What Makes You Laugh?

[Stu]

For some reason I'm still drawing a bit of a blank. Part of the problem is stuff that used to make me laugh doesn't necessarily get the job done these days. So some of the below used to make me laugh but now doesn't (or at least not as much.)

TV:
Scrubs.
Due South.
Moonlighting
M*A*S*H
Cheers
Friends
Dear John
Just Good Friends

Comics:
Justice League by Keith Giffen and J.M DeMatteis.

Films:
The Thin Man series
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
Charlie Chaplin
Buster Keaton
Harold Lloyd
Laurel and Hardy
The Marx Brothers
Arthur Askey
George Formby
Norman Wisdom

[G. S. Carnivals]

Although I am not a fan of the screwball comedies of the Marx Brothers, I am a recent convert to the genius of Groucho Marx. I had the privilege of viewing an old episode of The Dick Cavett Show earlier today, in which Mr. Cavett interviewed both Mr. Marx and his hat. Oh, to be so quick and so funny. And so consistently!

[waffles]

This reminds me of how much I loved Harpo Marx. I hope those stories about him playing golf in the nude or of hiding in the bushes (in the nude) and leaping out at passersby wielding an axe and screaming are true.

[Viva June]

Who am I kidding? I never laugh.

[Dr. Calamari]

Myself, mostly. And boobs.

YouTube - Dr Calamari/Baron Mardi interview

[beakripped]

How did I miss this thread?

First and foremost, Thomas Ligotti, esp. My Work is Not Yet Done. I don't recall if I mentioned it here before, but a little while ago I was kicked out of a coffee shop whilst reading this book because I was laughing too loudly and, according to the manager, the other patrons thought I was drunk or stoned, which I wasn't. I recall there being some real gut-busters in Death Poems as well.

Current 93, some of the more extreme NS Black Metal, early Nurse With Wound, Diamanda Galas, various sideprojects invovling the members of Wu Tang Clan.

As for films, last week I cracked a few ribs while watching Hearts of Darkness, a documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now. Also the films of Jodorowsky, gallow films (which someone else mentioned), the 40 Year Old virgin...

Television: the 700 Club, CNN (esp. Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck, curently the greatest living comedians by my book, Pat Robertson follwing in as a close third), various Adult Swim programs... has anyone seen South Park's Imagination Land trilogy? I'm laughing right now, just thinking about it. There's a wonderful parody of the first major scene in Saving Private Ryan... Ronald McDonald looking for his severed arm...

I also find occult literature, esp. Crowley, very funny, which is probably why I'm no longer friends with various members of A.:A:. and OTO.

[The Black Ferris]

We laugh at what we don't understand, I suppose.
Sounds like a child trying to seem brave.
Funny, that.
Yeah, I guess I don't get it.



"Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not put upon this earth to 'get it'!" - Lo Pan

[beakripped]

Excuse me? Is your comment directed at me?

[bendk]

I agree that some of TL's stuff is very funny. And I remember laughing very hard at some of his comments in his interview in Subterranean Magazine.

Beakripped, you sound like you have good appreciation of the absurd. I agree with many of your choices. I also have a very learned treatise on angels and demons written by a Catholic scholar that has me in stitches whenever I read it. I never found much humor in Crowley, I just thought his books were a waste of time. He did live an interesting life, though.

Oh, and I will add the book The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek to my list. It is hilarious.

[beakripped]

Crowley was a big joker, but unfortunately it's usually his racist and sexist rants that pop out upon initial readings. Austin Spare had quite the sense of humour as well, but Crowley's punning (esp. in The Book of Lies, Liber Aleph, Book Four) nearly always brings me to a pause in contemplation.

Unfortunately I have neither the time nor desire to elucidate some of the funnier passages I've come across because they involve much in the way of Qabalistic interpretation and, in the end, I'd be more likely to bore you all than make you laugh. In short, over the years of study that I've put into ancient esoteric philosophies, the more coherent the texts seem to become the more they appeal to my sense of humour.

In regards to Ligotti, I think I laugh so much at it because I can relate to many of the situations in his stories, or at least the states of mind as depicted by Ligotti. Still, I find much of his work very disturbing as they sometimes give me sudden and severe flashbacks to manic episodes which, thankfully, have decreased slightly over the last year. In the NWW thread I remarked that some of Stapleton's work is so silly it becomes disturbing, and I suppose that may also be a factor in my experiences with Ligotti, and also Current 93, Diamanda Galas, but the Wu Tang stuff is just absurd.

Oh, and I forgot to put in my 2 cents in regards to Joseph Heller' Catch-22: Great book!

The Good Soldier Svejk... has that been mentioned in these forums before? Sounds familiar... I'll do my best to check it out in the new year, thanks for the recommendation,

Paul.