Ok, I'll See Your Goofy Wife/Record Blog & Raise You...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Dunno, Dan. I was never very much into American TV humour - so much of it in the fifties and sixties seemed to be endless versions of 'I love Lucy' or Bilko. Now Bilko may have been one of the steps along the way, though what do I know? The only American humour I bought into was Shelley Berman (I had 3 of his LPs) and Tom Lehrer. Well, Berman's humour was undeniably Jewish and I guess there was a connection there which my family and I could make at the time. Lehrer definitely came from somewhere ELSE and may have been some kind of step from somewhere to somewhere. We certainly had nothing like Lehrer in Britain in the fifties until Paddy Roberts recording of 'The Ballad of Bethnal Green', which was clearly influenced by Lehrer, but translated -

I think the thing is, you can't appreciate a historical development of humour unless you're THERE with it. If you're not it's very hard to make sense of it - I reckon an American listening to that Paddy Roberts cut wouldn't hear how extremely subtle he was being in the way he jived around with different varieties of English English in that song, which is the meat of the humour. And 55 years have passed, as well, which adds to the foreignness.

So you need to ask an American that question

MG

[JSngry]

I can answer the question about Python, since I accidentally was watching when it made its American debut - on KERA, Dallas' PBS station.

It caught on so quickly because it was funny as hell, simple as that! I was calling people up, like, 10 minutes into it telling them to turn their TV to Channel 13. And people afterwards were, like, WTF was THAT? OMG! Only we used words, not acronyms back then.

If you want to get analytical about it, I suppose it was a matter of setting up expectations, diverting them, and then replacing them with this out of left field wacko stuff that was as literate as it was surreal. And, perhaps most importantly, the timing was perfect...if we want to think of a laugh as an involuntary response to a sensory stimulus, then I think you can consider that there's a "neurological pipeline" at play, and like any pipeline, the flow can be impeded, or even stopped, by any number of things. A connection with the basic setup of the premise in able to appreciate the payoff falls to the receiver, and the timing, putting the material into the pipeline at a rate that achieves maximal flow/minimal impedance, falls to the performer (and timing is not just verbal, it's physical as well). Timing really is everything, I think. Written humor depends on a certain rhythm, and rhythm is all about timing, yes?

Why it resonated as it did here, in the time that it did, I think was possibly due to our post-Watergate/Viet Nam sense of life already being absurd, surrealistic, psychedelic, whatever. The first episode shown here was the one where the detective came into the room and soon started shooting people at random, just because. THAT was, for me, a reflexive belly laugh, because this guy was incompetent, arrogant, lethal, a total buffoon with the power of life and death being wielded totally arbitrarily, and that was like, spit-take funny because, so real and so absurd, so totally absurd, and so real all at once. How do you not laugh at that?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks Jim.

Watergate was two years after Monty Python came out... or wasn't it shown over there until then?

Another thought came to me last night - Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in?

MG

PS I don't remember that gunman sketch and I wonder whether the team produced a different show, or some different items for the US market.

[JSngry]

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Flying_Circus

In 1974, the PBS station KERA in Dallas was the first television station in the United States to broadcast episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and is often credited with introducing the programme to American audiences

[JSngry]

This was the sketch...not one shooter, just, yet still...had no idea that anything like THAT was coming, and the timing, perfect.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ah, thanks, I didn't see that one - I see it came out in 1969 and I only used to catch it occasionally in those days.

It really is an Agatha Christie sketch but I can see how it resonated differently over there, five years later, to the way it would have been seen here.

MG

[johnblitweiler]

The only thing that broke Andy Kaufman was death, and there's still some question about that!

I never laughed at Andy Kaufman and don't believe I ever even smiled at him. People like me broke Andy Kaufman.

[JSngry]

And people like me gave people like you somebody to try to break!

[Leeway]

I like the young lady and her (if it is her) blog, and I like AK.

I'll go one step further and say the young lady is using AK style po-faced, expectation-bending comedy/satire/role-play.

In a male-dominated world of record-collecting, she is making her case for inter-gender collecting champ.

I think some folks are frustrated with her blog, because one doesn't know whether to take her seriously, and/or to laugh, and/or to respond to the cheesecake pics. Very AK.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Leeway

[page]

What does "goofy" mean, just exactly?

[JSngry]

Nothing, exactly...generally, it means a little silly, and maybe not fully intentionally so.

[page]

Aren't we all goofy, in a way? I know I am. Well, just a thought anyway.

[JSngry]

Are we all goofy in a way? Well, sure we are!

But not all blogs are.

[JSngry]

I like the young lady and her (if it is her) blog, and I like AK.

I'll go one step further and say the young lady is using AK style po-faced, expectation-bending comedy/satire/role-play.

In a male-dominated world of record-collecting, she is making her case for inter-gender collecting champ.

I think some folks are frustrated with her blog, because one doesn't know whether to take her seriously, and/or to laugh, and/or to respond to the cheesecake pics. Very AK.

I think she's got a great sense for visual humor/puns...the Christmas light thing in her latest post cracks me up. The hula-hoop in The Black Angel, etc etc etc.

And this is one of the most cogent things I've read in a long time, anywhere. I'd like to think that people's like/dislike is based on the commentary as well as the visual.

Al is on the very very short list of gentlemen I’d let talk to me about Jesus (Prince, Stevie, the young Sam Cooke, the Doobie Brothers). I love Al’s voice and phrasing; “Simply Beautiful” is one of the greatest dress removers of all time. BUT.

Al is also on the very very LONG list of male musicians who’ve been accused of physically assaulting their romantic partners. Cognitive dissonance remains a constant when you’re a feminist music nerd, guys.

[johnblitweiler]

like her blog, dislike vinyl

[clifford_thornton]

been following her on instagram for ages. funny and hot. pretty simple there. and who cares whether or not they are "her records" (as there has been some debate because you know, 'ladies can't be collectros')...

[uli]

Aren't we all goofy, in a way? I know I am. Well, just a thought anyway.

and maybe a bit geeky too I like her album cover geekery.

[jazzbo]

I'm definitely goofy, and I love girlfriend's goofiness. This gal just creeps me out a bit too much. But I'm glad many enjoy her blog.

[JSngry]

Hitting all the right buttons. Again.

http://heightfiveseven.com/?p=3241

When IG vinyl bros (hi guys!) post Larry Young records, they keep it strictly Unity (‘cause it’s pretty and ’cause Woody Shaw) or Lawrence of Newark (‘cause it’s pretty, rare, and has a rad title), with some Larry Young’s Fuel mixed in for the Dilluminati (‘cause it’s got that Slum Village break). Heaven on Earth always gets lost in the shuffle (‘cause it’s not as good as the other albums), but it gives me a chance to break out the white sheet from that time I did the Aquemini cover plus I needed a “Y” record for my aLPhabet project. Y, boys and girls, is for YOUNG.

[JSngry]

BIRTHDAY GIRL http://heightfiveseven.com/?p=3392

 

Quote

 

Vinyl, like any other narcotic, is measured in weight to truly assess its value. I went on a digging excursion and got so much vinyl that it made my goddamn car’s passenger seatbelt sensor go off. And that, my dears, is how you know you’ve had a successful dig.

 

Happy Birthday!