W.C Fields as Honest John. Priceless.
Another good one: a collection of Phoebe's songs from Friends. And the Smelly Cat video.
I just finished rewatching Friends seasons eight though ten, the last one. My favorite show ever, but man, did they run this Rachel/Ross "romance" into the ground! I put "romance" in quotes because to me "psychosis" seems to be the more apt word. Near the end I was just praying for a plane crash or something to finally put that infernal seesaw out of its misery! :)
13 comments:
Last night I almost couldn't sleep, because I couldn't stop thinking about Honest John's maneuvers with the pool stick.
It occurred to me that in physical comedy we currently have no-one even approaching W. C. Fields' caliber. I think Jim Carrey is considered to be the king in this field --- sigh.
Quite. When he tries to grap the tip of the pool stick, that had me in stitches.
Michael Richards (Kramer) rocks. But he seems underused since Seinfeld.
I searched YouTube for "Michael Richards". The search result consisted of tens of clips with titles such as "Michael Richards gives public apology", "Michael Richards Apologizes on Letterman", etc. etc. Apparently at some point he had made some 'racist' joke or something.
I didn't even bother to check any of the clips --- all that 'apologising' made me puke. A true artist does not apologise for hir work. So this immediately tells me Richards is no good.
God I hate this PC nonsense that seems to have infested everyone's mind nowadays.
Well, I agree with that.
But I think you're a bit harsh on Richards. It is not exactly an easy choice! Even the very mild controversy I had here about racism made me very unconfortable. And something bigger could end a showbusiness career.
OK, I have now watched both the incident and his apology on YouTube. And I'd say that this was not just a racist joke, it was not really a joke at all, he just flew into a rage and let an audience member have it with the worst language he could find. Both the incident and the apology was intensely cringe worthy. Very strange stuff.
It's alien to me that anybody can lose their temper totally, like that.
In ira veritas. Like with alcohol inebriation, anger tends to lift one's social inhibitions and reveal what might be their darkest side.
I've already been (rarely) in what I consider as utmost anger. Well, what I do and think in these moments, I am happy to say, is for the most part nothing to be ashamed about. Like once saying "I love you, nevertheless".
Of course, in anger many people will usually say the opposite to their loved ones (never happened to me). But do they mean it? Big question...
Me, I find it very pleasant to see that even when angry to a point where I feel I'm going to explode litterally (kaboom!), I remain me. There is no mask to fall at such moments.
And you'd love me when I've been drinking, too. (Because I don't drive!!!)
I'm afraid the traffic incident that Mel Gibson would love to forget (simultaneous anger and inebriation) was an authentic crack in the mask. I'm not sure, but it does look that way.
Back on topic, what makes people laugh is also very revealing. (Eolake, I think one of your daily quotes mentioned it.)
I wouldn't claim that Jim Carrey is the funniest person ever to have lived. (Can anybody be?) For example, I once saw a Jerry Lewis film that made me suspect where Carrey's inspiration comes from. ;-)
But he makes me laugh. So I like him. Same goes for Chaplin, Rodney Dangerfield, Rowan Atkinson... and "Louis the Funny", to name but a few. Louis is perhaps the only man I know who can play a typical realistic racist and make him hilarious. (Of course, the character in the film doesn't *remain* racist forever.) And he's perhaps also the only man to have been kissed on the mouth by Jerry Lewis on national TV. Live!
Now, if only my farshtunken dial-up connection could allow me to watch You-Too-Baby like you privileged capitalist pigs! I envy you.
Well, at least yesterday was Thursday. I saw the only decently funny local show on lebanese TV, which put me in a good mood. They manage to make our pathetic national quagmire funny through satire! Amazingly, the show's still not outlawed...
(Admittedly, it's been suspended and censored several times already. "You don't mock, even respectfully, a religious figure like Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah!" SHN didn't object, but some of his supporters can be a bit thick.)
A true artist does not apologise for hir work. So this immediately tells me Richards is no good.
You're dead wrong. Richards is a decent comedian and made a mistake.
I didn't even bother to check any of the clips --- all that 'apologising' made me puke.
Deal with it.
Even the very mild controversy I had here about racism made me very unconfortable. And something bigger could end a showbusiness career.
True.
I once saw a Jerry Lewis film that made me suspect where Carrey's inspiration comes from.
His inspiration comes from growing up in a very sad world during his youth. Lewis had nothing to do with it, besides Lewis could have taken lessons from Carey.
