One of us is being whooshed.
It ain’t you.
Grandpa bought a rubber.
My kids think he hilarious when they see parts of his act on TV.
We use lines of his at home like;
- “First: get a million dollars - THEN…”
- “One day, when I was home doing terrible things to my dog with a fork, it hit me…”
- “I’m starting a bank - Fred’s Bank - and I’ll put your money here…no, here.”
SCOOP Cheeseburger…SCOOP Fries…SCOOP here’s your change…
I think a lot of comedy is a product of its time. This is why you can never remake *the Three Stooges *or the Little Rascals today. Well you could but it would pale in comparison.
I remember how everyone rushed home to watch Laugh-In. It didn’t hold up well.
Other things are a mystery to me. In Chicago a low power station WWME-CA (Me-TV) runs All In The Family and it’s consistently one of their best rated shows.
Now I find it funny, but I find it hard to believe people who were not around at that time can relate to it or find it funny. But they do, another show, Good Times was one of the most highly rated show for African American’s under 18, in Chicago. But it didn’t do nearly as well with African Americans over 18.
So while some humour doesn’t work, some older shows still can connect on some level.
It would still be funny to the older crowd that gets the references. It wouldn’t be funny for somebody that didn’t get the references.
Generally, you’re right. However, a couple of years ago I saw Richard Pryor’s Live in Concert for the first time.
I laughed so hard I darn near lost control of my bodily functions. If I’d have had Popeye’s chicken for lunch, I would have needed a new pair of pants.
Now who doesn’t love a little bit of domestic violence humor? “One of these days, Alice; Pow! Right to the Moon!”
George Carlin’s early work is still quite funny, and Richard Pryor has some staying power, but most humor does seem terribly rooted in its day.
Stranger
Neither of these surprise me. Ethnic humor, being a play on différence that most people encounter regularly and are familiar with, is a naturally fertile ground for comedy. Most mainstream outlets shy away from it for threat of social censure–even Chris Rock has backed down somewhat. The Norman Lear comedies are like a time capsule for an era when those types of jokes could be told. They come off as fresh today because they are, in a way, more taboo now than when they were produced.
Hell, I still find Abbott & Costello pretty damn funny.
Even Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roasts, which are painfully dated due to the sheer number of racial and other now-taboo jokes, are also painfully hilarious. Granted, you do need to have a good understanding of the personalities who were around then, but even so it hasn’t lost its edge.
I’m laughing right now just reading the plot of The Jerk. I love this movie.
Still one of my favorite movies ever.
“For one dollar I’ll guess your weight, your height, or your sex.”
Brilliant.
I think absurdist humor like Steve Martin’s ages very well in general. The Jerk, All of Me and 3 Amigos are still pee-myself-funny. He was also a master of short bit sketches like SNL, and Little Shop of Horrors.
Shock-humor, though, ages very poorly. I used to find old routines of Pryor, Carlin, and Murphy hilarious back in the day, but they can’t even crack a smile to me today.
I have always been mad for Steve Martin. I remember listening to A Wild and Crazy Guy over and over again on my Grandma’s record player when I was a kid (King Tut was the coolest song ever and is a regular on my mp3 player). “Cruel Shoes” was one of the first books I ever owned (still have it).
I really, really dig this guy - do I think the 70s Steve Martin would go over well today? No. I think a lot of humor today has to be delivered quickly; “Just give me the punchline and let me go home”. The next day the routine is forgotten, save for some video phone shots on YouTube. IMO, there are very few comics today that stand out like Martin, Pryor, Kinison, etc… One who, unfortunately has passed, was Mitch Hedberg. He reminds me of a lazy Martin. Doug Stanhope is another that I definitely think is going to stick around - Sam Kinison and Richard Pryor had a baby and named it Doug.
Martin is smart. Even in The Jerk (of course, my favorite movie with the best quotable lines ever) he had that physical presence of being awkward and stilted but combined with his speaking and flailing movements - he was a complete goofball. His older writing is so absurd, but it makes sense in its own way. I think he has evolved very well with the changes in comedy and entertainment, but I still miss the silliness (maybe simply for the nostalgic value).
“You mean I’m gonna stay this color?”
Depends what medium he was attempting to break into, I guess. But in an increasingly stupid Family Guy world, I don’t know if Martin’s charmingly silly routines would have a place if they debuted now, unfortunately.
I understood his early stand-up to be absurdist, and it very often killed. Sometimes it was just stupid. On the other hand, I didn’t win an Emmy for comedy writing when I was 23. 
I have nothing but respect for any person who writes well, performs comedy well, does straight acting well, and is an award-winning musician.
I hear he plays the banjo too.
Personally, I didn’t find him all that funny back in the 1970s. I remember seeing one of his TV specials “Comedy is not Pretty” with some friends who were ROTFLTAO and I was there, huh, you find that funny? Got one of his albums to meet the “10 for a penny” to join the record club and the only good thing was King Tut.
But a number of his 1980s films are quite good. I especially liked “All of Me”. with that great exchange between lawyer and dying rich woman
Martin “What makes you think you can cheat death”?
Lily Tomlin “Because I’m rich”
Maybe nowadays the path to success for a comedian is to host a comedy show, not be a guest on them.
Like a lot of really excellent observations, that almost seems obvious in retrospect. Thinking back, a lot of his punchlines were delivered with an over-the-top element that mocked what he was doing while he was doing it, inviting us to laugh along with the delivery as much as the joke itself.
And the arrow was great!