Thursday 28 August 2008

Who's laughing now?

Not me.
My Mother in Law* has a theory. She thinks that all men become miserable when they hit middle age, and remain so until they fall willingly into their inevitable graves. I assume she's known one or two men in her life, and his not wholly basing this on the fact that I don't dance on the tables, or run around the house whooping when she comes to stay?

I was reflecting on this, whilst watching an old episode of Dad's Army the other night. I enjoyed it, but didn't laugh once. I can't use the excuse that I had seen it before and knew what was coming, because I didn't. My enjoyment was wholly based around the nostalgia and the warm feelings invoked by these cuddly duffers. Conclusion? Either it wasn't funny or I've lost my ability to find it funny?

I tried to think about anything on TV or Films that I've seen recently or even semi-recently that had made me laugh, and came up completely dry.

Now I don't think I have become a total miserable bastard. I laugh a lot in social situations, and at work we have moments of extreme hilarity daily. Usually in the middle of something quite stressful and the expense of some poor bugger who said or done something stupid, which has resulted in an extensive piss-take. Of course the 'poor bugger' is always out of earshot. We laugh a good deal though.

I'd also exclude live stand-up shows, which by virtue of the shared experience, rapport and atmosphere will have me rolling in the aisles. Unless it's Lenny Henry of course (his accent irritates me).

So are TV and Films not funny anymore? Is it that I've become like that legendary cheerful bastard, Paul Simon and '..I don't find this stuff amusin' anymore'?
Admittedly, I don't watch many new shows, but have tried to get into newer stuff like Little Britain and The Mighty Boosh, but both left me cold. I liked both The Office and Extras, and DO remember laughing at the Extras episode with Kate Winslet in. Once.
None of them are a patch on A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie or Vic Reeves Big Night Out which had my younger self bandaging my ribs.

Likewise with films. I've seen the latest American comedies with Saturday Night Live performers promoted into celluloid starring roles, Stiller and Ferrell and Carrell et al, but barely an 'hmph' of mirth has passed my lips at their 'hilarious' antics.
Nothing like the exhaustion I felt leaving a screening of The Man With Two Brains where I laughed so hard I almost broke in two.

So, am I wrong? Is anything funny today? Or is, as I'm starting to fear, my Mother in Law* right?

As a lazy end of the week embed, here's something that also made young VS laugh hard. Steve Martin, before he started taking himself too seriously, making a teenage Jonathan Ross look distinctly out of his depth..




*Argh!

7 comments:

Clair said...

Oh, I feel the same and I don't have testicles. I laugh more at my friends than anything else these days.I think they're the only people who provide us with laughs we haven't seen before.And as for the proposed remake of Reggie Perrin.....ugh.

Kolley Kibber said...

It's well documented that the number of times we laugh each day tails away quite dramatically after we reach our 20s, so you're well out of the chuckle-zone, mate. Your mother-in-law (Aargh!) is a wise woman.

Perhaps something like a new sitcom starring, say, Martine Mc Cutcheon as a young English woman who goes to live in a rural French village, with hilarious ensuing linguistic and cross-cultural misunderstandings, might bring the hint of a smile to that sullen face of yours?

Or else there's always the box set of 'Ever Decreasing Circles'?

Clair said...

Ah, just thinking about Peter Egan in that too-small toy policeman's helmet has me off on one, ISBW.

What HAS been making me laugh - a LOT - and I forgot this, was The Visit, the comedy about what happens during, em, a prision visit that's just been repeated on BBC1. Same feel as Early Doors. Lovely.

BPP said...

You probably need a piss. I find it's incredibly hard to laugh at stuff with a full bladder. I saw Sean Lock live, and couldn't get into it at all because I was busting for a piss.

So I goes for a piss, went back in the theatre, and laughed my head off. See?

Go and 'ave a piss and then see how you feel. If you're still not laughing, then I suggest you tear out your eyes, you miserable fucking bastard.

Jon Peake said...

I tend to avoid new comedy because a) I can't bear everyone else going on about how marvellous it is, or b) I fear it will let me down, which it usually does.

I'm not a laugh out loud at the telly kind of person anyway.

Axe Victim said...

Avoid Dad's Army or any 'old' comedy like the plague. Try Family Guy. I laugh out loud at least once every episode and I am as miserable as you!

Clair said...

I would agree on Family Guy, which truly guarantees a big few laughs per episode. I watched the new Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse thing last night with pity, and no laughs whatsoever. Sad.

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