TTL: A true artist does not apologise for hir work. So this immediately tells me Richards is no good.
james earl bones: You're dead wrong. Richards is a decent comedian and made a mistake."
Apparently, as Eo discovered, the apologising wasn't related to his work. Apparently he lost his temper (or something). So I was indeed wrong about that.
But I maintain that Politically Correct people disgust me. Also, I think that if we are to ever rid our society of this PC nonsense, it is the artists who should be at the forefront of it.
Artists by definition have certain freedoms of expression that people in other professions do not have. Stand-up comedians, in particular, use this to great effect.
Every now and then these freedoms are tested. For example, one of the greatest cartoonists of all time, Kari Suomalainen, had been drawing daily political cartoons for the biggest national newspaper for 40 years. During his stint he had poked fun of several presidents and countless other notables. Then one day, in 1991, his strip made fun of a particularly sensitive topic at the time: the immigration process of a group of Somalis. The newspaper editor gave him a warning. In response he immediately resigned. The whole country mourned. He never returned.
When asked about it later, he's only comment was: "Don't mess with the factory's adjustments."
This is the kind of integrity I expect from a true artist.
Right, but if all the good artists retire out of integrity...
"Right, but if all the good artists retire out of integrity..."
... they get better jobs, and their ex-employer is in trouble.
Soon after the above mentioned episode Mr. Suomalainen was visited by Carl Barks during his first ever trip abroad! (Barks himself had been subject to censorship many times during his career.)
Suomalainen then entered into a syndication agreement and had his drawings published by many newspapers simultaneously.
His ex-employer, on the other hand, replaced him with a cartoonist whose work was so unhumorous that people didn't even criticize him because they felt too embarrassed to read his cartoons.
james earl bones said...
"His inspiration comes from growing up in a very sad world during his youth. Lewis had nothing to do with it, besides Lewis could have taken lessons from Carey."
I believe only Mr Carrey could reliably answer this. (Still, he reminds me a bit of myself there.)
I thought there was something quite similar in the style of these two. Which certainly doesn't mean they could be swapped at will. Carrey does have definite personal talent. There's nothing wrong about being influenced by the talented ones that came before you, anyway. I myself often re-invent stuff which I later find out already existed (which gets quite spooky at times!). Nobody can be 100% original with the number of creative ideas that came before us.
Blaise Pascal re-invented most of his days' mathematics on his own, and via a different and novel approach.
I discovered Jim Carrey in The Mask, and immediately loved how his acting style multiplied the efficiency of these CGI "living cartoon" effects. Hats off to the man.
TTL said...
"I think that if we are to ever rid our society of this PC nonsense, it is the artists who should be at the forefront of it."
Who else? The daring artists are utmostly precious to society. Even if sometimes they may go too far, or do some dumb things outside their art like Richards. Goes with the turf, we're just human.
"Artists by definition have certain freedoms of expression that people in other professions do not have."
"A poet is allowed what others are not." -- Arabian proverb.
It is true that the very complex rules of arabian poetry require one to sometimes take liberties with grammar and linguistics, but this is certainly not the only intention of this proverb. :-)
Political correctness has turned into the new fascist intellectual USSR-like ideology. McCarthy must be proud. I feel like there'll always be some hydra head to cauterize.
Carl "the legend" Barks was censored? Wow, this comes as a surprise to me! As if drawing ducks was so controversial...
"His ex-employer, on the other hand, replaced him with a cartoonist whose work was so unhumorous that people didn't even criticize him because they felt too embarrassed to read his cartoons."
I've just split my side from laughing!!! :-D
"Carl "the legend" Barks was censored?"
I think he wanted the ducks to wear pants. But Disney felt it made the strip pornographic.
Oh. Right.
I once saw a satire of Disney toons in an old Mad Magazine issue. These scoundrels dared. In page one, Goofy points it out to "Darnold", who rushes off-panel and returns wearing sailor pants!
What I find amusing in the official strips, is that when the ducks go swimming, this is the only time where they wear a bottom. Because otherwise they'd be wearing nothing.
Which they are sometimes seen doing, when changing clothes. Go figure...
Do you know why Clarabelle Cow wears a skirt? She didn't at first (that lewd cow!), as the old vintage acrtoons clearly show. But then the US morals commission complained that an udder was equivalent to women's breasts, so Disney had to cover it up. Authentic!
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