05 March 2006

One Man's Meat...

F.P. from P.C.H.1 asked: What makes you laugh, Christopher?

Thank you for the question, F.P. It is interesting, as I find myself laughing at all sorts of things. Woody Allen has never been one of them. A serious cineast, I have given Mr. Allen many tries over the years, and just have never gotten it. (Others I have just not gotten include Charlie Chaplin, the Stooges, and the Marx Brothers; so, Mr. Allen finds himself in good company.)

As for what makes me laugh, I love "Monty Python's Flying Circus," "Are You Being Served?" (in spite of itself), "I Love Lucy" (we recently watched the Hollywood episodes on DVD), and, of course, "The Simpsons" (even though they have gotten a bit strained over the years). I would be remiss to omit "South Park" which, despite some opinions to the contrary, is the best written show on television today.

Also episodes of the vintage radio programs "The Jack Benny Show" and "Fibber McGee and Molly" which I listen to on my iPod daily.


The most recent offering which has kept us laughing has been episodes on DVD of the British television series "Creature Comforts" brought to the world by the same lunatics who made the (soon-to-be- Oscar-winning fingers crossed) "Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

I would be interested to hear what brings laughter to your world. What makes you laugh?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

From Zygote to 24 months:
My Daddy's face, sticking his tongue out at me, wiggling his eyebrows...

24 months to about 5 years:
Atom Ant, Bozo, people falling down.

5 years to 9 years:
Limericks, Archie and Jughead, more people falling down (especially Foster Brooks, faux drunk, on TV).

9 years to 14 years:
"it's A Mad Mad.....Mad Mad World". The Ne Plus Ultra of my pre-teen comedy gold. Mad Magazine.

14 years to 16 years:
Too busy trying to get girlish attention, but then found ragged copy of "National Lampoon" behind Sears Tire and Auto, and the next thing you know--

16 years to 20 years:
I'm in college( I graduated high school early), and "Take the Money and Run" and "Sleeper" and "Bananas"(the weakest of the bunch) blow my mind. Discover cannabis--that and Monty Python on Betamax is unshakable proof that there is a God and he smiles on the funny.)

ONE week in my 21st year:
David Sedaris.

21st year to present:
People falling down, Atom Ant on DVD.

Anonymous said...

FOSTER BROOKS TOTALLY RULED.
(Then one day cute ol'public drunkards wern't so cute or public anymore...)

Roy said...

Woody was never funny to me, but a lot of it was very interesting. I hated his whiney impotent act, but the rest of his movies were great, with a few exceptions. Purple Rose of Cairo, without Woody fortuantely, was a classic.

Other funny stuff, the BBC version of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide.

Groucho's quips in otherwise tedious Marx Brothers movies. THird Rock from the Sun, and The Seventies Show.