Laurel & Hardy

[Saddle bum]

Laurel and Hardy are the very top of the pile when it comes to comedy. Never fail to have me in stiches.

Funnily, women don't seem to like them, but the guys always fall about.

God bless 'em.

 

[gary r]

i loved the episode where stanley had been left in the trenches after the war,He was reunited with Oliver,who had since married etc.& came to live with the couple.Its the episode where stan kicks the neighbours sons football down the stairs & the "theres going to be a fight" scene! an absolute classic,Can anyone remember what its called???

 

[goo_mason]

The one where they're piano delivery men is just sublime...

Saw it last year for the first time since I was a youngster and it STILL had me in stitches. Timeless brilliance.

 

[col]

The one where they're piano delivery men is just sublime...

Saw it last year for the first time since I was a youngster and it STILL had me in stitches. Timeless brilliance.

Up those long steps?About the same time i saw the one they were building/demolishing a boat,great memories

 

[goo_mason]

Up those long steps?About the same time i saw the one they were building/demolishing a boat,great memories

That's the one, Col. When they kept getting so far up and then something would cause them to let go and down it would go again...

 

[Foghat]

I'm also fairly sure that the staple cartoon technique of, say, Scooby Doo, or Yogi Bear, commencing a furious double leg motion, without moving, for several seconds before actually making progress when attempting to run was derived from the Hardy shuffle. You know the scene......L&H are hiding in a house from the policeman chasing them. Hardy goes to the front door to check the street, the policeman suddenly appears, and Hardy goes "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......", shuts the door and shuffles his feet while simultaneously reaching for his hat, lifting it off his head and putting it back down again, before he actually gains purchase on the floor and starts moving!

Time for an unholy thread resurrection.

Watching Another Fine Mess again today, I was reminded of this superb example of the Hardy shuffle. Contains a bit of cycling too (by their stunt doubles)......

Oliver Hardy leg shuffle

 

[swee'pea99]

In a similar vein, I recently stumbled across a Charlie Chaplin film called The Pilgrim, which had me belly laughing mush to my surprise. There's a bit where CC, posing as a preacher, has to give a sermon. He settles on David & Goliath. It starts at about 13.45:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5uazfbgHn4


The way he back-heels the head into touch and then milks the 'applause' is sheer genius.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I went to see 4 x short silent films with "live" piano a couple of months ago, it was most excellent. I stuck a post in "Mundane News" at the time...

I'm at this, interval time. Most amusing.
View attachment 377302 View attachment 377303

 

[pplpilot]

Laurel & Hardy are genius. Chaplin is about as funny as treading on LEGO

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Laurel & Hardy are genius. Chaplin is about as funny as treading on LEGO

Someone once said,

"Charlie Chaplin is an ordinary man trying to do funny things. Laurel and Hardy are two funny men trying to do ordinary things"

.. and I like that distinction.

 

[ozboz]

innnnnn the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia .......
Brilliant ,

 

[tyred]

I love this

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Fecking marvellous

 

[User32269]

Dirty Work (the duo are chimney sweeps in a mad professors house) still makes me laugh. Oliver Hardy getting hit on the head by bricks in the fireplace is hilarious.

 

[Profpointy]

I bought the box set a few years back for a princely £30 or so. Not all the films are masterpieces by any means but even their weaker outings will have a scene or two of utter perfecrltion. Films like Helpmates, where Stan come round to help Ollie tidy the house after a wild party is perfect from first to last frame and has me crying with laughter, despite it being very cruel really. Way Out West is a joy from start to finish: the song and dance routines mentioned above, or the boys thinking the best place to hide is inside a piano. Even weaker films like Swiss Miss, which is really a so so romantic musical has Stan and Ollie trying to move a piano (as your do) across an Indiana Jones rope bridge - hindered by an escaped gorilla! I could go on, but as someone upthread mentioned I also believe people will still be laughing at them in a thousand years.