What Makes You Laugh?

Hi,

When you hear them backwards and sped up ... then you will not quite laugh, but wonder ... sound is a beautiful thing!

The heartiest laugh of all has always been THE GOONS for me, and specially when Spike Milligan goes nuts, so many times ... and then the sound effects get added and they are out of this world, and surrealistic. You never heard a sock full of cus-taaaaard hit a wall, or the sound of the flying puddings during the war!

There is one incredible moment where he and Peter went on for like 5 minutes ... you did ... did not ... and it continues in various rooms in the house, and even on the telephone ... and it is so crazy and funny ... but then you haven't heard of The House of Teeth, or Six Charlies in Search of an Author .... or one of the funniest moments ... "are you R. Pong?" "Yes, we open till 11 o'clock" in the most wonderful accent you ever heard!

After that, the live concert of PDQ Bach, that was outrageous and I had to go outside for 5 minutes because I was losing it! .... "have you got any onions?" ... and if that is not enough seeing him playing the piano with his feet, and then the kazoo's, and then ... hearing the smash up of so much classical music, was far out ... an incredible talent that did some amazing things. And you might want to hear his narration of Beethoven as if it were a football game ... 

Ohhh ... sorry ... progressive music does not have enough laughter for me!

I don't like much stand-up comedy (never really did) with sketches, and I much prefer one or two liners

some films that made me laugh (and still do):

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au bon dieu

Diner de Con

This Is Spinal Tap

the funniest TV series was IMHO Californication, though Married With Children was pretty hilarious as well.  

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Nice to see L & H mentioned, though I wish that the folks at PA would also have some appreciation for the comedy that was on radio, in England, in the 1950's.

Most of it, these days, is now on the public domain, but sadly, it's like folks don't exactly listen to lyrics and what is being said, or they would talk about it more, I imagine. Radio, in the 1950's was the golden ear of comedy and a lot of it was stolen and copied by the American TV ... though they did not give blacks a good show or run much ... except for the cartoon version!!! But in England, The Goons made fun with both the black guys in the music area ... Max Geldray and Ray Ellington, and they both played some parts in the show quite often, even though their parts were funny, and not as offensive as it had been done in American TV and film ... specially when we consider that The Jazz Singer, was a guy with a painted face ... and we all know that the jazz singers that we remember the most ... were black!

Even though The Goons was usually the same characters (Peter and Spike about 5 or 6 characters each and Harry Secombe) going through different stories each week, and there are some dandy things in there. 

Later Monty Python took the mantle, but at least a couple of them had worked on the Goons at the BBC.

Sadly, as "listeners" we have lost the appreciation for the WORDS ... and it's like they have to tell us what the whole thing is about, which takes the literary thoughts and ideas out of it all. 

I have never lost this listening side, and it is very strong and helpful with checking out new music ... you attention span is good and you don't need to hear something 10 times before deciding you like it or not. 

There are/were a lot of far out things in American comedy though, that folks here don't know about or want to hear ... Stan Freberg was excellent. Ernie Kovacs was great and created a show for TV that was totally out of its rocker! Get Smart was mentioned, but there was no word that it was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry ... 2 incredible comedians that have an insane list of works! Jonathan Winters never quit, and eventually matched up wits with Robin Williams!

Almost all of this stuff is now on the public domain and you should be able to watch it, or at least hear it ... I highly recommend The Goons, with one really important point ... sometimes it is so fast that you have already missed the shell'ing of all the yokes and bombs! Monty Python did this a bit, but on the albums you can hear it, but visually on the telly they took that out because they wanted to make sure folks enjoyed the sketches. But they knew folks could get lost in the fast bits that radio had given us for a long time.