Tweet Of The Week: Blame British Airways jaunted.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Dark Humor tabletmag.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
THE MONDAY Q&A / BOB NEWHART Globe and Mail Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Alabama became the 22nd state this week in 1819, and there's a lot about the Yellowhammer state you probably don't know.
December 18, 2009
George Bernard Shaw said, "We are two nations separated by a common language."
I thought this might be an apt subject today, since some members on Monday's tiddlywinks discussion suggested, maybe in jest, that the British have a better sense of humor than we do.
Well, do they?
In a New York Times article dated July 18, 1915, (don't ask) “parodist, humorist, writer," Carolyn Wells, says that America, being a young country, doesn't understand humor.
The gist was Mark Twain has wit, America has wit, but that doesn't compare to English humor, citing this joke as one she liked:
“A man who had dined very well was unsteadily endeavoring to get home. He wavered up to a policemen and said: Is this Piccadilly Circus or is it Tuesday?”
I like it.
American humor began to evolve after the American Revolution and Benjamin Franklin became our first stand up comedian.
"He that drinks fast, pays slow."
So we weren't off to a fast start.
Ambrose Bierce in the Devil's Dictionary defines love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage."
American Vaudeville came a while later and this is from Clark and Dale's classic sketch:
SMITH: I got rheumatism on the back of my neck.
DALE: Ah, where would you want a better place than on the back of your neck?
SMITH: On the back of your neck.
SMITH: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
DALE: Don't do that.
Now that is funny.
Then there were the great silent comedians in Chaplin and Keaton.
Jewish humor, evidenced by the Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Rodney Dangerfield and Woody Allen raised the laugh meter.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Punch, a British weekly magazine planted the seeds for humor and satire to follow.
Monty Python, discarding all the rules, influenced British comedy as well as "Saturday Night Live."
So what country is funnier?
What have we laughed, really laughed out loud at, over the years? I'm keeping this to two nominees in each category:
TV:
Britain: “Fawlty Towers.” “Monty Python.”
America: “The Honeymooners.” “Your Show of Shows.”
Slight edge Britain.
Movies:
America: The Marx Brothers. "Airplane," responsible, for better or worse, a whole new form of humor.
Britain: “Life of Brian.” The Pink Panther movies. (Yes, American produced, but Peter Sellers makes it English in my Eye.)
Slight edge to America because of Groucho. Then again…
I’m beginning to regret starting this.
Novels:
“Confederacy of Dunces,” Toole. “Catch 22,” Heller.
Britain:
“Lucky Jim,” Kingsley Amis. “Right Oh Jeeves,” P.G. Wodehouse.
Now, I am officially beginning to regret starting this.
I will say, in the humor department, Ms. Wells may have initially had a point, since England had much more to draw on than we did.
But we have caught up.
The British complain that we don't understand irony. We, sometimes, think British humor is silly and esoteric.
Funny is funny. Neither nation has a monopoly on it. Not exactly a mind- altering conclusion.
Bail me out on this. What do you think?
History of Humor thinkquest.org Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Welcome to Old Fashioned American Humor! americanhumor.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
The English Sense of Humour anglik.net Take a look at an interesting article we found.
I was raised on Punch, so I think British humor is terrific. I've never been much of a TV-show fa...
Dec. 18, 2009 9:12 AM
Funniest sitcom?
14% 26% 9% 29% 23%
I got started on Brit-coms back in high-school. My cousins introduced me to Monty Python, and I was quickly drawn in. Without trying, I managed to memorize a large number of skits and songs.
In college, my roommate introduced me to the more modern Red Dwarf and Blackadder shows. I had both on VHS, but sold them when I no longer had a VCR.
Now, on Friday nights, instead of going to bars where I would be deafened by lousy music and overcharged for watered drinks, I watch 2 episodes each of Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By, and Are You Being Served?. I'm sure I've seen every episode, but for some reason these shows relax me more than anything else at the end of a lousy week. For 3 hours, problems don't matter.
I will not try to choose between American and British humor. Britain never produced a Robin Williams or a George Carlin, although when I saw him live in Vegas, I could tell he was tired of his material. America has never produced a John Cleese or John Inman.
So, I will not choose. I will simply laugh.
I long for the return of reruns of the original Saturday Night Live, which was originated by the Second City Theatre Company in Chicago, and which has so very many notable and successful "graduates." Started during the feistiest parts of the Vietnam conflict, the controversial political free speech would seem tame today. Back then it was a big deal. Bill Murray and I went to the same high school, different classes, but as I think back I realize how dissimilar became the lives of the classmates. Remember the Blues Brothers? Both protagonists were Second City alumni in good standing. Memories.....
I just have to say- "Is it Piccadilly Circus or Tuesday?" is just really not funny to me. Some British humor is hysterically funny- some not so much.
MICHAEL- I adore "As Time Goes By" & "Keeping Up Appearences." You're correct- you can forget all of your cares because they are so charming & funny. The actor who plays Lionel is so very dishy- miles more than our blow dried, shaped goatee American actors. Their humor seems to come naturally -where ours always proclaims-"this is funny" or "this is sexy".Then it just isn't. There are funny American shows- I'm not downing them all.
BERT- love Bill Murray- can't stand the Blues Brothers.
Where is Julia Masi????
My 3-1/2 year old (who is afraid of ghosts) made it through Pee Wee's Big Adventure this week as far as the 'Large Marge' scene. Then he decided he didn't want to watch any more. I asked him why he quit: 'She's scary!' I told him he shouldn't be afraid of Large Marge, and then proceeded to tell him that actually it wasn't Large Marge in the movie -- but her GHOST. 'Ghosts are bad!' he informed me, very emphatically. 'No, Alex,' some ghosts are good,' I said. 'I bet if you went to Large Marge's house and asked her if you could watch television with her, she'd even cook for you, and maybe even serve you a big dessert, too!' At this a big smile. 'AND, she'd probably even let you pick the channel on her TV, too!' At this, a guffaw. .... And so on it went. Now 'Large Marge' is no longer a scary lady with eyes that bug out to scare 'medium' kids (Alex will inform you he's NOT 'little'!). She's now a slighty absurd figure who watches TV at night and cooks up dinner for visiting children. ... Not bad. I'm glad my grandson has a sense of humor ;-) And I'm glad he shares my slightly 'whacked' one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089791/quotes from Pee Wee's Big Adventure....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Pdlxd_rro : Large Marge!
Bebe: Julia Masi has jury duty this week. In addition I surmise that she is extra busy taking care of people's special needs in her day job. But we have gotten Doc Nolan back!
Bill Murray is liked by most everybody. I can understand why the Blues Brothers are an "acquired taste." Unlike Bill Murray, people either seem to love them, or hate them. Either position is understandable. Sophomoric behavior is funnier, if you attended Catholic grade school in the 1950's - 1960's. Jake & Elwood say all the stuff to Mother Superior that the other similarly-situated audience members repressed for years.
No offense to Mr. Peterman, but isn't a yellowhammer another name for the Flicker? If so, I think the picture of the bird is incorrect; but I'm from Connecticut not Alabama and perhaps it is a different species in the south. I've visited Montgomery on a week TDY to the AFB there, and thought the folks were very nice and the hospitality outstanding.
I miss TCM but not enough to pay for the next outrageous cable cost to get it. sigh
Galgito: A Yellowhammer may indeed be a flicker, in designer clothing. My bird feeder's oil-based sunflower seeds attract every variety of woodpecker. But the most enthusiastic and loyal of the "customers" in the common finch. Many are dowdy grey like sparrows. But others sport bright reds, blues, & yellows. The flashiest ones get referred to as passerines, crossbills, wild canaries, & chaffinches. All I know is that they are small seed eaters, some of whom have been genetically endowed with flashy paint jobs.
America: Barney Miller -- still causes a smile when I think of that show. We will watch the reruns in anticipation, waiting for certain shows that had us laughing out loud.
The British though do have that dry sense of humor -- we were visiting and went out to dinner at a really posh restaurant. All dressed up and looking good (I can pull it off for brief periods of time -- dinner, that's about it) -- the restaurant had a doorman dressed in full Beefeater garb and, when I stumbled on the threshhold going in the door; he took my elbow, smiled and said "it's been there for years Luv" -- still smiling at that one.
"TAXI"
I was raised on Punch, so I think British humor is terrific. I've never been much of a TV-show fan (too much commitment to something too ephemeral), but I do enjoy Fawlty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances, and does anyone remember Benny Hill? On the other hand, Blues Brothers, George Carlin, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Cosby can all leave me gasping with gut-busting hysterics...what about Dick Van Dyke? The Honeymooners and All in the Family are good too.
more on the honor rollWhich nation has a "better" sense of humor? Perhaps the British--they're a tiny island with limited resources, and their empire once ruled a very large proportion of the globe. Their government arguably spawned the most successful of democracies. What a hoot! They've completely lost/relinquished that power, and they can still laugh at themselves--that takes a very refined sense of the cosmic comedy. I'm not sure the US population would handle the same circumstances with any amusement whatsoever.
Michael, I, too, got started on British humor back in my high school days with Monty Python's Flying Circus, as it was one of my parents favorites. I also lenjoyed Absolutely Fabulous. (I have a British brother-in-law who has that dry kind of humor.) But you are right, the Brits have not produced a Robin Williams.
Forgot to mention......Second City TV, the early SNL, Mad TV
Ectually, it is Right HO Jeeves. P.G. Wodehouse wrote about 90 books, but he also wrote the "book" to a number of Broadway musicals with Jerome Kern. My own opinion is that talking ABOUT humor is seldom as rewarding as actual jokes. An Englishman went to America, where someone asked him this riddle:
Q) A woman was standing on a corner and was passed by two people walking, a man on a bicycle, and a man on horseback. Which one did she know?
A) the horseman knew her.
The Englishman thought this was clever and went home to try it on his friends, only he couldn‘t remember how it went:
“A woman was passed on the street by a pedestrian, an equestrian, and a velocipedist. Which was her acquaintance?
Oh, you know, it’s an American joke. It’s got sh*t in it somewhere.”
EADUTTON:
You stole my thunder with Absolutly Fabulous. But I'm late to the party today.
In 2000 my English friend and I went to GB for the Mellinnium Dome and I caught a game show.
Weakest Link!
Although I loved it my English friend thought it was deardful.
I got the last laugh when it got om American TV.
Anne Robinson was brilliant.
More dark roast.
Sleep was an escapee last night.
And therein lies the rub, Willie Trask. Current American humor seems to depend more on potty-mouth shock than on wry observations of life around us. The Brits can draw more laughs with suggestion than can Americans with obscenities. Benny Hill did marvelously with broad, suggestive humor, looking at the camera/audience with wide eyes, then panning back to the woman with chasmic decolletage. And the audience howls! But, I eventually grew tired of Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, with all the M-Fs, and N**ger, and the rest of the not-so-subtle racism. After a while, it just ain't funny no more... Now, if you put Jack Benny and Benny Hill side by side, that's gonna be a contest. Overall, I prefer British humor. They can laugh at themselves much better than we can. And they are far more subtle about it. No need to bludgeon the audience with smack-down nasties, just make the point and move on. As with most of us, I miss the early SNL, the Show of Shows, Honeymooners, and Red Skelton with "Good night and may God Bless."
And, just as a matter of format, how do you get paragraphing in these posts? I notice that my posts wind up as boring conglomerates of text with no formatting, no matter how many times I press the RETURN key. Please help!
My dad got me started on Monty Python in the 5th grade, and "The Young Ones" (80's Britcom featuring the misadventures of four 'housemates from hell') in high school. I was also introduced to the late, great Harold Pinter by the drama teacher, whose mother was British. My senior year, we did a stage adaptation of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", written by two former students several years before the "Spamalot" phenomenon hit Broadway. Speaking of Spamalot, I think it perfectly demonstrates the disaster that occurs when Americans try to be as funny as the British. Monty Python is funny. Mel Brooks is funny. But they're each funny in their own way, and "Spamalot", to me, felt like Mel Brooks re-doing Python, which was just too much. The fringeyness (new word) and anarchy of the original script was gone, replaced by mildly amusing, purposely shlocky Broadway jokes and a few cheap tricks. In my opinion, the Brits are better. Besides, they had Winston Churchill (personal favorite of mine), who, along with responsibly helming Britain through a crisis, was one of the most witty men of the 20th Century. His legendary verbal sparring with Parliament member Lady Astor is the epitome of British wit: dry, subtle, and occasionally vicious. I don't discount the comedic talents of George Carlin, Christopher Durang or the early SNL team, but they were bright spots on an otherwise grim landscape.
What about Kids In The Hall...Canadian humor, the synthesis of of British and American humor.
Funny should be universal...the more closely related to everyday life that everyone can relate to the funnier it is.
America Vs. Britain? Apples and Oranges my friends
As far as irony goes, the Brits have that down pat.
Black Adder "Baldruc, don't you know what irony is? "
Baldruc "I think so sir, is it like goldsy and bronzey but made of iron?"
As a youngster, I read Bennet Cerf. My Dad was a storyteller,and remembered by 3 generations of the family for his joke telling abilities(timing is everything). I seem to have inherited (sp) that trait,and with the premises of humor that came from those early readings of Cerf,which pointed out the forulaics(sp)I am able to transpose the elements of a poor joke,and turn it towards a better joke,and then retell it. There seem to be only several types of humor; you fell-I laughed&I fell,you laughed,are among the types that may hurt,but still cause a snicker. Brit humor takes that into account,and adds the irony. Punch and Judy are humor icons in some countries,too.
Oh, and Mad magazine,too...
I think humor on a more subtle level denotes higher understanding of the workings of the universe
Tig Dupre ... the formatting issue has been around for awhile, but the good news is that there's an easy work around :-) . Simply compose your posting in 'Notepad' at Programs/Accessories/Notepad. Use Ctrl-C to copy it into the (invisible) 'clipboard' and then use Ctrl-V to place the posting into the comments box:(at 'Tig Dupre, What Do You Think?)
At the risk of stepping on toes, am I alone in thinking of 'Life of Brian' as a 'Christmas movie'? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiCgR_m1JIw
What RY said..."humor on a more subtle level denotes higher understanding of the workings of the universe."
Truth.
I like the way author Spider Robinson put it too:
"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron."
On perhaps safer ground, I've always loved Bill Cosby's 'Noah'.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0KHt8xrQkk
My apolitical dad has adopted a line from "Groundhog Day."
He uses it whenever somebody quotes someone he dislikes and that would include the likes of; Hannitty; Mahre; O' Reilly; Stewart- you get the idea- people who make a living pandering with slanted cheap shots to one side or the other of our 'deeply divided nation.'
It goes, as they say, 'something like this': "Did you hear the dig that (_ _ _ _) got in on (_ _ _ _ _) the other night?"
He remains silent.
"I know, some people think that's not funny."
Then, is when he quotes the line by Gus the drunk in this exchange:
Phil: It's the same thing your whole life: "Clean up your room. Stand up straight. Pick up your feet. Take it like a man. Be nice to your sister. Don't mix beer and wine, ever." Oh yeah: "Don't drive on the railroad track."
Gus: Well, Phil, that's one I happen to agree with.
2% get it and become pals, nine out of ten just shrug and the other 11% think he's nuts.
You probably have to have seen the movie more than once. The first time we did, it was with somebody who was a half second ahead of all of his favorite dialogue.
The rental car that went up in smoke, (or was it steam?) has been replaced with a bigger better one that my father is calling "The Colossus of Roads" and we will continue north for something called a "whiskey whiz" and the second annual chili-dog holiday luncheon.
Bertie Wooster is pretending that he and Jeeves are chums (for the Communitsts at his table) - NOT master and servant. Wooster tries to get some hot water.
Wooster: "I don't know what you've been doing to the cooker, Comrade Jeeves, but I don't seem to be able to get the gas lit."
Jeeves gets up and whispers as he slinks by: "It's electric, Sir."
-Jeeves and Wooster
Road Yacht,
Alfred E. Nueman had philosophic credentials as mumbler of the succinct and incontrovertible two-word summation of the dark side of the human condition:
"Pain hurts."
Happy this, Merry that and the very best to you all!
Jim
With a 3-1/2 year old and 12-month old grandson in the house for Christmas, I can't resist posting Cosby's other classic: 'Chocolate Cake' (heh, heh, heh): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5YBNQq-Qo&feature=fvw
Howdy Houseguest! Good to see you again. I like your dad. "Groundhog Day" has long been quoted by dear friends of mine and now, by me.
"...and he stands there, with a not-so-bright look on his face..."
I have to say that of recent movies, Ben Stiller and crowd are cranking out some pretty funny stuff. Sure, some of the humor can be a little crude and there may be some curse words, but they are often very clever. (exception: I hated There's Something About Mary) Dodgeball...Wedding Crashers....those are funny movies.
This should bring Isles out of his hidey hole for the day....Eddie Izzard.
Lady C,
I heard them talking about Spamalot on NPR and thought it was doomed to real, embarrassing, sad failure, but one of my best ( and most highly critical and discerning ) friends saw it on Broadway and absolutely loved it. He and I saw Holy Grail when it first came out. He would know if it was watered down or any of the things that Hollywood tends to do to good stuff. He swore it was top notch. You never do know. I find a liberal use of the space bar can help with formatting. I use my Word Processor when I want it to look right, just as Doc Nolan suggested with Word Pad...
"So, I will not choose. I will simply laugh" Micheal I'm in total agreement with you on this one.
Personally I have always liked the Cary Grant line from "the Awful Truth" film ~
Jerry Warriner: Well, have you heard the gag that's going around town lately - "Who was that lady I saw you with?"
Dixie Belle Lee: Oh, you mean, "That's no lady, that's your wife"?
Don't know why but I just find it to be one of the funniest exchanges in films...
I also just finished a Bio on Groucho Marx, WOW what a complicated & conflicted man. It was the one by Stefan Kanfer and it was a very good read. Hard to beleive someone with so much conflict could be SO funny.
Also the George Carlin book is flying off the shelves at the local B&N, I have even sold it to 2 british women...
I find to make new paragraphs if I hit enter twice this page will format.
I just type right into the "What do you think" box.
Loved Mad mag. Mom hated when she saw me with one and would tear it up.
I'd just hid them.
Now, at my advanced age, I think let the kids read whatever they want within reason.
At least they are reading and learning.
Other comic books were also not acceptable in our house and National Geographic was just for my Dad.
Naked women, you know?
George Carlin.
I've never laughed so hard...
except years ago when we saw
Bill Cosby
in concert and he told the story of Noah and God and the Ark, and about turtleheads and his little brother, and oh that man has us in the aisles and never wanting him to leave the stage.
So it's Bill and George I laugh at/with, and they're both Americans, so until someone funnier comes along, I give two thumbs up to the funny men from the USA
had us
oh boy!
about Bill Cosby above all I mean to say was:
we were laughing so hard, rolling in the aisles (almost) and we didn't let him leave the stage.
Nothing with a laugh track . . . . . otherwise I'm pretty, pretty, easy.
For sentimental reasons I have fond memories of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca because they were the spitting image of my Mother and Father followed closely by the Honeymooners which reminded me of our south-side apartment; especially the shouting out of the window part.
TV shows that still provide heavy doses of comic relief are of course, the Pythons and Faulty Towers. Absolutely Fabulous will get me going too.
When it comes to movies however, I'll always be up for a Pink Panther, Cheech and Chong, or a Mel Brooks marathon. Simon Peg is moving swiftly up the rail with his Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz movies.
I like you anyway, JPL.
<winkin at you>
You just put up with me 'cos I let you pick the movies on the train ....... ;<)
My experience is British humor is more subtle than ours (aside altogether from how wonderfully raunchy they can be, to wit, John Cleese, anyone else from Monty Python et al.). I recently watched A Fish Called Wanda for the third time.
Broadway imports from Britain are generally fine -- notable exception, all those what's-his-name-who-was-for-heaven's-sake-knighted, whose Phantom of the Opera, several others reigned supreme for awhile. In his work the technical folk, not actors, deserve curtain calls: Without all the hoop-de-doo and tech stuff, they'd be dull as dishwater; my uninformed guess is they will not stay the course, as has the work of Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Hart, on and on -- and Stephen Sondheim, whose work is yet to be fully appreciated "because people don't leave humming a tune." He's incredibly talented, and time will separate sheep from goats. "Follies," oh, don't get me started...his work is complex, hits right on the pulse of life today, tells truths perhaps some don't want to hear. But so worth the effort.
Brit tap-dance Broadway shows always do well.
I sorely miss, in The New Yorker, "There'll always be an England" (along with Block That Metaphor, which also disappeared). Ever an it-could-happen-only-in-England bit of humor, I loved it. My experience of personal friends who are English is they don't miss the point of our jokes; they often make them better by adding a dry or droll postscript. Some of my favorites originated with a well-known English composer who never fails to leave me in stitches. And he with straight face.
Well, never let it be said I "put up with JPLake only because he chooses movies on The Train!" He keeps me sane, puts up with me in countless ways, and I couldn't live without him.
STONEY, thank you for brining HOUSEGUEST back to us!
DOC: that's the skit I was referring to, laughed so hard I thought I'd split: Cosby's NOAH.
Hilarious and then some more...
Not true, because you let me pick movies on thesepia train. In a general because kind of way, I like you anyway.
But since you mentioned it, JPL, tonight on TCM, there's one heck of a wonderful movie, if you're a woman you already love it, if you're not a woman, the scenery is lovely...aside from that, non-women aka men might want to take a nap while this is on, so as not to bother their female significant other, who will not want to be interrupted from her reveries...
TONIGHT on TCM:
8:00 PM Eastern
Enchanted April (1991)
Four women search for happiness on an Italian vacation.
Cast: Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker Dir: Mike Newell C-93 mins, TV-PG
It's utterly enchanting!
Seeing that there are certain topics at the Eye that everyone seems to enjoy - movies, food, talking about our childhood, etc, I wonder if this is universal. It must be. Perhaps a similar tactic could be used by the UN.....put a dozen people of different nationalities and religions in a room and start talking about movies or some other topic....of course, assume that they all have access.
Pardon the sterotyping here ......would the men talk about the coolest explosions, the sultriest women, the slickest villain, the neatest special effects, the funniest scenes? Would the women talk about the costumes, the scenery, the handsomest actor, the saddest or funniest scenes?
Or talking about our kids....how they inspire us, bedevil us, challenge us, and love us in ways we never could have understood before we had them......I often said that if you could unleash an army of three year olds in the mountains of Afghanistan, bin Laden would turn himself in the next day....
Park4, you really make me miss cable TV. That is a good movie.
Georgia: "There'll Always Be An England" in MY world is a WWII British patriotic song. Then again my world is a little different than most anybody else's.
The ice & snow are on the way, I have the bird feeders restocked so the ice does not cover all natural food when the finches & woodpeckers have no natural options. Midnight is "zero hour" in the Ohio/Kentucky area. Those of you along the Atlantic Coast are getting a white Christmas a little early, as per my snitches. Enjoy.
I go to travel several times a day since our right side bar has been given over to Google ads.
But we don't seem as interested in posting pictures as we were before when they appeared in our peripheral right vision.
SO SAD TOO BAD VERY MISSED!!!!
Right on, korthal!!!!!!
GEORGIA- I absolutely love "A Fish Called Wanda!" It is just about a perfect movie & I never get tired of seeing it.
PARK- You film goddess you!!!!!!!! I am so thrilled, you made my night!. I adore "Enchanted April" & had no idea it was on this evening. As soon as I finish my cup of tea I will take the dogs for their walk a little bit early & come home & watch this absolutely wonderful movie. Polly Walker is so beautiful in it.I'm so very happy, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NACHISTA- Eddie Izzard is a genius. And as for his cross dressing- I find him strangely sexy...
Greetings: There is a British TV show on the BBC network called "Geared Up". It's about cars, hosted by three British dudes. It's funny as heck but you must have an affection for old British autos. Very, very dry humor. Check it out. BBC @ 8:00 EST.
And of course Lenny Bruce for that brutally raw, down & out, sexy in a rather sleazy nightclub kind of way. He did completely have all of those qualities & more I'm sure.
PARK- I made it home 5 minutes after it started. I am in heaven- you completely made my evening.
CAT NEPtune- Do you mean "Top Gear?"
Georgia,
The Guests showed up in an SUV that I could park in. We drank. We went out on the lake so that they could look down through a hole in a foot of ice and someone caught a crappie. It was as exciting as it sounds.
At the tavern that I have been going to my entire life, they are now better known and more well received. We ate, sang Christmas carols and one dirty ditty.
The have a designated driver, Nate, and were still there when I left. They may wind up owning my town. We had a good time.
Korthal,
So true. A lot of the fizz went out of the village along with the current photos.
Capt Neptune,
"Top Gear" is an excellent auto show on BBC in which one very tall man is made to seem even taller by the presence of several tiny ones. By some power, vast stretches of European roads are made vacant so that they may tear them up in powerful cars... the stuff dreams are made of.
PARK- I always forget how mesmerizinly beatiful Polly Walker is in this & how Alfred Molina is so stuffy.
heaven...
That would be mesmerizing w/ a g & the u in beautiful.
Georgia - ditto kiddo. Two thumbs way up for a Fish Called Wanda and my I submit Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy.
BERT, it's a WWII song in my book, too; The (old) New Yorker was just wise enough to use the sentence. But then I know all verses to White Cliffs of Dover, and am a fool for any movie set in London during WWII. I believe we discovered we share a love of The End of the Affair. My husband thinks it's a "chick-flick," and I'mm offended -- shows he's dense in that area, said I to him.
ENCHANTED APRIL -- don't miss it, anyone. And notice the young man who owns the house the women rented, for years later you'll enjoy him in PBS/BBC's Foyle's War, which I recommend without hesitation for anyone. I've re-seen it and enjoyed it just as much. Michael Kitchen (Foyle) acts more with just his face than most actors with ten pages of dialogue. In an interview, the director said most actors, given a script, immediately scan it for how many lines they have. Kitchen asks for fewer lines every time; he doesn't need them. Magnificent actor.
I need another transfusion of Enchanted April often; must have it. JOHN, it's a fine one for one of our movie nights on The Train. Ohhhhh, the clothes....Our Host will understand my inability to speak further on that matter without weeping.
We read of The Winner of the Mailbag etc.,m but does anyone know what to do with the letters I religiously (yes: it was that serious) kept from each glorious day? Excellent buys -- but I have all my letters; tried making a word of them, came up only with a fine word and one extra letter. Anyone? JOHN might announce it in the Club Car tonight.
BERT, 'way up the coast they may expect snow, but never in my life have we had snow at Christmas. We'd go insane with joy, as we do at sign of snow at all -- but at Christmas?!! Might it be? We get a tiny bit in Feb or March, at best, and our warm, forgiving ground makes it melt away.
The way I see it is if I laugh...it's funny to me. It doesn't matter where it comes from as long as it gets me chuckling or giggling or flat out laughing and my eyes watering. Comedy is everywhere and in this super-serious world of ours so many people miss the small things that should make us just smile and think happy thoughts.
Eve, Enchanted April gets my vote along with any of PARK4's recommendations. Perhaps we can stop the train, were its warmer than here of course (but then again....that's why the gods created down comforters), and project the movies onto a shear cliff somewhere. A drive-in theater night.
Confession time .. .. .. I still watch the Three Stooges shorts if they feature the original Curly. This is one of the reasons why I still get seated at the little kids table.
If it makes you laugh and it's not at the expense of anyone else...... its all good.
Peace out and lots of laughs your way .. .. ..
Just recently watched Fawlty Towers, courtesy of Netflix. Totally holds up and hysterical. Followed that up with "The Fall and Rise of Reginald" another Britcom, that is just priceless. Still laughing a half hour later. Thanks Mr. P. I don't know how you knew I was thinking of this subject.
Greetings Bebe and Stoney: Yes..."Top Gear"! Very funny show with very dry humor. It doesn't hurt if you really like cars. Watched it tonight dealing with Alpha Romero's. Funny stuff. Those guys are a hoot.
CAP NEP- My husband LOVES that show- I even find it quite funny. I love the short guy.
Yes, indeed, Georgia: Michael Kitchen! Isn't he just wonderful?
I remembered him from "Out of Africa" -- he played Denys Finchatten's friend, Berkley Cole...I loved him in that too. There too he had a quiet presense, yet when the film was over, of the two men, it was Michael Kitchen with whom I was most impressed.