If that did in fact happen, that might be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.
Why, yes, I absolutely LOVE black comedy.
Hogan’s Heroes also ran for six seasons so being in poor tastes didn’t seem to hurt it’s popularity much.
Back to “classic” SNL. The “Uncle Roy” skits with the dirty old man babysitter who wanted the little girls he was watching to give him their dirty underwear…actually that was gross and creepy at the time. Even more so now.
Hogan’s Heroes was controversial, and there were those who considered it to be in bad taste even at the time. Notably, Russian-American actor Leonid Kinsky*, who appeared in the pilot episode as a Soviet prisoner, turned down the role when the show went to series, reportedly saying, “The Nazis were rarely stupid and never funny.”
On the other hand, all of the actors who played Nazi characters in the show were actually Jewish, and I believe that most of them saw playing Nazis as idiotic buffoons as a great way of giving a giant “F-you!” to Hitler.
- You know him best as Sasha the bartender in Casablanca.
The First Family? Well, if you were not conscious or on this planet at the time that record was popular, it would be totally inexplicable today, for the historical references alone. Just about every household in America had that record, and we listened to it so often we could quote the funniest bits verbatim. I hadn’t heard that record since 1963, and then about 25 years ago I found a good, clean copy of it for $1 at a yard sale. I took it home, and late one night listened to it, and laughed as much as I had back in the day. Funny was still funny. I wouldn’t expect anyone younger than me to have the same reaction or understand it at all. I’ve never listened to it since, but occasionally a line or a bit from it enters my mind, and it’s a pleasant thought. I’ve always felt sympathy for Vaughn Meader, though. On the morning of November 22nd 1963 he was on top of the world, and by the end of the day his career was over. And Lenny Bruce’s take on it? Hilarious.
There’s always funny in the Afghanistan banana stand.
Key & Peele’s Das Negroes sketch?
I could see someone missing some of the humor if they see that without knowledge of Key & Peele’s style of humor or if they didn’t know it was a parody of * Inglourious Basterds.* I don’t know if Baron Helmut Schnitzelnazi will ever not be funny.
“Ze Negro cannot rezizt de beet” is where I crack up. Actually, it’s when he says “Can I interest you two in some delicious … beEEEets!!!”
There was a period of time in the PC 90s and 00s where you could be as openly racist as you wanted to Asian people just as long as you were a black comedian.
Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, Dave Chappelle, Patrice O’Neal, all had some INCREDIBLY racist jokes about Asians.
Someone pointed out that the Uncle Roy sketches, creepy and gross that they were, preceded by several years the breakthrough in public awareness of how prevalent child molesters are in families. In the last Uncle Roy sketch they did, the mom (Jane Curtin) thanks Roy (Buck Henry) for being so good with the girls.
“Roy, you’re one in a million!”
Buck turns to the camera as he says the line, “Oh, there’s more of me than you might think.”
SHUDDER
For a bit of the opposite: What the Romans found funny.
There was a large body of comedic stories and plays that set “the city slicker” against “the country bumpkin”. Often the “country bumpkin” came out on top. The country character usually drawled and laughed like this: Hee-yuk, hee-yuk, hee-yuk.
The last time I recall seeing that was in an old Tex Avery cartoon.
At least on this message board it seems to have morphed into BLUE (urban) and RED (country), but not as humor…
You still see a lot of that in things as recent as Shitt’s Creek.
A lot of music, movies and memoirs have aged badly. Things that age better generally reflect current mores, avoid dated references and have something innovative or clever.
Songs like King Tut are not terrible. I remember being excited to see the exhibition on a school field trip. But it is hard to believe the song was super popular since it is not funny. I do not find Bruce funny either, but that does not mean he was not influential or groundbreaking.
Some old comedians are still very funny. Redd Foxx, Rodney Dangerfield, Jackie Mason and the Smothers Brothers still make me laugh. Andrew Dice Clay does not - infantile rhymes and cool meanness. George Carlin has always been clever, which excuses some meanness. This also redeems guys like Jeselnik who can be hilarious.
Eddie Murphy makes me laugh but the first track on both his big albums is homophobic. (His SNL “White Like Me” and “Mr. Robinson’s Neighbourhood” remain classics). I grew up listening to Cosby albums and while the material is probably still funny I do not want to replay them. Things like Bob Hope seem pretty harmless. Who knows what will survive the test of time?
Has anyone mentioned this circa-1987 Steven Wright joke:
“Women: Can’t live with ‘em, can’t shoot ‘em.”
Actually, it’s aged just fine — it’s as funny as ever — but comics would be much less likely to say it nowadays.
Do you have a source for that? Can anyone confirm or deny that Steven Wright originated/said that?
Gronk the Hairy: “Women: Can’t live with ‘em, can’t hit with rock or stick.”
I can’t find actual video of him seeing it, but there’s tons of cites attributing the quote to him, including this 25 year old piece from SFGate that includes a lot of his material.
Probably a legit bit from him.