i hate monty python, kids in the hall, chris rock, and south park.......

The only funny thing to me these days is Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. That shit is fucking comedy gold.

(Fawlty Towers IS funny! Why? NO COSTUMES).

I haven't seen the state for a long long time.

Of course you also talking to someone who laughed until he cried when Tom Green was on.

I got the whole run of the show on DVD a year ago.
The more I watch Monty Python the more I think Momus must have been raised on it but never realized it was supposed to be ironic.

When are they coming out with Kids in the Hall DVDs? My Pen! My Pen! It's the one I do all my work with!!

And HARVEY BIRDMAN. need more harvey birdman. more harvey birdman.

Does anybody find the Naked Gun movies as hilarious as I do?

The first two seasons. Watching them only made me appreciate the show more (well, the second season especially, they were still finding their way during the first one).

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Oh MAN.

What I've seen of The League of Gentlemen was perfectly all right to me! Must catch more.

That one isn't out yet [I think]. Hotel Le Rut is, though I have no clue if Tammy has been unleashed on DVD in full surround sound glory.

I ain't gonna spread for no roses.

"GET OUT YOU LABOURER!"

Alex, oops and I all agree on Kids in the Hall, interesting.

I love "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" more than I love oxygen.

but only cos i've not seen much KITH

Another messed up thing about this thread is the vague assertion that all these elements belong to the same subgenre of comedy. While, yeah, clearly "Kids in the Hall" (who are undeniably brilliant, by the way) owe a huge debt to Monty Python, but "South Park" and "Chris Rock" have zero in common with either or each other.

OTMFM. "Family Guy" is painful to watch. They try way too hard.

For example, there was this one scene where Peter was talking about how something was "like stealing candy from a baby". Then we jump to a flashback scene of Peter standing in the park next to a baby carriage, you can see it coming, stealing candy from the baby. Now multiply these obvious unfunny jump scenes by 200, and you've got an episode of "Family Guy".

And their attempts at shock humor is assmoric. Like when the boy got his JFK Pez dispenser shot off in a convience store and then says, "At least I still have my Bobby Kennedy dispenser!" Huh? Oh, haha. Whatever.

Stewie makes me laugh sometimes. Sometimes.

22:10 Straight Steer for the Clueless Queer Comedy parodying recent American import Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Unreconstructed straight men effect a heterosexual makeover of Brendan Courtney (irish celebrity homosexual)

sounds like fun.

Anyone remember "Frank's Trip to the Orient"?

holy shit, i'm now remembering the lizz winstead/frank decaro movie reviews on teh daily show. that was like SIX years ago.

buddy of mine was a PA on that show. never did tell me if he ever got to meet (fellow Univ of Mich alumni) the Sklar Brothers.

also, i like how Jon Stewart would openly mock the show each night...

I don't think it is feasible that Python should be asked to overcome BBC production values from the early 1970s in comparison with more recent shows. They recorded most of their eps live and had very little scope to re-do. Sure they look quaint today, but there's a quaintness to, say, the Beatles today that might mute their impact until you immerse.

The key point about their surrealist comedy instincts is that they invented the shit. They exploded their form. Not ending their sketches just because form dictated a lame punchline was one of their great innovations. They got meta before it was fashionable, and did it really smartly. The odd thing falls flat, but once you get over how lowbudget it all seems, it is as great as it is cracked up to be, IMO.

but remember a lot of references are lost on many of the British audience as well - i'm unaware of any undertone to the rubbish (on the surface) cheese shop and parrot sketches as well.

-- Freelance Hiveminder (stevem7...), November 12th, 2004. (later)

Alls you got to know about these scenes is that IT IS A CHEESE SHOP WITH NO CHEESE! And the man KEEPS ASKING FOR CHEESE!!!!

Comedy doesn't come much purer than this.

i only started watching the fast show this week. it's all about the repetition: it gets funnier the more you watch it. i don't love it as much as the office (yet).

nice try, but not so much. anyone who quotes monty python is a fucking nerd, and quoting monty python is LEAGUES worse than ragging on someone who does.

I cannot stand Seinfeld because of the relentlessly cheery and BLOODY OMNIPRESENT slap-bass (which is also a feature of every single yuppie-targetted commercial on US television, ARGH).

i love kids in the hall, i could watch it forever. i love mr. show, i was a fan from the first time i saw it.

-- You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhan...), November 12th, 2004.

OTM

i hear what you're sayying though, and that is the superstructure joke that makes it all work. like i said, different levels!!

i love Scott's big gay monologues in KITH. it's totally different to the rest of the show but that's fine by me, it gave the shows it appeared in a little bit of a classic variety light entertainment feel

-- suzy (theartskooldisk...), November 13th, 2004.

It's not even a slap bass, it's about 6 different samples played in some sort of shuffle-mode, isn't it? Whatever it is, I think it's the worst god damn music ever composed for television.

we tried to implement this policy at the bar i did sound at, but the owner wouldn't let us. not even after we all witnessed this pouncey git playing a bright-green 8-string bass.

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exactly. the key to the fast show is repetition, but i can't tell you why this is so. it gets better and better, trust to this.

The Python movies are good, but I defy anyone to actually watch Python the series with a clean slate of expectations and actually find it consistently funny.

the (mostly awful) last season aside, i think MPFC was the most consistently inventive and unpredictable comedy series ever. no matter how many times i've seen an episode, there's always some hilarious little bit i've forgotten about. the "people quote it too much for it to be funny" argument makes no sense to me because there are TONS of skits on the original series that no one ever quotes. watching even the best SNL after a Python episode is a little like drinking diluted root beer.

I've indulged in a bit of Python quoting (not much, because I like to do everything in a half-hearted, lukewarm sort of a way) not because I'm a nerd or I like Star Trek or Lord of the Rings especially (I like them both fine, but not in any geeky way) but because it can be great fun with the right person, like dancing, or some other types of things likeminded people do for pleasure in concert with one another (I'm sure these exist but I can't bring them to mind).

tammy - "i ain't gonna spread for no roses"

Chris Rock's stuff I don't know well enough, but I do think a lot of what he does pales next to Richard Pryor, his obvious hero. But I need to get one of his concert movies out or hear one of his albums really - i've enjoyed him in movies and on SNL. South Park i just never catch nowadays, though the last one i saw - where they mixed up a porn video and the lord of the rings tape - was absolute unmitigated genius, as is the NAMBLA episode...

I hate warm, fuzzy, jazzy talk-show themes almost more than the slap-bass interludes (and always imagine the news-music writers from Broadcast News taking a meeting to come up with it)