The third act has been a problem all through history, except that Shakespeare called it the fifth act and placed all his problems there. Then plays got too long for audiences and Broadway put all of its problems into the second act.
Novelists don’t have this issue. They refer to the failed part as the “ending.”
True. Nobody is getting arrested these days for humor that upsets the squares. Then again as mentioned earlier we suffer from the biased sample of seeing the good and/or commercially succesful and/or notoriously controversial stuff that endured, out of context of how it was received in real time.
Had a Bruce or Carlin or Pryor been coming up today, they would be doing humor that challenges the establishment of today.
Or they make it a series and kick it to a future book.
Indeed. And isn’t MeToo et al the establishment today? Isn’t it?
With Crystal, Davis Jr. was alive when that portrayal took place. He presumptively was aware of it. I still need to be offended by it, even if Davis Jr. wasn’t? Davis Jr. himself was wrong not to be offended?
No actor can ever portray an actual person again, because it’s impossible to embody every facet of another human being. Crystal and Davis Jr. were both Jewish, both male. Crystal wasn’t African American, nor has he lost an eye. Can’t sing and dance as well either. So no portrayals of actual people ever, and the people themselves can’t consent to being portrayed either. They can’t even portray themselves, because they were different people at different points in their lives, and a past version or future version of themselves might be offended by the portrayal. So there we are.
There’s still teen/university sex comedies being made; I thought Blockers was really well done and a hell of a lot better than you’d expect.
There’s also Big Mouth and Sex Education on Netflix, the former of which is far raunchier than anything you’d have gotten away with in the past.
Some of Robin Williams’ films were very good at this “third act bullshit.” The first part would be Williams clowning, doing what he did best, and making us all laugh. The second part (the third act, if you like) would get very dark and serious. Examples would include Good Morning Vietnam, Patch Adams, and Dead Poets Society.
If Williams stuck to a total comedy, he did well. The Birdcage was fun, as was RV and Moscow on the Hudson. He was equally good at an all-drama film, like Awakenings and August Rush. Problems occurred when he tried to mix the two: comedy up front, and drama in the third act. I can easily rewatch Awakenings or The Birdcage. I cannot rewatch Good Morning Vietnam, or Patch Adams.
Well, there you are. I don’t think you’re speaking for the rest of us.
Actually, it would. We’ve gotten to a point where ANY racial “transgression,” no matter how far in the past, or how minor, is nearly certain to be a career-killer.
Take away the blackface and there is nothing racially offensive about Billy Crystal’s Sammy Davis Jr. impersonation. Blackface has very specific historical baggage that makes it unwise for any comedian now that we (well, most of us) have been educated about it.
That is so obviously not true, I’m not even going to bother posting the incredibly long list of currently successful and respected entertainers who have such transgressions in their past.
Ted Danson for example.
Blackface was unacceptable for decades before Crystal’s impression. Crystal’s makeup was also realistic, not the exaggerated makeup that the minstrel performers wore. Crystal’s impression exaggerated Davis Jr.'s Jewishness, not his blackness. The makeup was the realistic, straight part of the act. Crystal and Davis Jr. were both Jewish.
Contemporary Eddie Murphy has wore realistic lighter makeup multiple times to play different characters. Murphy has also portrayed Jewish characters, though Murphy is not Jewish himself. Are these portrayals equally offensive?
Nor do you.
You’re right. I haven’t heard anyone complain about Fred Armisen’s impression of Prince or Barack Obama yet. The truth is that you never know what’s going to be dragged up from the past to upset people on the internet these days. Ted Danson’s blackface seems to have been largely overlooked, but them he got roasted pretty hard for it at the time.
The two times I remember when Monty Python had people in makeup designed to make people look like they are of African descent, there were offensive parts of the portrayals, but the makeup wasn’t part of it. As a matter of fact, it make me feel a little bit for people who did use exaggeration in blackface, because every damn time I see the skits I initially think the light-skinned Caucasian actor with darkened skin is playing an Indian, even when I know what’s coming up.
Danson’s culpability in that has always been iffy. From his WIki bio: “Later, [Whoopi] Goldberg defended the sketch, explaining that she had helped write much of the material and referred Danson to the makeup artist who painted his face as a societal critique.”
He and Goldberg were partners at the time, and they planned the spoof for a Friar’s Club Roast of her, mocking the over-the-top racial, sexist, homophobic, etc. etc. jokes that were standard from the Friar’s in the old days. They were also getting hate mail for being an interracial couple. Unless Danson put in terrible stuff on his own that she didn’t know about, the backlash said more about the world than the skit.
I’m not sure that any genuine blackface ever made it into talkies. But performers like Stepin Fetchit offended people by how they acted, even if the actors were cast in racially correct roles. It seems to me that over time, there was a tendency to view those actors in a kinder light, given the limitations on how African Americans of the time were allowed to act on the screen.
He also put on blackface to play a retired Negro League ballplayer, in an SNL video.
Oh dear. It definitely made it into the Talkies.
Here’s Judy Garland
Nice analysis, IMHO.
Or this scene from HOLIDAY INN starring Bing Crosby.
