Posts Tagged with "comedic analysis"

No Pepsi, Coke

Sunday, December 21, 2008

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Dennis Perrin delivers a magisterial lesson on SNL, Season 4 (’78-’79). Now that’s how to talk comedy.

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John Cleese on comedy

Monday, April 28, 2008

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This podcast of John Cleese breaking down a few pages of a comedic screenplay with some students from UCSB makes me think we should start cloning him. We have the technology, and it would only require a swab from the inside of his cheek. Trust me, any petty moral concerns would fall by the wayside [...]

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Racism, anti-semitism, and comedy

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

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Between Michael Richards and BORAT, there’s been a lot of talk lately about comedy and prejudice. I’ve held out as long as I could, but here’s my two cents. Playing a prejudiced character shouldn’t get anybody in hot water. Acting prejudiced should. Each of us can only inhabit one body/identity/gender. If we are virtuous, we [...]

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Sarris on Woody Allen

Saturday, August 12, 2006

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In the wake of my umpteenth viewing of Stardust Memories, I read Andrew Sarris’ reviewof Woody Allen’s latest in The New York Observer. (It’s the second one, after Chambrol.) I was struck by this paragraph: The suspicion persists among many critics that when one of Mr. Allen’s films fails, it is because he isn’t really [...]

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Reality: A dissenting view

Friday, July 28, 2006

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Several bloggers that I read and admire (okay, Jon Schwarz and Dennis Perrin) have posted recently about the crushingly bleak nature of reality. Jon linked to this Woody Allen interview in the Washington Post where, among other things, Allen reduces life to a concentration camp. Dennis, on the other hand, describes having a massive panic [...]

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Fantastic news!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

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So I’ve spent the last decade or so trying to nudge the nascent humorists at The Yale Record in the right direction. And together, we have significantly increased the whimsy of America’s lawyers and management consultants. In retrospect, they probably would’ve gotten more out of sticking their heads in a bucket. At least that’s restful. [...]

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Chevy Chase, satire and anger

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

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Dennis Perrin over at Red State Son has some interesting thoughts about Chevy Chase’s ongoing comedic straight-talk. I was particularly interested in what Dennis said near the end, comparing the blunt, righteous anger of comedians during Watergate to the weak tea being peddled today. Even with legends-in-the-making like Stewart and Colbert there seems to be [...]

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O’Donoghue at Harvard?

Thursday, May 4, 2006

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In the midst of a conversation about Conan O’Brien (specifically my complaint that some of his stuff, like a lot of post-1985 comedy, seems over-refined somehow), I asked pal o’ mine and Michael O’Donoghue biographer Dennis Perrin, “What kind of stuff would Michael O’Donoghue have created, had he gone to Harvard and gotten a TV [...]

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The Art of Roasting

Thursday, October 10, 2002

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The New York Observer has a lovely post-mortem of the Friars’ Club recent roast of Chevy Chase. In it, they talk about the fact that today’s comedians, by and large, suck. Like, I would wager, most of today’s comedy writers. Just our luck, right? More comedy than ever before, sucking worse than it’s ever sucked [...]

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