Laughing Matters | Comedy Documentary | Earful #Comedy

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hello you know judging from the age of some of these books on visual comedy here in the Benjamin P Hill Memorial Library one might be tempted to include the visual humor that belongs to the distant past or to the Erie black and white world of silent films nowadays you might think comedians talk but in fact visual humor is everywhere these days look at all those TV commercials which try to seize your attention with a visual jokes study the popular comedies on television or on the cinema and you'd be amazed how often the big laughs depend on physical rather than verbal humor I should like to begin by talking about the methods and techniques of the physical comedian [Music] I hope you locate the trouble Monsieur Madame it is my business to look at trouble [Music] this is Kevin Bartholomew a young actor with a comprehensive knowledge of physical comedy his one-man show haha Kevin has enchanted thousands of school children since 1976 he's invited our cameras to his studio home where with the occasional assistance of mr. Drscoll and miss Montague he will demonstrate many of the arts of his profession for Kevin as for any physical comedian the body is the essential means of expression his body is his tool the comedian may be lucky enough to possess the kind of body that people laugh at a short fat one or a tall thin one but a normal attractive body is not necessarily a handicap it is what you can do with your money that is important it's a mostly leg workers job there is comedy potential in every part of the physique and a face it is possible to make comedy from the whole range of human emotions horror pain sorrow bewilderment hope joy smugness even when the comedian appears to be wearing normal clothes but it is rare that they will fit perfectly they are likely to be slightly too small or slightly too big psychologically these small variations can be very significant for the performer and the audience the character in the big clothes is likely to be a completely different person from the character in the small clothes as in the world of high fashion half an inch on the collar and cuffs you can make all the difference as to whether a costume works or not of course it is not enough just to look funny the visual comedian is under a certain obligation to do funny things so what is Kevin will now demonstrate three basic principles of visual comedy using only the banana principle number one an object can become funny by behaving in an unexpected way principle number two an object can become funny by being in an unexpected place [Music] principle number three an object can become funny by being the wrong size [Music] what applies to the banana can also apply to Kevin himself take principle number one Kevin is an adult human being so we can immediately become funny by behaving like something else like an object for instance or like an animal while an animal accompanied by behaving like a human principle number two Kevin can become funny by turning up in an unexpected place [Music] and principle number three Kevin can become funny by being the wrong size that's a good plan Frank I'll get down to this neighborhood here located a small business that we can occupy immediately okay lieutenant I'll get right on it what happen to you paint I ran into a fire sprinkler okay if Kevin behaves like a dog eating a tiny banana in a cupboard then all three principals are operating at the same time of course this is not necessarily three times as funny it is in animation that we can see our three principals taken to their furthest extremes the animator makes things behave in the most surprising ways he makes things turn up in the strangest [Music] [Music] so you see the world of visual comedy is one where doves lurk in our underpants where cats are fifty feet high and buses can turn somersaults the joke's depend on sun shocks and strange transformations that undermine the normal laws of our existence now let's have a look at some of the methods that are used to make these jokes happen [Music] slapstick is the most ancient and enduring tradition of physical comedy we seem to take a constant delight in seeing people hurt and humiliated by accidents and acts of violence the earliest American comedy films consist almost entirely of violent action that excitable character on the left there is Mack Sennett he was the first great genius of screen comedy and the inventor of the Keystone he was a complete Anika's who delighted audiences around the world with films full of people fighting people chasing each other and people destroying [Music] these weren't just comedies they were the Terminator and Robocop of their day [Applause] [Music] the slapstick we tend to find funniest now is that for real life the comedian finds it difficult to compete with reality because the more real it is the funnier it is the more dignified the victim the funnier it is to get a laugh out of some act of slapstick violence these days the comedian must strive for believability [Music] since Kevin seems to have difficulty achieving believability perhaps he needs the help of vegetables nowadays you have all the resources of the soundtrack to add conviction to your violence the secret is to find the vegetable which gives you the most authentic effect cabbage marrow broccoli right sound effect wrong reaction the comedian's must achieve the shock of violence without the reality of pain [Music] the simplest way to