Farce

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I like nothing better than a good Farce. Lots of rushing around, wise cracking and ridiculously convoluted plots and subplots. But most of all a good farce really needs a room with lots of doors for people to rush it and out of, walk through and above all slam.

'Bringing Up Baby' is probably the best Farce on film, the 'Barber of Seville' probably rules the roost for operatic farce, 'Allo Allo' was british farce par excellence on TV.

Let's talk about this declining comedic genre.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe it is declining for a reason? This sort of comedy can bug the hell outta me, I mean 'Allo Allo' just isn't funny.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:08 (twenty-two years ago)

That's a pretty broad definition of farce, I hadn't really thought of it including Bringing Up Baby (and, presumably, the Marx Brothers). Was that Stanley Tucci attempt to recreate that vibe a few years ago any good?

I'm more used to Farce = English Sex Comedy ('Allo 'Allo), which Victoria Wood tore the entrails out of during "An Audience With..."

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's pretty broad and the English sex comedy is a pretty poor end for an oeuvre that includes some of the works of Moliere and Shakespere (who of course include both have included both english people, sex and comedy all at the same time, without having written a 16th century 'Run for your Wife').

― Ed (dali), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Er, have you seen Twelfth Night? (though I share Pinkpanther's dislike for that end of things (hoho)).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

"Frasier".

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Hate it!
But then what exactly are we defining as a 'farce' I mean could you class say 'Friends' in this genre due to it's mishap after mishap type progress?

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:46 (twenty-two years ago)

To be fair I'm not actually a great fan of the Shakespeare comedies as they aren't very funny to my modern eyes.

Frasier has some episode that classify as high farce but it's more often than not, (especially nowadays) very straight narrative comedy.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Friends is at most two mishaps per episode followed by a lot of mugging. Bring back cultural uniformity, so we only needed one reaction shot, that's what I say!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 6 October 2003 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree with Ed, in that as much as I love Shakespeare, I just don't find his comedies funny. So friends is now mainstream comedy as opposed to a 'farce'?

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 October 2003 12:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Early friends (back when it had one plot, and was good) may have been farce, I reckon. But I'm no expert.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 6 October 2003 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Coupling is far more farce than Friends in general (it is also nowhere near as good (!)

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 6 October 2003 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

So follow the simple rule, farce=shite?

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 October 2003 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Flann O'Brien's The Hard Life is subtitled: A Sober Farce. It admirably meets this description and 'tain't shite.

― Aimless, Monday, 6 October 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

So friends is now mainstream comedy as opposed to a 'farce'?

"Friends" always was more mainstream comedy than actual farce. Never could understand what makes/made it so popular. (It's on the ninth---and final---series here in the US. Yay!)

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 6 October 2003 22:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Three's Company = US TV

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 6 October 2003 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Friends was extremely good at what it did. Part of it's success was that at the start, for every episode where there were 2+4, there was an episode where there 6. They have a very broad range of characters, the actors work well within them, and they have, in Chandler & Joey, the best pre-Spaced depiction of how modern manchilds get on. Even as the Ross & Rachel histrionics got pumped up in later series (IE 2&3), the storylines around Chandler and Joey got stranger - like Seinfeld if Seinfeld stooped to humanise it's characters. But the first series, when it was all just a simple eternal set-up - they'll teach it in college in the future.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 6 October 2003 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

seventeen years pass...

What are some good feature film farces? I miss theatre

― is right unfortunately (silby), Sunday, 27 December 2020 21:30 (five years ago)

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