# Comedy That Stands the Test of Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 17, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581 "2004-02-17T00:53:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/21 "2004-02-17T16:07:15Z")
Ilsa, what is the name of that famous Lloyd short where he climbs up the building and hangs off the clock face, allegedly all improvised and in one take? That will never be equaled. Burns and Allen will endure because of Gracie’s original blonde personality. Laurel and Hardy remain pretty damn funny today. Some Buster Keaton has gotten really dry, but some of his shorts, combined with his physical dexterity, remain funny. What’s the one where the house spins around at the end, and ends up totally demolished? Chaplin’s facial expressions and physical mannerisms are immortal. ---
**Author:** ![gleeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f14d63/32.png) [@gleeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gleeb)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/22 "2004-02-17T16:17:36Z")
PG Wodehouse. Sure, the social millieu he wrote about doesn’t exist any more (not that it ever _really_ existed), and his plots are simple musical-comedy plots put into novels. But two things occur to me. First, he had a good enough ear, and enough sense, to realize that if, for example, something has to be stolen, you don’t make it a diamond necklace, you make it a [cow creamer](http://www.acquistosilver.com/images/Photos/CowCream.jpg), wich is an inherently absurd object. Second, of course, is his mastery of a light, comic language, mixing a mock-learned tone with slangy words and phrases to great effect: > [@](#): > > A master of the _mot juste_, like Faubert, would have described her as mad as a wet hen. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/23 "2004-02-17T17:03:01Z")
> [@essvee](#): > > Some Buster Keaton has gotten really dry, but some of his shorts, combined with his physical dexterity, remain funny. What’s the one where the house spins around at the end, and ends up totally demolished? > > . You’re thinking of the hurricane finale to ‘Steamboat Bill, Jr’. May I add a vote for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and also Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie’s sketch comedies? Even though it’s a sit-com (and technically off limits here!), some of the set pieces in the Black Adder series are just outstanding. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/24 "2004-02-17T17:23:38Z")
There are some Tracy Ullman sketches that are still uproariously funny. The clothes they wear are a bit out of date, but the heart of the skits are still universal enough to cause you to bust a gut. One that slays me is Tracy Ullman is in a latin dance competition, and her arch-nemesis stole her panties to sabotage her. She gets pulled onstage by her dance partner before she has a chance to tell him. Has to do the entire dance routine while trying to prevent her skit from flipping up and exposing her nether regions. All the while she is trying to communicate the situation to her partner before the grand finale. Hysterical! ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/25 "2004-02-17T17:31:46Z")
> [@essvee](#): > > Ilsa, what is the name of that famous Lloyd short where he climbs up the building and hangs off the clock face, allegedly all improvised and in one take? > > That will never be equaled. > > Burns and Allen will endure because of Gracie’s original blonde personality. > > Laurel and Hardy remain pretty damn funny today. > > Some Buster Keaton has gotten really dry, but some of his shorts, combined with his physical dexterity, remain funny. What’s the one where the house spins around at the end, and ends up totally demolished? > > Chaplin’s facial expressions and physical mannerisms are immortal. _Safety Last!_, 1923. It wasn’t improvised, it wasn’t one take, but Lloyd really was hanging off a building a bit of a ways up. Great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/26 "2004-02-17T17:38:45Z")
Shame on you ALL! Tons of posts and no one has yet mentioned the Three Stooges?! :dubious: There is no one – NO ONE – I know who hasn’t at least chuckled over the Stooges, even if it isn’t necessarily high art. I plan on showing it to Baby Chastain as soon as she’s here. Truly standing the test of time. Still funny after 60 years. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/27 "2004-02-17T19:57:20Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > 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. Within the limits set by the OP, I would submit Bob Newhart’s early routines. Listen to the one where he’s portraying Sir Walter Raleigh on the phone to Queen Elizabeth, explaining to her what tobacco is That routine brings tears to my eyes, it’s so funny! ("…you stick it between your lips…you set fire to it?"). Or the inexperienced Empire State Building security gurd reporting King Kong’s climb (“Yes, sir, I looked in the handbook index under “unauthorized personnel” and “people without passes” and “apes”, and “ape’s toes”, but it’s not in there…”). His stuff is priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/28 "2004-02-17T20:20:25Z")
