"Tracking The 'Ha-Ha'"

It’s a Pavlovian reaction.

Ken Levine (of the more-popular-than-this-is bykenlevine.com) writes a post, saying today’s comedies are not funny because the writers refuse to write jokes, and I instantly jump to the bait and go, “Hold on a second.”

It’s like the proverbial “swinging door.”  A guy pulls it one way, and it immediately flies back the other.

And here I am, doing it again.

But I mean, think about it.

There are people writing comedy who are refusing to be funny?

Why exactly would they do that?

People can write funny but they don’t want to.  That’s “comedy malpractice”, isn’t it?

TODAY’S COMEDY WRITER:  “Ken’s right.  We are returning the money, and going to law school.”

Here’s the thing.

The best “classically framed” jokes got huge laughs.  That’s not an opinion.  They did.  Audiences laughed longer and harder at the top-tier jokes written for series like Cheers, Friends and Frasier.  And you can forget about “sweetened with laugh tracks”.  I was there.  The audience was genuinely convulsed. 

Since comedies are now less often filmed before a live studio audience, there is no way to rate the comparative intensity of the laughter.  But you can imagine.  

“Comment jokes” – chronicling the moment – cultural references, ironic “asides”:

Smiles.  Perhaps chuckles.  

The comparative reaction is demonstrably – okay, not “demonstrably”; I just said you can’t do that.  But believe me – in a trustable way –

The laughs are not nearly as big.

And I am pretty sure that is not due to “Audience Demand.”

TODAY’S AUDIENCE:  “We don’t want to laugh hard anymore.”

So, as there are just two elements in this equation, and we have ruled out “Audience Demand”,

We are talking – by process of elimination – about the writers.

Harkening back to the original question:

“Why would writers prefer littler laughs?”

Before I get there – knocking your socks off with my definitive response – one grand “Comedy Overview” observation:

This phenomenon has happened before.

“What phenomenon?”

Writers jettisoning big laughs in favor of littler laughs.  Which, compared to today’s laughs were big laughs but compared to the laughs that preceded them were not.

Of course - saying “of course” because I already heard it in my head – I am referring to the once flourishing era of  “Physical Comedy.”

This phenomenon has happened before, and I can assure you, the reaction by “Physical Comedy” writers was identical.

DISPLACED “PHYSICAL COMEDY” WRITER: “‘Word comedy’ is ‘clever’, but it’s not funny.”

Charlie Chaplin is funny.  Buster Keaton is funny.  A monkey, sticking a banana in his ear is funny.  And, by the way, that last one?  That is the issue, right there.

“What is the issue, right where?”

Was that transition not helpful?

“No.”

Sorry.  The issue is “reality.”  And an accompanying desire to escape “Monkey Comedy.”

Every incarnation of comedy – and I suspect “educational upgrade” both of the writers and of the audience is a determinative factor – drives the material in the direction of more “honest” and more “real.”

“Physical comedy” bypasses the brain and goes straight to the “kishgas” (“intestinal funnybone”), and the response is viscerally explosive.  When we got “smarter”, comedy became more “cerebral.”  And concomitantly less funny.  (Gauged by the length and intensity of the laughter.)  We got smarter still, and, with the abandonment of traditional “joke structure”, comedy became even more “real”, and continuingly less funny.

Till – “end of continuum” – you get dramas that win comedy awards.

What happens then?  Writers, inspired by what they see (and not by what’s no longer presented), master the elements of the hot, the new, and the trendy.  And the skills of the past fade away, like itinerant “plate spinners” with nowhere to work.

No one can do the “old thing” anymore. 

It is not “they refuse to.”

Their brain just forgets how.

Tomorrow, I shall offer examples of shows that maintained “physical comedy” in their repertoires, showing that “Old School” comedy approaches can still “kill.”

The audience is ready.

You just need interested writers.