TV Tuesday: Ha, ha?

[yourlibrarian]

Comedic trends have come and gone, but some have changed how comedy is done. Do you have any thoughts about which comedy shows might have been particularly influential?

Or which comedies have influenced your own sense of humor?

Comments

[fleurviolette]

Pretty much any show that Michael Schur worked on, was an influence on my sense of humor.

[yourlibrarian]

A big influence for sure on a lot of people!

[jo]

I grew up in the 1960s-70s, which means I grew up watching extremely physical, slap-sticky type of comedy shows. Examples would include Get Smart, I Love Lucy, Laugh-In, The Monkees, The Carol Burnett Show, The Smothers Brothers, etc. So I still gravitate towards really almost in-your-face funny stuff.

I also grew up watching what were, I guess, fairly groundbreaking sitcoms such as All in the Family, MASH, SOAP, Maude, etc.

I find a lot of what is categorized as "comedy" today not particularly funny. Mildly amusing maybe, but I rarely find myself really laughing -- whereas the stuff I grew up watching sometimes had me laughing to the point of tears and/or pissing myself. I guess the more recent shows that have come closest are some of the various UK panel/game shows that feature so many of the best UK stand-up comedians.

[yourlibrarian]

I didn't get to watch much TV until I was in my teens, so a number of contemporary influences passed me by. My mother loved All in the Family though, and I can see that it might have been one for me as well, because it has a lot of that social commentary and hypocrisy baiting sort of humor in it.

It's true that I can't think of anything wildly amusing that's recent, although I have really loved Brooklyn 99 and Community. Although both are comedies, and there are definitely things I have laughed at, I enjoy them more for other elements such as the ensemble in 99 and the playing with genre conventions and fannish connections in Community.

And though I love the political humor by Colbert, Samantha Bee etc. in a sense that's more like standup. There can be good bits and very funny bits, and what I'd call very satisfying bits (in that something or someone that really needs to be skewered, is skewered in a clever way). But not as much with the weeping with laughter funny.

I think one reason might be that I really love a comedy of errors. So my favorite movie is What's Up Doc, my favorite play is Noises Off, etc. But I can't think of any current TV show that is like that. An episode here or there perhaps, but not a series.

[executrix]

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

[yourlibrarian]

Indeed!

I was going to choose Python as the comedy altering influence. What they did wasn't completely novel as they were building on the work of earlier pioneers. But they were both influential in spreading that sort of comedy elsewhere (notably Canada and the U.S.) and their film success also showed that there was money to be had for comedians who wanted to tread those paths. For sure, a whole generation of comics either were inspired by Python or knew of them.

I'd also add, as an American, I found it more instructive about British society than any college course could have been!

That said, I don't know as it had much effect on my own sense of humor, as it contains a lot of absurdism which I don't generally come up with. I can't cite these as influences because I came on them so late that I'd consider it more "reflections" of my own brand of humor: but how the Daily Show and its many offshoots comment on hypocrisies and observae lack of self-awareness in people and society gels rather well.

I know a lot of people develop their humor from family influences but that's one place for sure I know I didn't. My dad, for example, had no sense of humor, in that he didn't even get humor 90% of the time. Perhaps that's why I do tend to like dry humor.

[tinny]

Yes to all of this, plus:

Germany is included in that list, because a famous tv producer learned of them early on and brought the whole of the Flying Circus to German tv in the 70s.

Also: I do think my humor is very much like that of Python, now that I think of it. It gets quoted *a lot* in our household, too.

[yourlibrarian]

My partner has a box set of their work and we saw the German episodes as they're included.

This week on Jeopardy there was a category called "German Humor" but it was humor about Germans, rather than by them. Included was a question about Basil Fawlty. We tend to quote "Don't mention the war!" every so often (in different contexts).

[lokifan]

Peep Show for me, for sure.

[yourlibrarian]

Oh interesting, I hadn't heard of that one before. A cult classic is usually influential in some way.