Gone missing ..

The day soaps on day TV - well they are going to be  :-D!

For me, it's those oh so, funny humor TV series, movie, or cabaret of recent memories, 

before the start of "LET IT ALL HANG OUT" took the fun out of it all,  IMO!

And people seem to have lost the sense of enjoying the absurd!

So why am I posting on that?

During dinner with a young friend the other evening, we reminisced about great comedians worldwide.

Despite the fact that she is young enough to be my daughter, we found, surprise, we have similar tastes in certain comedies - ones with the double entendre, tongue-in-cheek and even the stark black comedy!

So I went surfing on TV. 

After a while I hit a channel (forgot which) that just happen to show MASH reruns.

And the humor from that time is just as funny now. I laughed my head off... again.

I've heard that there will be a copy cat (?) series, soon, about hospitals in the current war, but without the leavening humor! From the pilot ads seen so far it will be a most 'realistic' kind - a reality show of gore!

That got me to thinking about other funny 'old' TV series.

Primarily the ones from the BBC...

Do YOU remember some of the 'ne plus ultra' ones - Brit Humor at its true best?
And here are some to wake those memories of perhaps your yore, too!

                                                           "Are you being served"?

                                                                "Keeping up Appearances"?

"Mr. Bean"?

Spoof on a German POW Camp?

"Fawlty Towers"?

And then there were the comedians who composed and wrote utterly weird skits LOL.

Shelley Berman,

Tom Lehrer

http://youtu.be/HHhZF66C1Dc,

Victor Borge,

Anna Russell and

La Gran Scena -opera parodies

Qualtinger, Bronner,

Georg Kreisler-in German

http://youtu.be/evIhyiEv7Rw,

Danzer, Die 3 Spitzbuben ..Austria.

And here are some 'modern' ones from Germany-in German
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJwVjiBYyZs

http://youtu.be/8NFYXrugIhU

And I am sure there were similar ones in French and Spanish and other languages.

And what about movies in this vein?

Most of Abbott and Costello,

Charlie Chaplin (most notable The Great Dictator),

Kind Hearts and Coronets (Alec Guinness),

Dr Strangelove,

Blazing Saddles

come to mind !

Even Naked Gun, the first version...

although that one already verges into the blood, guts and

gore type that has become more prevalent! And the second was just a poor imitation.

La Cage aux Folles-

the French language movie was simply unbeatable IMO!



 And cartoons..

As for instance "Der Fluesterwitz" of Nazi Germany and others of that ilk (Jokes told in whispers for fear of retalliation by authorities)
'Wer hat den Reichstag angezündet?
Die Gebrüder SASS"
("Who burnt the Reichstag?
The Brothers SASS "(combined SA and SS)

before cartoonists became targets of certain militants!

And authors of books.. ditto!

Swift, an early satirist

I am pretty sure you, too, know of at least one such parody, satirical movie, book, cartoon etc.

What happened to that kind of black or any kind of humor?

Has the need to be so darn PC taken the fun out of the FUNNIES?



I remember daring to visit an 'underground' cabaret in, then apartheid, South Africa where fearless young actors took great risks. Alas, only 'getting' the ones in English, I missed a lot more in the Africans and even tribal languages judging from the reaction of the laughing mixed audience.



Because satire criticises in an ironic indirect way, frequently it can slide under censorship.While a more direct criticism may not be able to do this. Of course at times, serious opposition develops mainly from the very people in power who perceive themselves attacked. And then they make attempts to censor or even prosecute its practitioner. 

A very early example:

Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially in Knights, 424 B.C".

"You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner"

Sounds rather modern, doesn't it? :-) :-) :-)



                  "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" - a modern version cartoon! :-). :-) :-)


Evolution of Mankind ; -) :-)



And that's all she wrote,  folks...

have some funny times remembering YOUR very own satire, parody or cartoon!