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What would you consider the most "difficult" comedy you've ever watched, for any given definition of "difficult" or "comedy?"
(I'm thinking about the subject because I'm about to start my fourth attempt to get into The League of Gentlemen's "Psychoville." It's one of those series that I keep hearing is rewarding but makes itself real difficult to love...)
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@zebratron2084 Difficult but of historic importance and *maybe* worthwhile overall? The oldest, 15-minute serialized _Amos and Andy_ radio show. Yes, it's white guys doing ... blackvoice ... and it's from the late 1920s-early 30s and everything that implies.
It's also the only pop culture white America ever cared about that's about the Great Migration. And they couldn't *not* make the characters they were playing into people having lives in a complicated new place.
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@Austin_Dern @zebratron2084 The more Amos and Andy you watch, the more things you see that got recycled so often, that they became sitcom tropes. It’s spooky.
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@xinjinmeng @zebratron2084 Oh, yes, it did a *lot* to set what sitcoms look like. So it's also of historic importance for understanding the American Cornball style of comedy. But listening to episodes is also waiting with the finger on the 'stop' button, ready for the moment that's just *too* much.
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@Austin_Dern Oh, I've heard of the Bed-Sitting Room, never seen it!
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@zebratron2084 It sometimes turns up on TCM. Spike Milligan co-wrote it, so there's a lot of daft people acting absurdly as ridiculous things happen, and then they remember they're barely processing everybody and everything dying, which is part of what makes it difficult.
It's kind of like crossing post-traumatic stress disorder with one of those Monty Python sketches were you mustn't say 'box' in front of Terry Jones or 'green' to Graham Chapman.
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@Austin_Dern That reminds me, there's a full episode of Spike Milligan's Q5 out there-- the show that legendarily made John Cleese afraid Python had been beaten to the punch-- and I still haven't sat down with it.
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@zebratron2084 Ooh, neat. I hadn't heard.
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@zebratron2084 "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"
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@Phorm @zebratron2084 My stars, now that’s a conversation. I always thought of that play as “Waiting For Godot but accessible “
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@xinjinmeng @zebratron2084 I only consider it qualifying because, while hilarious and brilliant, it inevitably brings me to consider mortality, the brevity and pointlessness of existence, and the existential reality of being unchangingly alone.
So, you know. Difficult stuff to consider.
But still a very comedic work.
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Does anyone beside me say "rosencrantzing" to refer to the bullshit, idle patter that characters do, to amuse themselves, when nothing's going on and they have no agency to change it?
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@xinjinmeng @zebratron2084 I admit that I haven't done that.
But now I am absolutely going to start doing that.
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If you're wondering what kind of person I am, I am the kind who would perform R&GaD on stage in its entirety ... but I won't play a video game that has cutscenes. 🍷
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@xinjinmeng @Phorm Wow, I think you've just called out about 70-80% of my favorite neo-noirs and "prestige" dramas...
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Post-Tarantino, producers felt media needed to be smarter, so there was a push for "punch-up" writing. Punch-up writers can't change the plot, so they put in bits about flipping coins or asking questions that go nowhere. The most egregious of these are DtTV-CGI animated features for kids, where off-screen voices comment on the action. Cheap and easy.
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@xinjinmeng @Phorm My term for that sort of ADR trickery is "falling down into some butterscotch."
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@xinjinmeng @Phorm @zebratron2084 "Wham, bam, thank you Sam." XD I was also thinking "R&GaD," I've watched it dozens of times, it was extremely formative for me in my early 20s. but, yeah... "Out we come, bloodied and squalling, with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there is only one direction--and time is its only measure."
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@troodon @xinjinmeng @zebratron2084
Agreed on all points. The "Dead in a Box" conversation was one of the most impactful and relevatory passages I've ever been exposed to. It still sticks with me to this day.
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@zebratron2084 Nostalgia Critic’s The Wall.
If you want theatrical releases? 1994’s PCU.
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@zebratron2084 I’m reminded that I have never seen Blues Brothers 2000
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@xinjinmeng @zebratron2084 I’m reminded I never knew there was a Blues Brothers 2000
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I'd say "Burn After Reading". None of the characters are traditionally "likeable", everyone in it is an idiot, an asshole, or both... but it's hilarious!
The jokes themselves aren't especially difficult; I mean, come on, it's got John Malkovich punching Brad Pitt in the nose!
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@KinkyTurtle "What did we learn, Palmer?" I should watch that one again, it's one of the few Coen Bros. films I haven't seen multiple times.
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Me too. I watched a few scenes on YouTube a while ago and I'd forgotten how good it was!
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anything japanese that's pun based. there's a this whole class of anime and things where it really is funny, but you need to know how they would write a sentence to know why what was said was funny. I'm kind of blanking on a good example , so bad example "great teacher onizuka" had a whole bit about fighting a monster tiger horse because he thought the english word "trauma" was tora uma.
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@zebratron2084 Difficult but clearly worthwhile, I'd say, would be either 'The Dearly Beloved' (Terry Southern-written dark comedy about the pet-funeral business) or 'The Bed-Sitting Room' (absurdist comedy about the nine people in London who survived The Two-Minute War; yes, this is the one where a woman transforms into furniture).