Classic Comedy: Was It Ever Funny? - US comedy doesn't hold up?

[Urban Paradise]

It's not that American comedy is inherently unfunny; It's more like American humor relies on absurdism and surrealism. Meanwhile, British comedy is all about wit, subtlety, and dry humor.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Same for National Lampoon's Vacation, which is arguably the best of the series. It was about a dysfunctional family going on a road trip, which was stuff you never saw movies being made about at the time, and it wasn't really family friendly either.

But does it hold up today? I've not seen it start to finish. The bits I have seen, like him driving an oversized car.

i cannot list any other than chicken robot and south park

There's some good stuff. The Simpsons, Futurama, I remember Celebrity Deathmatch back in the day, but I've not seen it since it aired and I assume it aged horribly. Naked Gun/Police Squad was one of the funniest things ever made and is American.

There's also lots of good films. I remember liking Happy Gilmore. I've not seen Blazing Saddles, but people love it. Then there's Ghostbusters, Short Circuit, The Ref. I mentioned SNL Billionaire Star Trek in the OP, but the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest is funny.

Though on that note, I never like American Pie or The Goonies. And yes, I'm aware some of these are childrens movies.

He is comparing our classics to your fodder, of course he will win.

I didn't know I was. I always see them cited as classics.

Seinfeld is very much 80s and 90s Americana. I wouldn't expect non-Americans to like it nor really understand it.

Makes sense. I was wondering if I was lacking context and I'm just missing something.

I like how they attempted to copy it crowd (my favourite) twice, the pilot of one of which was literally carbon copy of the first episode of the original and even casted ayoade as moss, so it was just ep 1 but with american accent

Red Dwarf always springs to mind. "The last human is a slob from Birmingham," gets turned "Buff action hero."

Does all British comedy hold up? Every Monty Python sketch is gold plated?

No. Even some of the good stuff is outdated. This sketch (the hifi shop sketch) is considered a classic but makes no sense outside of a brief window of time hifis were popular and no one sold all-in-one systems.

American humor relies on absurdism and surrealism. Meanwhile, British comedy is all about wit, subtlety, and dry humor.

British comedy can get very surreal. Paul Merton The Series is a favourite and some of that is like a fever dream. Then there's Monty Python of course.

I know what you mean though. A lot of the shows and films I see cited as classics seem to rely on shouting. The star trek one is just shouting and references. There are, what, two jokes? One where the employee says he needs to use the toilet and he throws him a bottle is the only one that was trying.

 

[Ultrapenguin]

Well Britsh comedy is made for British people and those with low testosterone levels. In the US I've never known a single person who was into British comedy who wasn't a quirk chungus redditor type.

Really though I've had the same thing where nobody would shut up about Monty Python, then eventually I saw it and stuff like The Holy Grail was bizarre and quirky, but not actually that funny. It could just be a matter of cultural sensibilities.

Steven Colbert was cancelled recently. I don't know who this guy is really. Some late night talk show host or a comedian? Maybe in America that's the same thing? Point is, this guy was supposedly a riot. But the clips of him are nothing but Trump derangement syndrome and sucking establishment cock.

If my Stephen Colbert knowledge is correct his first major role was one of the more prominent "correspondents" on the comedy news show "The Daily Show with John Stewart", John Stewart being a jewish guy who also used to be sort of funny. The show was popular back in like the early-mid 2000s I'd say.

He got enough notoriety off that that they gave him his own show (The Colbert Report), and that was at least tolerable back in the day, but like with The Daily Show the goal was never just to be funny. He was always clearly a liberal, Stewart was too, but he would play like a conservative blowhard for effect.

This was back during a less retarded time however, and as politics have progressed to the embarrassing version we have today making jokes stopped being acceptable and the devout liberal audience started wanting preachers instead of comedians, so he became yet another worthless copy and paste establishment muppet here with your daily reminder that orange man bad.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

And to really hammer it home, compare that to British comedy classics like Mr Bean, Faulty Towers, and Monty Python.

Half the "humor" of Monty Python was men wearing dresses and make-up and speaking in a falsetto voice. The Brits seem to find that concept perpetually and irresistibly funny for reasons I cannot fathom. It's funny the first time, not something you do as a permanent comedy staple.

Fawlty Towers will always be hilarious though. Maybe the best sitcom writing of any show from any era.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

But does it hold up today? I've not seen it start to finish. The bits I have seen, like him driving an oversized car.

It's a funny movie. Either I'm old or I don't understand why people are calling South Park or Robot Chicken vintage comedies, for me that's more like I Love Lucy, Bewitched, stretching into about 1975 or 1980.

