Friday, July 8, 2011

COMEDY IS THE PROVINCE OF YOUTH


The woods at Liz and Larry's place down the way from Schroon Lake. Too bad you can't hear the stream. Or Jane barking at you. I told Jane that she was "compact cuteness."

After posting last night, I came across this quote in the review of the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park productions of All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure (which is one of my personal faves).

"Comedy is the province of youth, whose frivolity owes its insouciant cruelty to the lack of a sense of limitation; by middle age, playwrights are better acquainted with loss."
John Lahr, Down and Dirty: Shakespeare's Dark Larks, NY'er 7/11/11

I repeatedly reflect on my disdain and dismay over bromances and that ilk. I find adolescent male humor desperate and inappropriate, not to mention numbingly boring. Adult life hurts, no question, but it also offers a much bigger emotional, sensational, resonant experience. 

If you will pardon the badly drawn metaphor, the male hegemony of life defining experience, particularly as portrayed and consumed in the American culture I see around me is simply two-dimensional, flat, and doesn't even use multi-planing very well.

2 comments:

  1. I really love comedy, but share your disdain for bromances. my kids being young, watch that sort of thing. have you seen bridesmaids? sounds like it might be good (I'm waiting for it to netflick) Paradoxically, my sense of humor has in the past been a problem for my young students, but currently, we're kind of on the same wave length. I went to the re-make of le diner aux cons and was heart broken at its asininity (though I kind of like the star in other things). I'm trying to think of a modern comedy I like, because I refuse to accept that I'm in Lahr's category. Just don't like stupid movies about unattractive guys getting the gorgeous girl for no reason.

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  2. Most people I know don't understand my sense of humor either (& we're also waiting for Bridesmaids, which our teen daughter loved). Doug & I were just talking about comedies/comedians we've recently enjoyed (not quite the right word..."enjoyed" doesn't quite mean "totally cracked up, laughing"...), and what we came up with was: 2 Ricky Gervais movies (I forget titles; one was about a guy who could see/talk to dead people, the other: The Invention of Lieing,...& Guy Ritchie's English gangster films. I've always liked Monty Python, & last night a Tommy Tiernan stand-up film made me rock in my chair, laughing myself quite teary. Given how important comedy is for our souls, I'd think there would be more good ones out there, for our large generation, but most do not appeal to me. Do not like teen (pre-teen!) boy humor.

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