transform pain into comedy is by the use of overstatement the overstatement may lie in the comedian's reaction to be hit the alternative to overstatement is understatement the physical comedian seems fated to be the victim of his own comedy and not only does he suffer from violence he is also constantly at the mercy of magic [Music] [Applause] [Music] many of the tricks which the comedian uses to amuse us are similar to those which the magician uses to astonish us [Music] for instance a lot of visual jokes are based on people suddenly appearing or disappearing the sudden appearance and the sudden disappearance are important elements in slapstick if someone falls over it is funnier if they disappear at the same time maybe seated and the fasts of people running in and out of doors is comic because it provides a rapid sequence of appearances and disappearances the faster a character shoots in and out of vision the more effective it is likely to be apart from appearances and disappearances the main business of the magician is to achieve transformations turning one thing into something else a magical transformation becomes comic when it is absurd as well as astonishing great Plus please one quick nobody is gonna steal that yeah with the age range of Giveaways one click [Music] the first person to make surreal jokes using film magic was Jorge million working in France at the turn of the century his films are full of sudden appearances disappearances and transformations achieved through simple camera tricks of course when the comedy depends on tricks like these it has more to do with the mind behind the camera than the performer in front of a team he has to resign himself to becoming a victim of the effects [Music] [Applause] the most commonly used camera trick is that of speeding up the action this makes any kind of movement look mechanical and therefore comic it was a device much used by Melly a and it has never had a thing on your left eh the Parliament left Trafalgar Square right new issue [Music] [Music] it has often been said that all comedy is rooted in fear the things we laugh at are closely related to the things which frighten us the world of spooks and hauntings for instance is very popular among comedians because haunted places are full of all those elements which make comedy happen like some appearances yes the special effects nowadays tend to be more sophisticated than a simple sheet over the head but the haunted house tradition lives on in films like ghostbusters there's a sudden appearance joke although the effects are more elaborate in an expensive film like this the principles of comedy are just the same there's an object come to life which is also a joke about proportion one of the joys of visual comedy is the sheer pleasure of being liberated from boring old everyday reality into a bizarre dream world where anything is possible comedy is a license to fish out the strangest images from the depths of our unconscious [Music] you may be starting to see how the different methods of visual comedy all tend to strip people of their normal human dignity you can achieve this by hitting someone over the head with a fish or by transforming them into a toilet but you could also do it simply by imitating them [Music] one person imitating another is funny the sheer impudence of it is funny if the imitation is exaggerated it becomes parody this is imitation which implies some ridicules of the person being irritated if the person being parodied is a representative of power and authority then the parody becomes sat out [Music] five in satara visual comedy is used as a weapon number seventy-three Ronald Reagan take one yeah pick two frankly my damn I don't give a dear cat hey three dearly my Frank I don't damn I give 37 hi dear I'm Frank give madam a doughnut an endless amount of modern comedy is based on parodies of well-known films and TV programs this immediately gives the comedian a form and structure within which he can work the handy thing about parody to be frank is that you don't have to think of too many original ideas and you can still get three different kinds of comedy animated ones there's the fact that you've got the comedian imitating the mannerisms of a well-known character there are jokes about the mechanics of the parody itself [Applause] and there is the opportunity to send up the visual style and be original [Applause] [Music] [Applause] if the production values don't quite match those of the original well you can say that's all part of the joke whether he's working in slapstick surrealism or parody or some combination of the three the comedian success depends first and foremost on his ability to create a funny character as Charlie Chaplin once said in comedy nothing transcends character and for the physical comedian this means his ability to communicate through his body language [Music] mime is very much Kevin speciality and his famous piano act is one of the highlights of his stage show part of the pleasure is to do with illusion making us see what is not there but it is mainly about using the body to create character comic acting in other words [Music] through his body language the comedian can introduce intimacy and even elegance into the generally frantic world of physical humor the comedy may lie simply in the shadings of a facial expression particularly now in the age of TV where the close-up is so calm [Music] this is the comedy of personality rather than the comedy of gang's it's not about doing funny things it's about doing something quite