funniest of these

[copehead]

He wanks as high as any in Wome!

He has a wife you know....................................

[The Modernist]

Is this funny?

Not for me it isn't, but then I wasn't in America in the late seventies and I probably don't get the cultural context of what he's doing. Not all humour travels.

[Dr Markus]

Father Ted obviously.

[naughty boy]

Father Ted - Yeah it still makes me chuckle, even if I've seen it a little too often. It's the look of complete incomprehension and mild panic on Dougal's face which makes it.
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.
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Ted then.

I was reminded of that scene again today.

As a comedy idea, it really is absolute solid-gold genius, isn't it?

I'm often envious of artists, who make their living from their imaginations, essentially. But to come up with something like that - and JUST that - and to profit from it financially, to make your living from it! and then to have generations laugh and laugh at it....that's really something to be proud of.

[harvey k-tel]

I was reminded of that scene again today.

Because of your tiny toasts?

[naughty boy]

GET LOST

[Neige]

Python, beating Black Adder by a whisker.

the Conchords are great too, the Office makes me cringe, Father Ted is too short to compete.

[bobzilla77]

Not dumb necessarily, but I think it needs to be instinctive. Comedy that has been overly 'worked on' rarely tends to be funny, that's the main reason most sitcoms fail I think.

This is plain poppycock. There are no rules to this sort of thing.

No, I think G's right.

Of course there are exceptions, but as laughter is such a basic impulse, surely it makes sense that the best way to elicit it is through something spontaneous.

I would answer.... Then why is so much "improv comedy" so totally unwatchable?

I spent some time around comics when I first got to LA & I found it interesting that they talked to each other about who was a good "technical comic". Jerry Seinfeld was one they singled out as being a very good technical comic... like he was the Ritchie Blackmore of delivering jokes or something. There's a way of delivering a line to sound spontaneous and conversational that is actually the result of intense training, honing delivery like Blackmore honed his speed-fretting skills. And the ones who look spontaneous, who do a lot of stuff with the crowd, are the ones who have the training to go off-script like that.

[bobzilla77]

Is this funny?

Not for me it isn't, but then I wasn't in America in the late seventies and I probably don't get the cultural context of what he's doing. Not all humour travels.

I really like Andy Kaufman. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't think it's funny, why I do.

There's a certain absurdity, an upending of expectations, in everything he does. You expect something to happen accoprding to the rules of showbiz, which we all understand. And then something else happens.

[yomptepi]

Father Ted, Monty python and Blackadder clips made me laugh out loud.
I voted for Flashheart, because I started laughing before i even started the clip.

This.
I don't think I have ever laughed so hard or so often as I have at Rick Mayall's Flash Heart performances.

[The Modernist]

Loved the two Big Train sketches.
Alexei Sayle made me chuckle lightly initially, but it felt overworked, which was always a problem with his comedy. Too forced.

[naughty boy]

Loved the two Big Train sketches.
Alexei Sayle made me chuckle lightly initially, but it felt overworked, which was always a problem with his comedy. Too forced.

Indeed.

[clive gash]

‘Lex at his most Python-esque

[Deebank]

I seem to remember that the last track on the OST album for Life of Brian was called 'It's not so bad once your up"

More blasphemous than anything on any Marilyn Manson record