Comedians we forgot...

[shouldbeinbed]

Some of his stuff is undoubtedly funny. It's just that he was being deadly serious. In fact he could be a bit of a curmudgeon, who was a stalwart member of The Noise Abatement Society, because even loud noise made him grumpy. On the other hand an awful lot of his output is heartbreakingly profound and sad.

Oh absolutely.

A lot of his King Cutler radio shows could pass by with wry smiles at best but stick with you. Life in a scotch sittingroom will always take me wistfully back to my Grandma's big to me old very Edwardian house and being on best behaviour in the front room that she only ever used with guests.

 

[ufkacbln]

Oh absolutely.

A lot of his King Cutler radio shows could pass by with wry smiles at best but stick with you. Life in a scotch sittingroom will always take me wistfully back to my Grandma's big to me old very Edwardian house and being on best behaviour in the front room that she only ever used with guests.

My Grandmother had a box of buttons that was brought out

 

[John the Monkey]

Mike Yarwood? He was everywhere at one time, but his work hasn't survived in the way that some of his contemporaries' has.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2014/09/11/20909/...and_this_is_me!

People might also be interested in this project;
https://unbound.com/books/forgotten-heroes-of-comedy

 

[Profpointy]

Mike Yarwood? He was everywhere at one time, but his work hasn't survived in the way that some of his contemporaries' has.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2014/09/11/20909/...and_this_is_me!

People might also be interested in this project;
https://unbound.com/books/forgotten-heroes-of-comedy

Admittedly I was about 10 at the time, but it was enjoyable political sketch show akin to John Culshaw and the dead ringers of it's day. Of course, the later is a fair bit cleverer and it and we are that much more sophisticated, but Yarwood was pretty entertaining and good fun, at least via the nostalgic spectacles

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned what's-his-name yet...

 

[slowmotion]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned what's-his-name yet...

Let me help you out.....Billy Connolly?

 

[swee'pea99]

Has Gerard Hoffnung been mentioned? I was amazed to discover quite recently that he died at just 33. I'd always thought he was fairly ancient.

 

[perplexed]

I still miss seeing Laurel and Hardy on Saturday morning TV from when I was a kid. Occasionally they'd put Harold Lloyd on instead, but L&H I loved...

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I still miss seeing Laurel and Hardy on Saturday morning TV from when I was a kid. Occasionally they'd put Harold Lloyd on instead, but L&H I loved...

They still sound fresh and funny. One of my favourites -

Oliver Hardy: 'Didn't you once tell me that you had an uncle?'

Stan Laurel: 'Sure, I've got an uncle. Why?'

Oliver: 'Now we're getting somewhere. Is he living?'

Stanley: 'No. He fell through a trap door and broke his neck.'

Oliver: 'Was he building a house?'

Stanley: 'No, they were hanging him.'

 

[Profpointy]

I still miss seeing Laurel and Hardy on Saturday morning TV from when I was a kid. Occasionally they'd put Harold Lloyd on instead, but L&H I loved...

The boxed set of DVDs is pretty cheap. Even though not all the episodes are classics, ethe weaker ones nearly all have routines which are utter genius. The boxed set is worth it for Helpmates alone, which I've watched any number of times, and end up crying with laughter each time just waiting for the pay off of each utterly predictable gag. Utter perfection. Then you have Way out West - a joy from start to finish, and all the rest. Even weaker efforts like Swiss Miss, have the escaped gorilla fighting them on an Indiana Jones style rope-bridge over a ravine, across which the boys are trying to shift a piano - as you do.

 

[swee'pea99]

the escaped gorilla fighting them on an Indiana Jones style rope-bridge over a ravine, across which the boys are trying to shift a piano

Ah, they don't write plot devices like they used to.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

My 6-year old son has decided that Will Hay is extremely funny* and do you know what? He's not wrong. I've found myself chuckling at parts of Oh, Mr Porter from 1937... If you like Ealing comedies, it's worth checking him out. Silly, fast-moving and in that great tradition of ridiculous incompetents who's only made to look in any way good by the fact that everyone else is even more ridiculous and incompetent than he is.

*why he came across Will Hay is a long story but the short version is that he was also an amateur astronomer and my son is totally obsessed by planets and everyone who has ever been inolved in studying them.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Will Hay is very funny.

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

I was lucky enough to see Bill Hicks live, in both senses of the word, twice. Some of his stuff has dated badly, but at his best he was bleak, funny and vulnerable all in a single sentence. Some of his stuff (US foreign policy, gun control, Christian evangelicals) is scarily prescient.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSEtMZh2exc

 

[Profpointy]

My 6-year old son has decided that Will Hay is extremely funny* and do you know what? He's not wrong. I've found myself chuckling at parts of Oh, Mr Porter from 1937... If you like Ealing comedies, it's worth checking him out. Silly, fast-moving and in that great tradition of ridiculous incompetents who's only made to look in any way good by the fact that everyone else is even more ridiculous and incompetent than he is.

*why he came across Will Hay is a long story but the short version is that he was also an amateur astronomer and my son is totally obsessed by planets and everyone who has ever been inolved in studying them.

I remember laughing at him as a kid, and just to be clear, it was very much vintage stuff even the. It's good to get an adult take on it rather than relying on nostalgia, but given your recommendation might take a punt on the boxed set.