Charlie Chaplin was writer, director, producer, and star of almost all his films. He was also the editor of most of his films up through City Lights. He’s the composer of the music in most of his films. He gets a choreographer credit for Limelight.
And he never won a Oscar in any category*, although he was given special Oscars. That says a lot more about the Oscars than about Chaplin.
The only reason not to name Chaplin the greatest comic genius of the twentieth century is time bias. We’ll all too young to have any sense of him at his prime. There’s really no good reason not to put him at the top otherwise. Allen gets my nod only because I’ve grown up with his work always in the background. Ask me again in fifty years when both had faded from memory and maybe I’ll be able to give a more objective answer.
But Warren Beatty? Even the devil wouldn’t take that argument.
*Yes, in 1973 he was given the Oscar for 1952s Limelight on a technicality. But by then it was a lifetime achievement award not a real win.
Most probably do, but I don’t think I’ve seen enough of him to polarize myself at either end of that spectrum. If Jim Carrey’s portrayal of him is at all accurate, I imagine I’d think pretty much the same thing.
How about some love for Carl Barks, the genius behind 30 years of great Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comic books, and the creator of such memorable characters as Uncle Scrooge, the Beagle Boys and Gyro Gearloose?
The guy was able to churn out consistently funny material in huge volumes (with plenty of winks and nods to adult sensibilities).
If people don’t get the joke, then as a “comic genius” you suck. And what was his heyday, 10 years tops? Are you saying he was influential across the comedy spectrum? I don’t think so.
The man was a genius of the highest order. Hugely influential in the UK and beyond. Wrote, acted, published and all things in between.
He has to appear in any list of the greats IMO. Even if you don’t know a lot of his work I can almost guarantee that the comedians you love love Peter Cook.
Exactly. If he rejected the idea of amusing his audience or making them laugh, and I agree that he did, I doubt the word “comic” applies. In Kaufman’s case, I don’t think “genius” does either. As someone who doesn’t think he was that interesting, I think he was kind of a real-life troll - a guy who tried to annoy people, and admirable succeeded in that thing he set out to do for whatever reason.
We can’t have this thread without mentioning Benny Hill. Genius. Sheer genius. The bicycle seat falling off just as Benny jumps on the bike gag alone makes him the greatest comic of the 20th century.
That’s not the first time that happened to Chaplin. In 1929, he won a “special” Oscar for “versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus” instead of being nominated in those categories. In my view, this was the Academy’s way of saying, “You’re movie’s so popular it’s going to dominate the Academy Awards so, to keep the competition open, we’ll give you this ‘special Oscar’ so we can nominate some other movies in the categories of Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Picture.”
I’m could be persuaded by Andy Kaufman. Love him or hate him, he was (I don’t mean to paraphrase the song) looking for punchlines nobody had before.
You might think he succeeded, or failed, or some of each, but if he really uncovered primal jokes, rather than new situations for jokes that have been around since the dawn of time (the Greeks had their version of “Say goodnight, Gracie”), or even if he inspired a generation of others to really experiment and try new ways to get people to laugh, he’s got a great argument.
So, did he? Did he blaze new trails that others have followed? Did he blaze any successful trails period? I don’t know of any, but it’s not meant to be a pointed question. Maybe there are some. Closest I can think of is Letterman’s early tv show - he really bent the rules of TV. But, of course, Letterman (AFAIK) would have been the same comedian without Kaufman.
Don’t get me wrong, I laughed my butt off when I first saw him on SNL, but one of the great comic geniuses (how the hell do you plurallize that?) of our century? I don’t think so. But then, it’s only an opinion.
Primal jokes?
Seriously, good question, did he blaze new trails? Has comedy changed because of him? Nope, at his best, I think he was the stand-up equivalent of the Merry Prankster, goofing on us all for his own amusement.
