxworthy, he makes country comedy FUNNY.
Victor Borge. Politicians will come and go; comedians who take current mores to task will become obsolete; people who play with the structure and content of music will always (in my unconsidered opinion) be relevant.
“And she stabs herself between the two big…TREES.”
