Comedy is Serious Business

The history of comedy predates Aristotle who could tell us only that it first took shape in Megaris and Sicyon, whose people were noted for their coarse humor and sense of the ludicrous. By the time Plato came along, comedy was defined as the generic name for all exhibitions which have a tendency to excite laughter. Though its development was mainly due to the political and social conditions of Athens, it finally held up the mirror to all that was characteristic of Athenian life. That is the main function of good comedy. To hold up a mirror to all that’s characteristic of our lives and make us see how inanely funny much of it is. The trouble is that most comics today just aren’t funny.
During the great comic boom of the 80’s, I heard one analyst of the form put it best when he said, “There used to be one comedy club in each major city, and two funny comics. Now there is a comedy club on every corner of every city and town in America. And two funny comics.” That mediocrity sounded the death knell for most of the comedy clubs that sprang up like mushrooms across the land, some of which, today are, and rightfully so, dry cleaners.
There have been a couple of “golden ages” of comedy in America. The first of which began with New York’s Catskill Mountain resorts and a theatrical form known as Vaudeville. Brilliant humor meisters such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, The Marx Brothers, whose uncle ruled the vaudeville roost as half of the comedy duo of Gallagher and Sheen, Fannie Brice and google eyed Eddie Cantor, many of whom translated beautifully to the movie screen which then spawned the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Moms Mabley and the boisterous Pigmeat Markham, the originator of “Here come da’ judge.”
Stand up comedy hit it’s stride after vaudeville, during the early years of television. The best of the best were all amazing social commentators like Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory and the truly inspirational Lenny Bruce (from whom my air name Leonard comes). These people held up the same mirror as those in Plato’s time.
Television gave us some of the best comedy ever with such shows as “Hollywood Squares.” When Peter Marshall asked Paul Lynde if female frogs croaked, the response was, “Only if you hold their little heads under water long enough. When asked “Which of your 5 senses tends to diminish with age,” Charlie Weaver answered, “My sense of decency.” Funny people with funny responses.
My question today is, when did comedy cease to be funny ? All of the TV shows that make me laugh theses days are animated and satirical. From South Park to The Simpsons to Family Guy and King of the Hill, they all use humor to make socially relevant points. With the exception of a few very funny satirists of today like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, most so-called comedians are just spinning their wheels and, usually at someone elses expense. They are rude, crude, brash and just not funny. Most comedy is self-serving junk that would never cut it in any of the golden era’s. If you want to laugh, you generally have to harken back to older material.
So, the next time someone asks you if you know why Hell’s Angels wear leather, just remember Paul Lynde’s classic response, “because chiffon wrinkles too easily.”

THAT’S HOW I FEEL…………………WHAT CAN I TELL YA’