Wednesday, September 05, 2007

What's funny?

Since university, my answer has always been "Three rocks." 'Tis a Zippy the Pinhead reference which seems silly now. (The official Zippy website is the most blatantly commercial site I've ever seen -- you can't really look at a strip without buying it. Go and see who Zippy is, then leave. We can't be encouraging that kind of shite.)

What's the line? Humour is pain + time? Does that explain why this is funny:?

We recently went to see a traveling group doing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), the intensely funny play by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. The warning from the website reads:
This show is a high-speed roller-coaster type condensation of all of Shakespeare's plays, and is not recommended for people with heart ailments, bladder problems, inner-ear disorders and/or people inclined to motion sickness.
Well, this group from the Kootenays did a brilliant job of it -- three of the most physical and naturally funny guys I've ever seen. One of them, who happened to be Jewish, was even able to throw in a joke about concentration camps.

Huh?

Well, you know I won't be trying that soon...

Lori


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I went to see the Abridged Shakespeare thingy in Toronto about ten years ago and it was indeed wonderful.

Of course it got some snooty reviews in the local papers but I think they backfired because everything they criticized (like, "what's so funny about three men in dodgy red wigs speaking in dreadful Scottish accents?") just started me laughing all over again.

Lori said...

"Oh, there's a red flag -- fictional character on the field!"