FUNNY: THE LINKS
“Funny: The Book” is not only more fun than a barrel of (non-deadly-virus-carrying) monkeys, it’s also a riveting repository of fun facts and interesting info about classic comedy. For those who prefer to pursue (though not necessarily catch) further fun facts and increasingly interesting info (as well as videos referenced in the book but not on the BOOK LINKS page), the subsequent sites are really recommended…
(Major thanks to Ilan Ben-Meir for research.)
(Got or know of a cool comedy site? Tell me about it.)
CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORY OF HA! (TRICKSTER)
CHAPTER 2: NOT IN 3-D (MOVIES)
- CHAPTER 3: LEONARD, ADOLPH, HERBERT AND JULIUS (THE MARX BROTHERS)
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- A comprehensive site on THE MARX BROTHERS.
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CHAPTER 4: MORE HISTORY OF HA! (THE ANCIENT WORLD)
CHAPTER 5: LIVE FROM GIGGLES (STAND-UP)
CHAPTER 6: “THAT NIGGER’S CRAZY!” (RICHARD PRYOR)
CHAPTER 7: EVEN MORE HISTORY OF HA! (ARISTOTLE TO RESTORATION)
CHAPTER 8: THEATUH – “THE FRONT PAGE”
CHAPTER 9: NIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (PROSE)
CHAPTER 10: INVISIBLE RABBITS AND FRESH FRUIT (“HARVEY” / “A THOUSAND CLOWNS”)
- The original New York Times reviews of the Broadway productions of “Harvey” and “A Thousand Clowns” are behind the Times’ pay-wall (Subscribe! Keep newspapers alive!) but the movie reviews aren’t: “HARVEY” / “A THOUSAND CLOWNS.”
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- Alan Waldman’s tribute to HERB GARDNER.
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- A fun site on “Harvey”’s author MARY CHASE, courtesy of Tim (no relation?) Chase.
CHAPTER 11: MORE EVEN MORE HISTORY OF HA! (MUSIC HALLS TO VAUDEVILLE)
- From John Kenrick’s “Musicals 101”, A HISTORY OF VAUDEVILLE.
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- VAUDEVILLE!: An extensive site from Rick Easton of the American Studies
department at the University of Virginia, with lots of audio and video.
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- Another True Fact that some people who read the book doubt is the
existence of the immortal Le Pétomane; here’s his Wikipedia page.
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CHAPTER 12: THE JEWISH QUESTION
On a lighter note…
CHAPTER 13: THE IMMORTAL ALLAN STEWART KONIGSBERG (WOODY ALLEN)
- Mr. Allen’s reputation is not what it was when the book came out. Feel how you will about him as a man, I feel he’s
one of the greatest comic geniuses of the 20th century, though his own site is pretty bare-bones: WOODY ALLEN.
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CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15: WHY WE LAUGH… OR DO WE? (THE EVOLUTION OF HA!)
CHAPTER 16: THAT WACKY EXISTENTIALISM (STEVE MARTIN)
CHAPTER 17: ME & MY DOPAMINE (THE SCIENCE OF HA!)
CHAPTER 18: BETTY LOU ZOMBAX (“MORK AND MINDY”)
CHAPTER 19: ADDITION BY SUBTRACTION (THE THEORIES OF HA!)
- Paul Budnik’s short INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC. (Spoiler alert – “One can use a truth
table to evaluate each subexpression starting with those at the root of the expression tree”!)
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- THE RULE OF 3 gets its own Wikipedia page.
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- Screenwriter Craig Mazin’s blog, “The Artful Writer”, boils comedy down to 15 rules, inspired by Jerry
Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker (“Airplane!”), and possibly copyrighted by David Zucker
but it’s hard to tell so please David don’t sue: THE ARTFUL WRITER – ZAZ PART II: THE RULES.
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- For those who don’t believe that comedy is a precise and exacting science, check out Jerry Seinfeld
describing the two-year process behind constructing a Pop-Tart joke… soon to be a major motion picture.
CHAPTER 20: HEARD ANY GOOD JOKES?
CHAPTER 21: LOVE AND THEFT (PLAGIARISM)
CHAPTER 22: SAYING IT WORSE (THE PHILOSOPHY OF HA!)
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on HUMOR, by
Aaron Smuts of the Dept. of Philosophy, Rhode Island College.
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- PRAGMATICS HUMOUR, a dissertation by Ken Willis. (But how
can you expect to earn a doctorate when you misspell “humor”?)
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- Jim Carrey’s exit from a mechanical rhino, from “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.”
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CHAPTER 23: WHEN DID YOU BREAK YOUR COLLARBONE? (BUSTER KEATON)
- THE DAMFINOS: THE INTERNATIONAL BUSTER KEATON SOCIETY
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- Keaton takes flight in “Neighbors.”
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- Chaplin’s dancing dinner rolls, from “The Gold Rush.”
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- Keaton to the rescue, athletically, in “College.”
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- Multiple Busters in “The Playhouse.”
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- The brides chase in “Seven Chances”; and the tributes: “The Bachelor,” “What’s Up Doc,” “Wall-E.”
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- Tributes to the house drop in “Steamboat Bill Jr.”: the original,
Jackie Chan, “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Jackass,” “The Simpsons.”
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- Man, could that guy end movies: “Sherlock Jr.,” “Steamboat Bill Jr.,” “College.”
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- During the years alcoholism left him as a lowly gag-man at MGM, Buster worked with the Marx Brothers.
Certain Marx gags of the time are clearly Keatonesque – tearing a train apart for the engine at the end of
“Go West” steals from “The General.” But it’s less noted that one of cinema’s greatest comic sequences, the
“Stateroom Scene” from “A Night At The Opera,” bears a striking resemblence to this scene from “The Cameraman.”
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- And if there’s any doubt Keaton’s still relevant, he had a cameo on “Girls.”
CHAPTER 24: KOSMIK KOMEDY (THE PURPOSE OF HA!)
- Laurel & Hardy in their Oscar-winning short “The Music Box.”
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- Billed as “The laugh riot of two continents!” for its first American production, almost
half the audience left at intermission; the complete text of “WAITING FOR GODOT.”
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CHAPTER 25: SUFFERING IS FUNNY (“THE OFFICE”)
CHAPTER 26: EVOLUTION IS IRRITATING (SITCOMS)
CHAPTER 27: AMERICA THE HILARIOUS
CHAPTER 28: KOSMIK KOMEDY 2 (THE THEOLOGY OF HA!)
CHAPTER 29: “THAT’S ALL, FOLKS!”
ADDITIONAL LINKS (AT NO EXTRA CHARGE!)
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