normal in a funny way the skill lies in the accuracy of human observation and the precision of the execution [Music] jacques tati and now there's an artist carried on the silent comedy tradition into the sound there by making films virtually without dialogue he was not only a creator of jokes but an observer of life who saw humor in the smallest details of human behavior he was a specialist in the comedy of character expressed through body language [Music] [Applause] in visual comedy we see the same ideas crop up again and again the ways of the chameleon often lies in simply inventing new variations of own jokes he can do this because the success of any comic idea depends not just on the skill with which it is executed but more importantly on the attitude with which it is performed new attitude this is the first comedy ever put onto film nearly a hundred years ago in 1895 a boy stands on the gardeners hose he lifts his foot and the gardener gets a face full of water it's the humiliating surprise the basic practical joke it doesn't come over too funny now to befriend because it is crude predictable and essentially characterless however if Kevin approaches the same situation of man and his pipe with different kinds of comic attitude we should see how it can be brought to life in different ways by introducing character into the comedy number one the dim attitude the comedy of stupidity the crucial element in the character of the comedian is his lack of awareness he knows less than the audience about what is going on the dim comedian confronts the world with a kind of bewildered innocence number two the aggressive attitude the crucial element in the character is his lack of consideration for others get a clean one is clean now number three the crude attitude the comedy of vulgarity a [Music] crude comedian thrives on the comedy of social embarrassment No so which comic attitude is funniest primarily the one you find funniest is the one with which you identify most only if you identify with the comic attitude can you laughs take Chaplin for instance the whole world found him funny in his day but hardly anybody laughs at him now why he certainly far more skilled and inventive than a lot of modern comedians whom we do love it he does everything it is possible to do with visual comedy including all the things we've talked about so far he wears comic clothes he has a comic walk and he is an expert in using his body he is constantly transform himself turning himself into a woman or an animal or an object his films are full of slapstick and acrobatic stunts there is relentless sadism understated violence and overstated violence there are surprising appearances and disappearances there is surrealism and there is imitation he is an expert mime and a sharp observer of human behavior Chaplin was also a perfectionist in the execution of his comedy doing hundreds of takes to get things right and yet however much we admire him it is hard for most of us these days to actually laugh at his films [Music] there is often a considerable gulf between what can be described as comic and what we personally find funny the problem with Chaplin is that it is hard for us to get involved in what he does he is distance trust by time and by The Silence of his films but the main difficulty I think is that we just can't identify with his attitude anymore he seems too cute or too pleased with himself although the best physical comedians always have a strong character and attitude of their own they also have a surprising amount in common there are certain qualities of character which crop up again and again because these are the qualities that make visual comedy happen [Music] the first thing to say here is that the physical comedian is an alien he comes from the other side of the looking glass he is like us but different [Music] whereas the verbal comedian is often smarter sharper and faster than those around him the physical comedian usually has a quality of innocence of having been born yesterday [Music] Harry Langdon is one of the weirdest of the lot someone once said that he looks like a baby dope fiend he is an adult with the emotional and intellectual equipment of an infant the comedian's childishness emerges first of all in his difficulties with objects he is constantly doing battle with them in a way which invests them with a life and soul of their own but there is just as much potential in very simple domestic objects in his battles with objects the comedian is bound to be a net in order for funny things to happen he must constantly make mistakes and he must constantly be susceptible to accidents although he is clumsy and inept the physical comedian is very tenacious he keeps on doing things long after the point where the normal person would have given up if we take Kevin into a fashionable restaurant the one thing he won't do is sit there and behave himself in order to amuse he needs to be uncivilized he either doesn't understand social conventions or he is incapable of following them allow me mrs. Claypool mr.

Gottlieb mr. Gottlieb mrs. Claypool mrs.

Claypool mr. Gottlieb mr. Gottlieb mrs.

Piper mrs. Claypool I could go on like this all night but it's tough on my suspenders the physical comedian not only disregards convention he's got little regard for morality or legality and he has none of that consideration for others which inhibits the rest of us from behaving like comedians all the time now let's see what happens if we swap it around so that Kevin becomes the waiter and mr.