I own a boxed set of cassettes called The American Comedy Box. Below is a link to a copy for sale of it which has the track listings. I don’t think that there is any clear point at which the comedy routines change from bad to good. The oldest ones certainly sound like they are about old issues that are not relevant to today, while the newest ones are by comedians you’ve heard of. The ways that the comedians use to present their routines have definitely changed over the years. Comedy, like everything else in our society, slowly evolves over time. I can’t make the link work as one you can click on. Put the pieces below into one line and you can get to the website with the list of comedy routines:
https://
www.amazon
.com/
But-Seriously-American-Comedy-Box/
dp/B00000338N
Thank you, DesertDog, for the link to the Tom Lehrer concert.
That’s a really good selection of pieces. How did the Amazon reviewers think that 100 years of humor could all be represented?
Interesting, though, that they used Barney Bernard’s cover version of “Cohen at the Telephone.” The credit for that one belongs to vaudevillian Joe Hayman. He recorded the original in London in 1913. It’s reputed to have sold two million copies in time, the first million-selling comedy record. The wordplay still holds up, better than a lot of contemporary humor. Hayman did multiple versions of the routine, many with his wife Mil Franklin.
I somehow stumbled across Twenty different adventures of Cohen on the Telephone, published in London in 1929 as a trade paperback. A later edition, unfortunately. Like so many things, the later routines aren’t quite as good as the original. The illustrations are funny. They age Cohen from a dark mustache to a long white beard for “Cohen Still Phoning.”
You left of Canada, for without them we wouldn’t have Kids in the Hall and SCTV.
You are correct. Mea culpa. Some of my favorite comedians are indeed Canadian, including Norm MacDonald, John Candy, Leslie Nielson, Dan Aykroyd, and others.
Lewis Black is about 40 years older than me and I can still appreciate his material.
I did not know those old songs were by Lehrer. Thanks for the link. I would also mention the Smothers Brothers, who were funny and courageous and who still have some topical humour (but some rambling stuff too. La Cucaracha!).
With all the love for Tom Lehrer, don’t forget Allen Sherman and Stan Freberg. (I could live without Spike Jones, though)
Ou high school Civ teachers always played Freberg’s History of the United States (that’s what it was called, right?) for us.
It’s technically Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One: The Early Years. That came out in 1961. Obviously there was supposed to be more volumes, but they got a trifle … delayed. Like until 1996 delayed when Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume Two: The Middle Years finally appeared. There was supposed to be a Volume Three as well, but, you know.
He did the same thing for his 1988 autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh, which abruptly stops in 1963 because there was another part coming. Maybe for the best, after the 60s he basically just faded as a force. He loudly hated rock and roll and the new counterculture. Hard to be a satirist when you aren’t at all part of your culture. But he was only 37 in 1963.
Too bad, because he had such a fabulous history in radio, television, and advertising. Anyone remember Beany and Cecil in their first show Time for Beany? He did voices and puppetry for them. Even our oldsters here probably don’t know that.
I read Freberg’s autobiography, but it was years ago. As I recall, Freberg was approached by a producer who wanted to create a Broadway show based on the first record, but then that producer (can’t remember his name) just strung Freberg along and was a nightmare to work with. Legal issues between the two led to the delay of the second album.
I’ve also heard that Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfus used to amuse themselves between filming scenes for Jaws by singing some of Freberg’s songs from that record.
Stan Freberg literally became an encyclopedia salesman…in 1990. The man was cutting edge for about 5 years and just stopped moving with the times around 1965.
I grew up hearing Tom Lehrer singing on The Electric Company. Here is Silent E
When I bought a Dr Demento tape years later, I recognized his voice on “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” and “Masochism Tango,” but couldn’t quite place it.
I got to hear him “giving a talk” at Bumbershoot*, but it was basically stand-up. So great.
.
*Seattle music/comedy/theater festival
That’s Stan Freberg’s son Donovan in the commercial. In one of the ads in that series, you can see Freberg’s autobiography on the bookshelf.
Do you remember what year? I went to Bumbershoot a few times before I moved away from Seattle.
Google says I was there in '89 (hey, it’s not like I’d remember a date… that’s my wife’s talent, not mine). Looks like each day cost $5.
I do remember having to rush from BB King’s show, past some country guy (looks like that was Chris Issak), to get to Stan’s “TED talk” on time.
I’m used to Summerfest and other festivals with a lot of music. But Bumbershoot surprised me by also having poetry, dance, spoken word, and the Seattle symphony.
So it’s got a perfect name for an inclusive festival, in a rainy city. Hey, it’s still a thing! September 2-3 this year.
Dave Allen was an Irish comedian who originally made it big in Australia in the early 1960s before going back to the UK. Not sure whether he worked a stand-up in the classic American sense in the beginning, but certainly did so later in his career, which is fairly well sampled on Youtube.
The oldest comedic film I’ve seen is Little Tramp (1915) which I found funny.
Although not considered a comedian, Méliès films often are quite amusing.
Today? I’d doubt you’ll hear about either of them, although I feel their work stands the test of time.
The first link below is a list of good older comedy movies. Some I’ve seen, and some I haven’t. The second link is a list of good older short comedy movies. I don’t know much about them: