Thoughts On Comedy

[poliphilo]

Comedy is a young person's game.

Ok, there are some comical old people out there, but I can't think of many.

Most comics lose it as they get older. Steve Martin anyone? A lot of the smarter ones retire or find something else to do. Michael Palin, for example, has reinvented himself as an "explorer".

Comedy works by surprising us. The longer a comedian is in business the less likely it is that we'll find his/her schtick surprising.

All comedy is subversive. Even the gentlest. It challenges things as they are. The older, more comfortable, more embedded in the establishment a comedian becomes the less unsettled and unsettling s/he's likely to be, the less in touch with the zeitgeist and the less essentially funny. Witness the career of Bob Hope.

The more you have to lose, the less willing you are to issue the challenge.

The comedians who last the longest are those who are funny by nature. Those who can't help it. Frankie Howerd for example. Frankie's comic longevity had nothing to do with his material and everything to do with who he was- that shamble, that long rubbery face, that unique combination of campness and misanthropic gloom.

The comedian is always a misfit. Out of kilter. Peculiar. Shamanic even.

Comedins lose it because they get scared. They get scared of the weirdness. They get scared of themselves.

Every great comic is a Yorick- that is to say, a death's head.

Comments

I'm sure that there are more and of course it is only my opinion

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Still excellent -

George Carlin (even more sharp and pointed than ever) - if you don't know of him, try to find out. He has always been really good at saying it how it is!
Robin Williams
Lily Tomlin
anyone who remains from Monty Python
You also have some extremely funny British comedy shows with older actors and actresses.
Steve Martin's books are VERY funny and pointed.
Richard Pryor (before he became so ill)
Rowan Atkins

a while back:

Shelly Berman
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (Laugh-In) - they were older
Benny Hill
All of the Muppets people!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

This is so on the money! I have a friend who wanted quite desperately to be a stand-up comedian at one time, and I never understood why because she didn't have any edge at all. She could certainly be sharp and witty, but she wasn't ever saying something about society that could only be approached through the mask of comedy. But you can't tell someone that. She went on to become a psychologist, which seems to me a related field anyway.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Comedy is a young person's game.

Funny you should say that because there's an article in the Radio Time about Ricky Gervais in which he says the exact opposite. *g*

I think you're probably right about standup comedians, but I would dispute it in the field of comic actors and writers, many of whom get better with age. There are a lot of older people on radio who are very very funny, e.g. the whole I'm sorry I haven't a clue team who are no spring chickens.

At least I sincerely hope it doesn't apply to writers because at the age of 53 I've just finished a comic novel!

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

funny you should say that about steve martin. he's turned to writing of late, and surprisingly enough his writing is rather good... much better than anything he did as a comic, i'd say.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Steve Martin--and Bill Murray, who is now playing very serious roles (but his face is still the same as he once was when pretending to be serious, so sometimes I can't decide if he is really serious...)

I wish you and Ailz a very Happy New Year! (I may have already said so, but it's New Year's Eve, and so I'm saying it again.)

[(Anonymous)]

2006, 2007, 2005 and now I'm off to 2004...I'll get to 2008 soon, and I've dipped my toes into the waters of Purchas as well.

I've written fanfiction for two years, have maybe 200,000 words of it to my "credit", and I don't really get it anymore. Someone just emailed me complaining because someone else "stole" some quotes they wanted to use in a comment. yawn.

Fanfic is like glorified kindergarten. And you are right, it is "safe".

I am someone who suddenly deletes journals, hence me being anonymous. I do it because always at some point there comes a time when I stop writing for myself and write guarded words, fearful of others.

I hope to be as interesting as yourself when I'm 56. Alas, I am barely nibbling at 40's cardboard fortress...

(These are all subjects you talked about in 2005...I'm not a total nutcase, honest. :) )