Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Fields

"It is funnier to bend things than to break them- bend the fenders on a car in a comedy wreck, don’t tear them off. In my golf game, which I have been doing for years, at first I swung at the ball and broke the club. Now I bend it at a right angle. If one comedian hits another over the head with a crowbar, the crowbar should bend, not break. In legitimate drama, the hero breaks his sword, and it is dramatic. In comedy, the sword bends, and stays bent."

The site is "animation resources" and I just spent more time there than I ought.

I'm not sure I like their phrase "golden age." There was some great stuff last century, and some great stuff this. And lots of dreck in both.

1 comment:

J Melcher said...

I should go look at the site cited. BUT expressing an opinion from complete ignorance:

The contrast between "The Simpsons" cartoon itself and the "Itchy and Scratchy" cartoon-within-the-cartoon relates to the feature described. Homer is often damaged -- a cannon ball is fired into his gut, or whatever. Ha ha. We laugh at Homer.

But the mouse slices the cat's belly open, extracts the liver, fries it, and serves it up at the cat's own dinner. We laugh not at the violence, but AT BART, who laughs at this awful sequence.

There is a line between humor and violence. A "Three Stooges" eye poke that left a stooge bleeding from the eye sockets would NOT be funny, I think. I hope. Most people wouldn't find it so. But the over-the-top portrayal of non-damaging violence -- the contrast between the cannon ball and the "dent" -- is funny.

Not that woke scolds are able to make the distinction.