MovieChat Forums > Laugh-In (1967) Discussion > The truth about Laugh-In -- it isn't fun...

The truth about Laugh-In -- it isn't funny

posted 10 years ago by TMC-4
30 replies | jump to latest

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/05/the-trut h-about.html

It's not funny.

Not even slightly.

If you catch a re-run on cable you're likely to sit slack-jawed in front of your TV stunned that you ever found the trite humor, broad slapstick and barrage of idiotic catch-phrases (you bet your sweet bippy!) even remotely entertaining during its original run from 1968-1973.

Not to speak ill of the dead (Dan Rowan died in 1987). Rowan and Martin somehow captured the comedy zeitgeist of middle America in the late 1960s (as a middle-American 10-year-old when the show debuted, it was appointment viewing for me) and their program's unusual, non-linear, sometimes surreal daffiness no doubt paved the way for such genuinely funny programs as "Saturday Night Live" and maybe even "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons."

Comedy tends to age poorly, in part because it relies on being edgy and the edge keeps moving away. But "Laugh-In" is in a class of its own as a solemn cultural artifact -- a museum piece to be studied yet not actually enjoyed.

[–] liscarkat (18388) 3 years ago

As a teenager, I watched "Laugh-In" in its first run. Even then I found some of the jokes and lines corny, but there was also a lot that was funny. Much of it holds up today, especially if you have some clue about historical cultural context, and are not strictly tied to today.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

The truth about this thread 7 years later---it was started by TMC-4, famed for LITTERING formerly IMDb and now Moviechat with worthless clickbait articles. Nothing this bag of wind has to say is informative. I have blocked him on Moviechat so that I don't have to see his ubiquitous posts. Unfortunately, that does not extend to posts he wrote when IMDb was still running. As for this thread-- about three years ago, I watched every season of "Laugh-In". There are a lot of dated, topical jokes I didn't get, but much of it was perfectly understandable and hilarious. Aspiring comedy writers would do well to study the structure of the jokes. It is a fascinating time capsule to a particular turbulent period of American history.

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6358) 3 years ago

No one person can state definitively that a show is funny or not. All they can state is whether or not it is funny *for them*.

If more people than not think a show is funny, then it's funny. If they don't it's not.

If we look at IMDb, this show, attempting to be funny, has a very high rating: 8.0. We must therefore conclude that it is funny.

[–] jonathan_k80 (6436) 3 years ago

That's the problem with shows like this that rely on topical humor. Many news events or pop culture phenomena that they were parodying have become forgotten. Try watching any of the Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" features from the 1970s (if you can find them) and you will get the same effect.