**Carol Burnette** is one classy lady and has the power to be in re-runs and still make me/ us laugh twenty five years later. The Scarlett O’Hara sketch is one of the funniest pieces on TV. " Oh it was just some thin’ in the window I saw…" **[Shirley 's Hollywood Conspiracy Du Jour]** Hollywood doesn’t give alot of chance to the women. It’s ok for the men to be funny, smart, coarse, smartass, but ladies, until not so long ago, really only could be like Lucille Ball: whining, ditzy. I can’t stand I Love Lucy. If they were funny i t was a dippy funny and needs a man to get her out of another mess. If they were smart-funny the women were delegated to headstrong female in a supoort character, the one that never married and smoked cigerettes. Kinda like the message they are sending out that if you are a smartass and smart ( and most funny people are rather bright.) you \*won’t get the guy and get married and have baaaabies. So keep your trap shut and marry a nice boy cause men don’t like women that are too smart. \* That’s my take on it. I’d much rather watch the lead actresses best friend smartmouth her way through a flick than the ‘oh woe is me’ lead role hysterics. But, that’s just me, YMMV. Thus I conclude my semi-coherent conspiracy rant Du Jour. This rant has been sponsored in part by XOX Metal Colanders. _Nothing Keeps Out Alien Space Rays like an OXO Colander ™._ ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/29 "2004-02-17T20:38:00Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Bill Hicks, ridiculing Pres. Bush for taking the world to war for dubious reasons…not just still funny, but _spooky_ Tell me about it: > [@](#): > > Bush sells 160 fighters to Korea and then 240 tanks to Kuwait, and then goes around making speeches why he should be commander-in-chief because “we still live in a dangerous world”. Thanks to you, you fucker! > [@](#): > > There’s a quote from Saddam going: “We have nothing against America. We just want to see George Bush’s head kicked down the road like a soccer ball.” And I’m thinking: “That’s what I want to see.” And finally: > [@](#): > > There ain’t no one out there who’s a threat to us, OK? They don’t exist. I’m talking now only of countries we don’t arm first. Ouch. But less politically, some of Morecambe and Wise’s stuff still makes me laugh to the point of hernia: > [@](#): > > He’ll never sell any ice cream at that speed. Pretty much anything on their BBC shows that didn’t involves a star du jour (and some of the material that did) is still very funny indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Adjustable\_Beavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Adjustable\_Beavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adjustable_Beavis)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/30 "2004-02-17T21:35:12Z")
Some of W.C Fields stuff is timeless. Mark Twain can still get a chuckle out of me. ---
**Author:** ![JRR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecccb3/32.png) [@JRR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRR)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/31 "2004-02-17T22:03:01Z")
Two completely opposite opinions: **The Three Stooges** A hearty “hell yeah!” to this. The Stooges work on an international level - you don’t need to speak a word of English to appreciate them. And it’s not just because of all the violent slapstick; they were such talented physical comedians that they could fully express their personalities with just a gesture or look. **Bill Hicks** Hicks isn’t so much “funny” as he’s “whiny” and “wrong.” > [@](#): > > Bush sells 160 fighters to Korea and then 240 tanks to Kuwait, and then goes around making speeches why he should be commander-in-chief because “we still live in a dangerous world”. Thanks to you, you fucker! Where the hell is the funny there? If he was around in the 40’s would he have routine about “did you hear about how Roosevelt gave France and England weapons? What the fuck, is he trying to start a war? FUCKER!” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/32 "2004-02-17T22:30:36Z")
> [@JRR](#): > > **Bill Hicks** > Where the hell is the funny there? If he was around in the 40’s would he have routine about “did you hear about how Roosevelt gave France and England weapons? What the fuck, is he trying to start a war? FUCKER!” It’s funny in the same way that the joke about the guy on trial for killing his parents who pleads for clemency on the grounds that he’s an orphan is funny. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/33 "2004-02-17T23:56:21Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > _Safety Last!_, 1923. > It wasn’t improvised, it wasn’t one take, but Lloyd really was hanging off a building a bit of a ways up. Great stuff. Hijack! I bought an old photo last summer, specifically for the frame. I used it to frame one of my photos for a show. I kept the photo that was in the frame though because it’s a well preserved old portrait of a woman in…erm, uh…late teens/early twenties clothing. At the bottom of the mount is the studio name, Witzel’s Studio, Hollywood California. I hopped on line and did a search for that studio name and came up with this little nugget about Harold Lloyd: > [@](#): > > On August 24, 1919, Harold was posing for publicity stills at Witzel’s Photographers, Los Angeles. One shot called for Lloyd to light a cigarette from a prop bomb, striking a sassy, devil-may-care pose. > The prop so resembled a real bomb that an actual real bomb got mixed in with the fakes, > The real bomb was handed to Lloyd. He lit the already-lit cigarette onto the wick, but found that the excessive smoke prohibited a good picture. > As he signaled for a new wick, the bomb exploded. The force of the blast temporarily blinded Lloyd, and severed the thumb and forefinger from his right hand, and kept him out of the studio for almost seven months. > Thanks to the input of former glove salesman Sam Goldwyn, Lloyd’s impairment was covered within a prosthetic glove. At no time did Lloyd ever discuss the loss of the fingers, even in his 1928 autobiography, An American Comedy, or in numerous interviews and oral histories. The reason for this was that, at no time, did Lloyd want his fans to know about the disability, for he did not want his audiences to come to see him out of pity, or sympathy, or curiosity. He wanted people, simply, to laugh with him. It’s from this website. Pretty cool of the guy, if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moo_the_Magic_Cow)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581/34 "2004-02-18T00:01:52Z")
I don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but classic cartoons like Tom & Jerry and Bugs Bunny are still funny today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comedy-that-stands-the-test-of-time/229581.md?page=1)