It's about how nothing you do really matters and how family road vacations are shitty and stupid and why places like Disneyland (sorry, sorry, "Walley World") are not places you should want to go to. And that was considered revolutionary and subversive at the time. If you like John Hughes movies watch it.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

The only shitty kind of comedy is reference based one (with the acceptable exception of a show referencing itself, and even that in measure).

Seinfeld comedy is just exaggerated reality with exaggerated characters. A lot of the episodes boil down to events most people have gone through and it can be witty when it wants

American comedy in general stirs more towards the low brow compared to British one, but it still has its charm and it makes the rare moments of being smart way more impactful.

Meanwhile British comedy is more uniform and it can be atrocious fart sniffing when it fails.

 

[ParasiteSteve]

Americans are not a very funny people by nature. Even in here, they instantly want to attack the British, rather than talk about their latest "wow, nigger dick is amazing, take my white daughters please" comedy movie by Shapiro and Sheckleberg. If you don't hate yourself, American comedy can seem rather strange and oddly subversive, rather than you know, funny. Its their eternal inferiority complex.

Just remember. Nationalism for most people is love of their own nation. For Americans, its hatred of all other nations.

 

[Dysnomia]

In the case of SNL, it's had good times and dark times. The original cast of not ready for prime time actors was great. Because no one in the US had really seen that on TV yet. We had Laugh-In, Hee-Haw and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Muppet Show before SNL. There were a number of comedy and music variety shows. But those were some of the bigger ones. SNL felt more outrageous and off the wall. The talent from the original cast was huge. No other cast has ever really compared.

In the early 80s SNL started going down hill until they cast Eddie Murphy. Some of the 80s cast members were awful though. I remember Martin Short was borderline unwatchable when I saw it in reruns. That character he played with the cowlick was pure torture. If you look at a cast list you'll see people who are well knows and were on the show for a season or two in the early to mid 80s. Yet you may not even remember them on there because of how mid to bad the show was for a few seasons before it got really good in the mid to late 80s and early 90s. And it wasn't too bad for most of the 90s plus they had Norm McDonald.

The quality comes and goes. I haven't watched it in ages. Just watch the official Youtube clips. I find most of them to be pretty entertaining. They just use the best skits and leave the slop behind.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

But does it hold up today? I've not seen it start to finish. The bits I have seen, like him driving an oversized car.

Chevy is playing a John Cleese-like character in that movie: a pompous nitwit who gets shit on by his family, and the world. It really is a genuine comedy classic, and hasn't aged a day.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Either I'm old or I don't understand why people are calling South Park or Robot Chicken vintage comedies, for me that's more like I Love Lucy, Bewitched, stretching into about 1975 or 1980.

You could be right about Bewitched, I Love Lucy, etc. They're just rarely talked about, or at least, I've rarely heard of them. Only one I know of that era is Golden Girls, I think?

South Park, Robot Chicken, and others I've not mentioned like The Simpsons, Futurama, Home Improvement, and Fresh Prince of Bel Air did air over here and I remember liking them at the time. Some have fell off, some have aged badly, and some are as good today as they ever were. These are generally 90s and later. It shows Americans can do comedy if they want.

But the same names come up again and again. Seinfeld, SNL, Colbert, etc. The office gets a lot of name drops, but it's an American remake of a British show. Fraiser I hear name dropped occasionally but not often. Many of these were never widely aired here, but were always are talked about online as if they were the funniest thing ever put to screen. Now that some are on Netflix and YouTube I got to watch some and I don't see the hype.

And that was considered revolutionary and subversive at the time.

So they aged badly?

In the case of SNL, it's had good times and dark times.

From the posters here, it sounds like SNL fell off after the 70s, 80s at the latest. So why is still name dropped? Do they not know? Is it coasting by on nostalgia and inertia of the glory days?

Seinfeld comedy is just exaggerated reality with exaggerated characters. A lot of the episodes boil down to events most people have gone through and it can be witty when it wants

That clip wasn't bad. Does the show start off weak and get better later on or something?

It really is a genuine comedy classic, and hasn't aged a day.

Hows the remake?

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Hows the remake?

I'll watch an Ed Helms movie in hell.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

Is it coasting by on nostalgia and inertia of the glory days?

essentially yes, but do yourself a favour and watch the best bits of Norm on youtube

Does the show start off weak and get better later on or something?

Yeah. The series finale finishes with the main characters getting what they deserve.

That character he played with the cowlick was pure torture.

Somehow this got a Saturday morning cartoon spinoff. It's fucking awful. MeTV Toons reruns it sometimes.

They're just rarely talked about, or at least, I've rarely heard of them.

Bewitched is good with Dick York, falls off with Dick Sargent. While I'm at it watch I Dream of Jeannie and The Monkees, they were frequently part of the same syndication packages. The Dick Van Dyke Show is timeless comedy even if it is in black and white; it's been remastered for Bluray but not colourized. People have the warm and fuzzies for the Andy Griffith Show but it fell off hard after Don Knotts left.

