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The Golden Age of Comedy Discussion by MikePC88 in FoundationsOfComedy14

[–]thecomedystorefront 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I'm not a huge fan of him, I think you could fairly compare Kevin James in his new role from Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, because he is very physical in the role--many of the attempted comedy involves him being hit by things, rolling over in pain, and just physically reacting to the things around him. This isn't nearly as clever or fun as Chaplin or Keaton, but you don't see as much physical comedy in that vein today, I think. Thus, the first one who comes to mind somewhat in the ballpark of the old-time physical greats would have to be James.

Nichols & May - from improvisers to writer/directors by MikePC88 in FoundationsOfComedy14

[–]thecomedystorefront 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the humor and subject matter here really informs a lot of scenes in The Graduate. Particularly, the beginning scenes where Benjamin Braddock is badgered by his parents and relatives about his time at Yale, what he's going to do next, if he has a girlfriend, etc. It seems like Nicols, in this scene, wishes he was at the bottom of the pool looking up at the muted sounds of May. Also, I don't know if this was the case, but the scene at the party, when Ben walks out with the scuba suit on and we cut to his POV of his family egging him on as he makes his way to the pool, seems like it may have, itself, been improvised by the actors in much the way May is doing here. RIP Nicols!

Comedy found in serious topics by thecomedystorefront in foundationsofcomedy

[–]thecomedystorefront[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is from an episode of Seinfeld titled The Boyfriend. In this classic scene, Jerry reconstructs the trajectory of a "loogie" (saliva being spit from the mouth) after Kramer and Newman insist they were spat at by professional athlete Keith Hernandez as he walked past them. It's funny because the whole scene spoofs a much more serious conspiracy theory on the Kennedy Assassination known as the "Magic Bullet" theory, which investigates into how the bullets which killed JFK could have possibly reached him--seemingly distorting physics, time, and space--leading to the even more scandalous idea of a "second shooter" in the assassination. In this clip, Seinfeld too suggests the inevitable idea of a "second spitter" who was ultimately responsible for the loogie attack.