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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
You beat me to it, owenz. I was going to point out that Bill Murray is still funny.
But I agree that it's harder for happy/content people to be funny. So, first of all, money does seem to buy happiness, in general. Second: maybe Murray's clinically depressed. Sad for him, good for his fans?
This has been one of my ongoing peeves with comedians-made-big: they cease to be funny the moment that they're co-opted into the machine.
Eddie Murphy? Not funny since Raw.
Chris Rock? Increasingly nonfunny, and now he has a TV series (that he literally gets to phone in).
Steve Martin? Denis Leary? Ray Romano? Kevin James? Brett Butler? Roseanne? The list goes on.
They all have one thing in common: the moment that they hit it big they stopped performing in front of live audiences.
Not one of them has had to adapt his act for changing times and changing tastes from the moment that they acheived "success". Thus they cease to be relevant and daring and risky and breathtaking, and dammit, funny.
Get back on the road for a few months out of every few years, guys. Remember the funny, then bring it back to your movies and TV shows. Stop coasting.
While we seem to drown in a sea of celebrities these days, real stars -- creative, innovative, endearing -- do not come along that often. Stand up comedy has given us many wonderful talents, but those who started by doing stand up, with some exceptions, never quite seem to mature as actors. Many of those who did were vaudevillians (Bert Lahr, Ed Wynn), but there were also those who resolutely refused to change their personas one whit (Bob Hope, Jack Benny, George Burns). There was a time when actors could easily handle comedy (Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, even Jimmy Cagney) but they were actors first, equally capable of doing dramatic parts.
Those who came from stand up too often appear to think that maturing as dramatic actors requires taking on stories awash in sentimentality and treacle ("Patch Adams," anyone?). No matter how much you like a comedian, a quick perusal of IMDB often shows how little of their film work is watchable or enjoyable. Perhaps it is the struggle between maintaining an edge and achieving mainstream success, i. e., becoming a movie star. Here's a test, of sorts: if you're asked to participate in the Academy Awards for any reason or in any role, you are no longer cutting edge. You've made it; let mediocrity ensue!
I think it is interesting that in just about every other area of entertainment, it is pretty well accepted that performers have a short shelf life. Pop singers come and go and we mostly have no expectation that they will last more than a few years in the public spotlight. They may continue to produce, but they will not be "bankable" or particularly popular (with a few major exceptions, obviously). The woman playing the "hot female lead of the hour" is constantly changing and we pick up and ogle at the next one. Yet aging male comics get to keep making movies with a lot of publicity. When their comedy gets tired, they even get to do drama with beautiful women who could be their daughters (Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, Martin in Shopgirl). Zacharek seems surprised that Martin bombs in the Pink Panther, but I knew as soon as I saw him that it would be terrible and I never considered seeing it for a second. I am not yet thirty, and I just don't see the appeal of comics from two generations ago, yet they still get lots of attention. I wish we could maybe just accept that comics, like most people in show business, have a short shelf life and then move on to what is new, innovative, and funny. Well, at least what is new . . .
I couldn't agree more, particularly in the area of standup. Chris Rock was once brilliant, now he's just strident. Gerorge Carlin, who lived on the edge, is now safely boring. But the most embarrassing performance is today's Robert Klein, who wears his unhipness like a cloak. Watching him prance around the stage dispensing dog-eared riffs and air-humping for emphasis is painful.
Bring back Bob Newhart and Shelly Berman. Bring back thinking.
Neil Bennett
What an interesting subject. I find I have the same sentimental attachment to favorite comedians as I do to pop stars. Comedians, like pop stars, are getting a rap that what makes them good disappears as they get old. The language here is the same- the performers lose their edge, maybe their lack of self-consciousness. Often true, but not always. I'm thinking of Joan Rivers, W.C. Fields, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, Groucho Marx (I know I'm hopping eras here)- not all the most pleasant personalities, but all fascinating, funny and, yes, angry into their waning years.
Can't think of anyone in their fifties or sixties who is funny who isn't primarily a stand-up comedian, or who hasn't made the rare and successful crossover into drama. Maybe it's something about the way we see youth as such a paramount value today. Some of the above comedians were around in days of yore, where elders lorded it over the young and teenagers weren't the target demographic. I wonder if Groucho Marx, given today's attitudes, would have just hunched his shoulders and gone off into that gentle night if he were around today, rather than host You Bet Your Life?
Perhaps the problem is expecting people to be funny in the context of a feature film. For that to work requires a great script. Maybe the problem is that today's aging comedians who star in Hollywood movies are not given good material to work with. As for the scripts for which they are responsible, as in Albert Brooks, I have no answers for that.
Too many precious adverbs: "gaspingly unfunny", "desperately beautiful", "unnervingly funny", etc. Sounds like someone is worried that without this stuff they won't sound like a "real" movie critic.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