A lot of 1970s sitcoms are not worth mentioning except for probably the first 3 seasons of MASH. From what I understand it aired in the UK without the laugh track and it's better without it. There's ones people absolutely love like Sanford and Son, but that is literally just Steptoe and Son with niggers. All in the Family is literally the American version of Till Death Do Us Part. This wasn't very well known in the USA for a long while.

People have fond memories of a lot of 70s sitcoms but a lot of them just weren't that good, like fuck me the Brady Bunch is just goddamned awful. I'd make a case that the Bob Newhart Show and the Mary Tyler Moore show are still pretty funny, as was The Carol Burnett Show (sketch comedy). WKRP counts as a 70s sitcom but most of the original music was replaced for syndication and then the first round of home video; from what I understand the Shout Factory DVDs have the music mostly restored. Taxi kind of varies in quality but I guess most people watch it nowadays for Andy Kaufman's appearances.

I'd recommend out of the 90s non animated sitcoms that haven't been listed The Drew Carey Show and NewsRadio, for much the same reasons in that they heavily lean on absurdist humor even if they're supposed to be workcoms. Season 5 of NR is not that great but that has to do with the fact that the entire cast fucking hated Andy Dick for re introducing Phil Hartman's wife to cocaine; Jon Lovitz had to be restrained from beating him to death once. (Fool, after the nuclear war the only living creatures will be Andy Dick and the cockroaches.)

Most people when they talk about the Golden Girls consider it to be more of a warm hug sitcom than anything else.

Do not sleep on Frasier, but you don't need to know anything about Cheers going in; all that you need to know they reference in the show, and that's one of the reasons why it's set in Seattle and not Boston. I'd also say you should give Cheers a shot, but it changed greatly in tone at least twice in the series, once after Shelley Long left and then after Roger Rees leaves.

I just didn't like most of Married with Children that much. I liked it with David Garrison still in the cast, it just became a weird sitcom cartoon after he left. There are people who like that and the acting is actually pretty great, I just found that I didn't like it that much afterwards. I do feel like I should recommend MwC because it's got more good episodes than bad, and it does shift in tone twice, being a long runner.

I have never thought Friends was funny.

This post could be longer but I'm not going to be researching 1970s and 80s TV all day. A lot of this post is informed by me watching TV on reruns in my childhood and then a channel called Decades in the USA, which no longer exists, that used to show marathons of classic TV programming and a lot of it was quite good.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

I'd also say you should give Cheers a shot, but it changed greatly in tone at least twice in the series, once after Shelley Long left and then after Roger Rees leaves.

The first season of Cheers is like nothing else on television. The show's creators had a very specific vision of what they wanted the show to be, and got one season before it started flanderizing itself.

 

[Procopius]

Hale and Pace, a British show remembered as mid tier, still holds up

You had me up to this point. Hale and Pace was thought of shit at the time, and with the benefit of hindsight that's generous.

 

[Calandrino]

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Laugh track shows or "Clap Now" tailored audience shows are absolutely impossible for me to stomach now. Everything from Seinfeld to Beverly Hillbillies just seems forced when you have to "help" the audience along and tell them when to laugh. Knowing who disproportionately runs the media, it seems almost pavlovian these days. Cuckbert is what happens when it gets too obvious and even the plebs can sense something is wrong. And although it isn't a comedy show, something like Bezos' amazog-edition of LOTR was so on the kosher nose that even my boomer dad who eats up zog slop could sense something was terribly wrong with the show.

Speaking of Seinfeld, in my opinion, Curb Your Enthusiasm by Larry David is one of the funniest American comedies in years.

I'd even say it's funnier than Seinfeld.

Haha, the jew pissed on a picture of Jesus. Haha, it's just a joke goy calm down. Haha.

That's a perfect example of what I mean.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

That clip wasn't bad. Does the show start off weak and get better later on or something?

First season is notoriously unfunny, but second season onwards it hits its stride in the 4th-5th seasons, afterwards it leans more towards the wacky situations but still fantastic.

 

[Solomon Bundy]

Try something like Arrested Development or Parks & Recreation then.

American comedy rules, stop being racist.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Just remember. Nationalism for most people is love of their own nation. For Americans, its hatred of all other nations.

If American nationalism is hate of other countries, then how bad is Canadian comedy then, since their identity has degraded down to "we're better than ORANGE MAN and our racist redneck Southern neighbors"?

 

[TaimuRadiu]

If American nationalism is hate of other countries, then how bad is Canadian comedy then, since their identity has degraded down to "we're better than ORANGE MAN and our racist redneck Southern neighbors"?

Kids in the Hall is probably one of the greatest sketch comedy shows ever made. (And then they all went to the USA to make gobs of money.)