"What's so funny..?" 'Michael A. Herr' (Aloha Friday)

Renowned author Michael Herr is back guest-blogging on this awesome Aloha Friday talking about  what's really funny?  Make sure and check out Michael's website at; http://www.michaelherr.com/

ALOHA FRIDAY-"No Work 'Til Monday" 

September 14, 2012

 

　What's so funny ?


Aloha folks,

Despite the fact that my wife's co-workers nickname for me was 'Mr. Grump', I love to laugh.

However it seems to me that I laughed much more and much louder when I was much younger. I can remember rolling on the floor, literally, at something I thought was so terribly funny. I can remember tears of joy rolling down my cheeks at something I saw in the movies or on an early television show.

So much of what I see now on TV, or in the movies, or online isn't so much funny as it is cool, or sharp, or witty. I like cool, sharp and witty. But what I'd really rather see more of is . . . funny. Saturday Night Live is/was sharp humor. Piercing humor. Humor that skewered its topic. Humor that made you go "ouch, got 'em that time". Topical, witty, incisive. But I found it to be very rarely funny.

I'm showing my age once more, but I remember the days when we had true funnymen (and funnywomen). Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, Imogene Cocoa, Lucille Ball, Buddy Hackett (even dirty funny then was more funny than dirty, unlike today), Kent Bowman (of "No Talk Stink" fame) . . . and one of my all-time favorites, Red Skelton. Those people were funny. They made you laugh; they lightened your day or night. Today the funny people often leave me depressed because the funny stuff they talk about is also terribly sad when you really think about it.

I remember some wonderful food fights from Laurel and Hardy. Those fights started slowly; they started off small. And they grew into wild pandemonium as everyone got into the act throwing food, throwing pies, at each other and everyone else. The most wonderful moment was always when Laurel was standing there with a gooey tin of whipped cream. You could see him debating in his mind as to whether or not he should throw it in Oliver Hardy's face . . . and when Hardy said "don’t you dare" you could see Laurel make up his mind in an instant. Splatt !

I left off one of the greatest pratfall artists, Dick Van Dyke. I loved seeing Van Dyke, and Gleason and others, slip and crash resoundingly to the ground. Physical humor was marvelous and was so funny because we knew that they weren't going to really hurt themselves.

As an example of this type of humor, we knew in March of the Wooden Soldiers that Oliver Hardy wasn't going to drown when Old King Cole had him dunked in the pond. But watching him bubble away underwater while Laurel ran frantically around outside the pond was hilarious. And the humor of that scene reached its zenith when Hardy pushed Laurel into the pond only to have Laurel come up soaked from the water and pull out Hardy's watch from his pocket.

The humor shown us by these people, and more of their ilk, was so wonderful because it wasn't mean. It wasn't vicious. Today, however, so much of what passes for humor is rooted in someone else's pain. Oliver Hardy used to hit Stan Laurel on the head (after he took off his hat of course), but we knew it really didn't hurt. Today, with things like YouTube and World's Funniest Videos, we see people crash on their skateboards or bicycles, we see trees fall on them and we laugh . . . but we ignore the fact that, despite disclaimers to the contrary, these people probably did get hurt, somewhat. Maybe not enough to go to the hospital. But really hurt, with some degree of pain. But we laugh. And it's not funny.

Okay folks, see you next week.

 
Hana Hou, (Encore) Shared from Facebook...

check out Michael's website at http://www.michaelherr.com/ 

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