Stooges. Nope, not funny. But yeah, Laurel and Hardy are hardy-har-har to me. Comedy and the taste for it is so strange. I prefer Carey in Sunshine and Truman to most of his more strictly comedy, even the few I like.


And wheeee, someone got me the DVD of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for my birthday. I have to be in the right mood to watch it. There have been times it's hit me as 'meh,' and others where it's the funniest movie ever made.

I find it even more amusing now that I recognize the Long Beach landmarks in the final scenes

The Big W is, well, was on the grounds of an estate, The Hickson House, on the Portugese Bend that we got to spend the night in once. It was reputed to be haunted, and after having one of the scariest nights in my life there, I will not dispute that reputation.

But in the light of day it was a delight to find the Big W. Alas, a few of the palms have fallen in recent years and the Big W is no more. Should have dug for treasure when I had the chance. But gruesome things were said to have been buried by Satanists at the Hickson House ... and being as we went back the next night and interrupted people in white robes conducting some sort of ritual on the grounds ... well, I'm glad we didn't have any shovels with us the day before.



One other interesting Mad Mad World story ... during the original run, there were a series of police call recordings that furthered the story for the audience during intermission. These audio tracks were played in the auditorium during the break, and also in the restrooms at the Cinerama Dome - where the film premiered. But these "voices" freaked patrons so much, the intermission audio was nixed after the first week.

A couple years back, there was a revival of the film at the Dome, and the intermission audio was played for the first time in 3 decades ... including in the restrooms. It was completely rad.

Now that reminds me of Flick's Fun Fair

Are those intermission audio bits on the DVD by any chance?

Sorry to disappoint.

As for sense of humor, apparently all I need is 20 solid minutes of advertising directed by Jim Henson in the 60s. Holy hell, that stuff is amusing.

(Also 30 Rock. I often feel like Tina Fey has a video camera set up inside my head and is experimenting and recording exactly what I find funny, and then putting it in the show.)

Speaking of comedy, there was a brilliant 6-part series on PBS earlier this year (or late last year) that swept through the history of American comedy. If you can get hold of a copy, by all means watch it. It was a thing of beauty.

I hear these days they are calling it the Big Forward Slash.

Alas, no.


Sorry to disappoint.

We've got it at work (PBS gave us bookmarks to advertise it and then the DVDs as well), and I'm tempted by it. Hmm, what with the slow TV right now...