Monday, September 3, 2012

The Comedy Legends: Are They Funny? (hopefully a multi-part series)

Hear me now and listen to me later: Humor is subjective. there are thousands of comedians from the days of yore that are name-checked and referred to, in fact, as Legendary. they indeed paved the way for your Louies, Your Pattons, Your Marons, et al.
but where they, in fact, funny?

i thought of this at work, because truth be told, i don't really know. some of them, to my way of thinking, are quite funny. some, well, not so much, but one may look at them in the context of their importance to the craft. but just because something is old and legendary, doesn't make it funny. conversely, that does not make it unfunny. i think we can only judge them by their merits. and here is where i begin. bear in mind, as stated above, that humor and comedy are almost completely subjective. this is, as ever, my opinion. you may not dig any of these artists at all. hell, I might not even dig any of them. we shall see.

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I'm starting with the following Comedienne because she is in the news a lot lately, having recently died at the ripe old age of 92. this of course is Phyllis Diller. a bit of context: Phyllis is incredibly well known as a personality. she did, in fact, get her start as a comedian, but i'm not sure if i was ever really conscious of that until maybe a couple years ago. i'm not especially old (despite how i feel/joke), so my knowledge of Ms. Diller is from her appearances in reruns of old game shows, stuff like Laugh-in, and random sitcoms. she even appears in the documentary Who Killed The Electric Car?, regaling the viewer with the knowledge that most cars were once electric. fascinating stuff, for my money.

but is she funny?
This short clip is probably not enough to make a judgment on such a long and storied career. in this 2:22 video, i think i actually laughed aloud 3 or 4 times. that's not a particularly high quotient, but it is a short video, and frankly, it's more times than i thought i would. in breaking ground for bizarre female characters to be comedic, i say i have the utmost respect for Phyllis Diller.
as for funny: yeah, kinda. sure.
that's the best i can do.

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