Posted on 03/30/2019 4:13:44 PM PDT by Twotone
Asked about the difference between American and British comedy, Eric Morecambe replied that in America they had funny lines but no funny men. I sort of know what he means: A funny man is someone an audience is happy to hang out with even when the funny lines are thin on the ground. Likeability comes into it, but also the ability to disguise the comedian's desperate desire to be liked - which I recall talking about in one of the many pre-interviews I did for the tour dates with Dennis Miller. But, for a while, my favorite Hollywood funny man was, in fact, a Canadian - Leslie Nielsen, the silver fox of the LAPD in the Naked Gun movies. I was happy to watch him in almost anything, just because I enjoyed the pleasure of the company of his comedic persona. Which is odd because his funny-man persona was no more than a smidgeonette of variation on his previous straightest-of-straight-men persona.
His most successful movie franchise came to an end a quarter-century ago, with the release of Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. I don't think I took that sub-title terribly seriously, but a couple of months later Leslie Nielsen's co-star OJ Simpson was arrested for the murder of his wife and that was that. "There'll never be a Naked Gun 4," Mr Nielsen told me sometime that summer. "What about if he's acquitted?" I asked. "It still wouldn't be funny," he said sadly.
And so Naked Gun 33⅓ was the last hurrah. In those days, just about every movie came shadowed by a parody: Top Gun had Hot Shots; Lethal Weapon, which was tongue-in-cheek to begin with, spawned Loaded Weapon. But Hot Shots' Charlie Sheen and whoever the guy in the execrable Loaded Weapon was can't compete with Nielsen.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Zack Galafanakis is a funny man.
The 3rd Naked Gun, I wonder if it was written by different folks because it had nowhere near the appeal and hilarity of the first two.
Funniest part of this story is that “funny man” Leslie Nielsen had an entire career before this, usually as a heavy. Airplane launched him in an entirely new trajectory - one that made him much more famous than his first one.
The Naked Gun movies were great. One of the things that has made comedy almost impossible now, however, is political correctness and the lack of a shared morality. That is, once upon a time, a double entendre was funny because everybody knew that it meant something kinda dirty...but it was because people actually thought there was something dirty in the first place that made it possible.
So I’m not sure what can be funny anymore. Obviously, leftist “comedians” seem to believe that the mere mention of Trump, followed by a stream of insults, is hysterically funny....but I think a lot of Americans, even if they don’t like Trump, have gotten tired of this.
That perfectly describes Johnny Carson. He managed to appeal to both left and right. Is that still possible?
I love Steyn, but I don’t agree with him on this. “Funny lines” are lines that any decent comedian could deliver, but “funny men” are something different, i.e., they are usually comic figures in and of themselves, regardless of their lines, and America has had a lot of them: Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, Don Knotts, Ernie Kovacs, Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Chris Farley, and so on.
Anytime I see that Airplane is going to be on one of the DirecTV channels I get, I just have to watch it-and I howl just as much with laughter as I did the 1st time I saw it-the ridiculous acting out of the cliches and the total lack of PC is what makes it so great-likewise, the Naked Gun flicks, and the Mel Brooks comedies-especially Blazing Saddles-another fav of mine-my guy commented that most of what passes for comedy now isn’t funny anymore-because of the PC s***-you would never, ever make a Blazing Saddles, Airplane, Naked Gun, etc today without being dragged into court by every lunatic fringe group around-those people lack the sense of humor to make fun of themselves...
Watching Uncle Buck as I write this. John Candy always cracks me up even if the plot stinks. HE’S a funny man. Shame he died so young
I’d say Jay Leno is genuinely funny. Still doing comedy clubs as far as I know.
Don’t forget the Police Squad series on TV. I thiMk it was only 6 episodes but to me it was downright hilarious. I also thiMk it spawned the Naked Gun movies.
Johnny Carson is one of the few people who could be funnier when his monologues were failing. He could still keep the audience's sympathy.
Can't leave this thread without posting Frank Drebin impersonating an umpire:
A brilliant parody of the Airport disaster movies.
Who’s Harry Crumb and Delirious are my two favorite Candy movies.
Same guys that did Airplane! did another of my favorites, Top Secret!
Leslie showed up on Streets Of SF a couple of times in good dramatic roles.
Funny how? Like a clown?
Yes, “Police Squad (In Color)” was before the movies. Six brilliantly funny episodes. WAAAAAaaaaaay too advanced for the generic TV audience who were watching for the almost-nonexistent plot. It was all about the gags and the sight gags. And the weekly “guest star” who was only in the opening scene (getting killed) and no where else in the episode.
And don’t forget the shoe-shine guy giving “the word on the street to guest stars like Dr. Joyce Brothers and Dick Clark (who at the end asks the guy for more of that anti-aging gel for his face).
Among my favorite shows EVER.
Before he did Police Squad, I had never seen Neilson do anything other than serious roles. The nuttiness of seeing him do comedy made it doubly funny.
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