I grew up watch Laurel and Hardy on the BBC back in UK. I think they’re the funniest double act of all time.
What does everybody else think?
How popular are they nowadays? They’re not on TV as far i know…
They are hilarious. They are a timeless classic that I can always watch over and over again. They never fail to make me laugh.
I was able to catch them on TV for a few weeks on Spike TV awhile back I think. The also were showing The Three Stooges, which I would put in the same league as Laurel and Hardy.
Love 'em. Very, very funny and they came across as sweet, decent men which made them that much more appealing.
I saw them do an “impromptu” dance in a movie set in the West, I think. I still smile when I think of it, and I probably saw it 20 years ago. They were great.
I’m 42, so I’ve only seen them out of their era, but they never struck me as terribly funny. I loved watching Abbott and Costello as a kid though, and to this day the Marx Brothers make me laugh out loud, so I suppose it’s just my taste.
They were among my favorites of the era. I had Martin and Lewis as favorites, Abbott and Costello next, quite a few single acts like Red Skelton in the mix, and Laurel and Hardy down the list a bit. I never cared for The Three Stooges.
Most of the old comedy acts were before my movie-going days and it was only after TV reruns that I was able to see them at all. At that age, most of the old comics and acts were just not as funny as cartoons and those acts I already mentioned.
It was Ed McMahon’s enthusiasm over WC Fields that persuaded me to give him a second chance and I did find his stuff amusing. Same with Mae West.
So, I rank Laurel and Hardy among the better comedy teams, but I don’t watch their stuff anymore. But that’s true of all the old pre-60’s comedy acts that weren’t doing “live” TV.
Laurel and Hardy are midway between the almost purely physical comedy of the Stooges and the barrage of one-liners and silliness of Groucho. They could do bits as athletic as any of them*, but they could also devastate audiences with a well-timed look. The short where they have to move the piano into the house still cracks me up multiple times, as does the one set on the ‘haunted’ ship.
*(Well, not Buster Keaton. He was a force of nature. He was a personification of physical comedy. He broke his neck making the railroad water tank scene of Sherlock Jr. and didn’t realize it until years afterwards, when an x-ray revealed his spine had healed and that he was a total badass.)
Give yerself a treat and watch it again.
It makes me smile, too!
Of the older comedians and teams I personally rank them as #2.
- Buster Keaton
- Laurel and Hardy
- Marx Brothers
- Abbot and Costello
But the distance between 1 and 4 is very small. I think all of them were brilliant. I also like the Stooges but they would be at best a very distant #5.
Yes, yes, that was it! Thank you very much, that was a treat. And, yes, I smiled again.
I like them very much, and, at the Kansas Silent Film Festival, just saw one of their films last night.
It was titled That’s My Wife and was one ov their very last silent films. Oliver is a married man who has allowed a friend, Stan, to mooch on him at his house for two years. His frustrated wife leaves him, and thereby creates a major problem. Oliver has a rich uncle that is inclined to leave all his money to him, if he’s happily married. So when the uncle pays an unexpected visit Stan dresses up as the wife, with predictably hilarious results.
I suppose Buster Keaton would be my favorite silent comedian though. Has anyone else seen Seven Chances? That’s got to be one of the funniest movies I ever saw.
After Keaton, and just a leetle ahead of Laurel and Hardy, comes Charley Chase. He really only did shorts, and didn’t get into the sound era.
Stan and Oliver are third, and then comes the Marx Brothers. But all four are very close, it is hard to rank them. I didn’t really care for the Stooges at all.
Agreed. The Marx Brothers are timeless comedy gold. In my opinion, the only “modern day” comedien who even comes close is Mel Brooks.
Have loved them as long as I can remember. Back in the early 60s, they used to be on TV early Saturday mornings, before cartoons came on. I was there every Saturday, glued to the TV. I could watch Stan visit Ollie in the hospital, deliver a piano, have a Bavarian courtship, escape from prison…and the list goes on and on.
If they were on today, I’d be glued to the screen all over again.
Laurel and Hardy were always a second-string comedy team (note: I didn’t say “second-rate”). There were always better and more popular comedians out there: Chaplin and Keaton in the silent era; the Marx Brothers, Mae West; and W.C. Fields in the 30s; and even Abbott and Costello* in the 40s.
The problem was that L&H were just soooooo stupid and had nothing to counteract them. I recently watched The Flying Deuces and it takes so long for them to realize their situation that you want to slap them silly. It just isn’t funny when they do the same joke over and over. (As an aside, the title is something of a fraud – they don’t fly until the last five minutes.)
They definitely had some funny things going on – Stan’s crying, and Ollie’s look at the camera – but they were far too limited.
*Not that A&C were particularly good – L&H at their best were better – but by the time A&C came along L&H were dismal.
Maybe it’s the personalities that were involved - but I never much liked Laurel & Hardy. Something about pitifully, cringingly stupid combined with mean, slightly less stupid in a way that was supposed to be pathetic yet funny never struck me as comedy gold.
I found Abbott and Costello minimally tolerable for some of the same reasons.
Perhaps the formula that says “Let’s laugh our asses off at these wretched losers” is what turns me off.
Keaton, Chaplin, even Harold Lloyd in the little I’ve seen of him were much preferable. And if the Marx Brothers are added to the mix, they’d be my favorites.