Comedy & Serious

No movie tonight. Instead, Grimsley came over. He wanted to show me a tape he had of David Letterman receiving something called the Mark Twain Prize for Humor, given out every year in Washington D.C. by the Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts. I have mentioned that Grim is Old School. He still tapes everything on VHS. Good thing I still have have a VHS player. :)

I had never heard of the Mark Twain Prize, but apparently it's been around for 20 years. Bill Murray won it last year. To be honest, I don't follow comedy all that much. I mean, I like to laugh as much as the next guy, but comedy in general is not a major interest of mine, in the way that, say, music or history is, or science, or art. Comedy is an art form, but I don't seek it out as I once did in my younger years, when I had a subscription to Mad magazine as a nine year old, or when I bought National Lampoon every month when I was fourteen, the same age that I first saw "Blazing Saddles" and thought it was the funniest movie I'd ever seen, which I still do.

Overall though, I guess since I was a teen, comedy has always been what I would call a "side interest" for me. If something is funny, show it to me or tell me about it, and if it sounds funny I'll check it out. Like Buster Keaton for instance, or Harold Lloyd last week. But I generally do not seek out comedic stuff these days, just because I have so many other things in which I am interested.

Grim however, comedy is his thing. He especially loves the Late Night Talk Show variety of comedy, going back to Johnny Carson. Grim was a huge fan of David Letterman, and now his favorites are Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers. Letterman, though, was an absolute legend for Grim. He was talking about Letterman way back in 1982, when his show first came on the air.

I think comedy is like music, in that both art forms move different people in different ways, and to different extents. For instance, I can watch any episode of "Gilligan's Island" to this day, and even though I have seen every episode at least 25 times by now (and some more like 50 times), I will still find them highly amusing, even if I am not laughing as I did decades ago. The "laugh out loud" factor can fade, but the humor remains on the inside, and the things that are funny to any one individual remain funny, even for a lifetime.

So I've always had Certain Things I Find Funny, as far as TV shows and movies are concerned.

Here are a few, for your consideration :

"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". That show was the "Saturday Night Live" of the late '60s, and a Laugh Riot it was. Everybody talked about an episode the next day, and I never missed it as a kid.

"Saturday Night Live" from the early years to about 1980, and then again from the late '80s to the mid '90s, especially the Mike Myers/Dana Carvey/Phil Hartman era. Now that was some funny stuff, week after week, and I watched it every week in those days.

"Gilligan" and "The Flintstones". Given that I first saw these shows in my formative years, before I was five years old, they have influenced my sense of humor in the same way The Beatles influenced my love of music.

Of course Mel Brooks was a huge comedic influence, and the hard core sarcasm of National Lampoon. "Seinfeld" was a sophisticated version of "dumb" humor that was consistently great.

Over the years, I have watched a lot of half hour sitcoms that have held my interest for varying amounts of time, but not many have stuck with me as what I would call "reference points", meaning something I return to or think about or mention.

For Grim, comedy has been an especially important part of his life, one of his favorite art forms, and especially the Late Night shows as I have mentioned. For me,  television and movie comedy was instrumental in establishing my sense of humor from childhood through my twenties, when I saw classics like "The Life Of Brian" or "Being There" or "A Fish Called Wanda".

I only mention all of this to say that I guess my focus is more serious these days. Now, the idea of "Serious" can sound like a big bummer, but it really isn't, because while comedy is a lot of fun - and is certainly a necessary ingredient - "serious" on the other hand can include the deeper subjects....

Like Romance. And Spirituality. And the search for Truth.

And.....Romance. Did I mention romance already? Ah well......I get carried away.

But that's the good thing about Serious, is that it's Not So Serious.

When Romance, Spirituality, et al, are considered, Serious is actually a lot of fun!

So that's the way it is these days for me. Comedy is okay, if it's funny, and if it's really funny and new to me, like Buster Keaton, or if it's something that's already classic for me, like the stuff I mentioned, then it's an important part of my life. I will bet that you have some things that are classics for you as well, as far as comedy is concerned.

But it is not the main thing for me these days, as it is for Grimsley.

I am looking not for easy laughs, per se. Those will always be there, and I have them inside of me in any case and can bring them out when needed.

These days, for me it's all about The Deeper Stuff, the Mysterious Stuff, the study of the Wonders Of Life, and the search for A Romantic Interest to join me in these things, because the Wonders Of Life are most wondrous when shared.

Happy Thanksgiving. See you in the morning.  :):)