Tell you what, I sometimes feel like a caveman when I tell an old joke to a young person and their eyes go all static noise. Similarly, I watched the first Austin Powers movie upon the recommendation of a younger person who called it “a work of comedic genius.” I didn’t laugh at all the first 10 minutes and shut it off. The jokes weren’t funny to me, and the timing seemed off. It’s probably my fault, old fossil that I am.My teenage son asked about old style comedy, and I dug up an old video tape, “The Unknown Chaplin.” Its a 3-part American Master series with recently discovered film that shows how Chaplin constructed his early silent movies. My son was at first thrown by the lack of sound and color, the old clothing fashions, and the simplistic plots. But eventually he got into the swing of it all. I have other film of the old comedians of that time to show shim as time goes on..Is this a good thing, or will it make him an unsatisfied consumer of modern comedy crud? I know that’s begging the question.
Tell you what, I sometimes feel like a caveman when I tell an old joke to a young person and their eyes go all static noise. Similarly, I watched the first Austin Powers movie upon the recommendation of a younger person who called it “a work of comedic genius.” I didn’t laugh at all the first 10 minutes and shut it off. The jokes weren’t funny to me, and the timing seemed off. It’s probably my fault, old fossil that I am.My teenage son asked about old style comedy, and I dug up an old video tape, “The Unknown Chaplin.” Its a 3-part American Master series with recently discovered film that shows how Chaplin constructed his early silent movies. My son was at first thrown by the lack of sound and color, the old clothing fashions, and the simplistic plots. But eventually he got into the swing of it all. I have other film of the old comedians of that time to show shim as time goes on..Is this a good thing, or will it make him an unsatisfied consumer of modern comedy crud? I know that’s begging the question.