FUNNY: THE CLIPS
The internet, she is a fickle mistress; this book, she is very old, so the YouTube videos, they are mostly missing. Nonetheless, in our never-ending quest to provide you, the honored “”Funny: The Book” reader, with access to the tome’s comedic touchstones, we herewith optimistically list the referenced clips.
Under each numbered link from the book you’ll find (where they exist) links to: (1) a video illustrating a reference in the text; (2) a similar video, sometimes with timings corresponding to the section referenced in the text; (3) an opportunity to purchase the larger work the clip is a part of, which I strongly encourage.
And for all the missing videos, you’ll have enough info to go to YouTube, where you should find most of them.
You want to do a nice thing? Sure you do, who doesn’t want to
do a nice thing? If you notice a non-working link, let me know.
********************************
LINK #1: “HE’S A CAT (FLUSHING THE TOILET)” – Parry Gripp
LINK #2: “FEAR / CHILDREN” (from “The 2000-Year-Old Man”) – Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks
LINK #3: “HOUND DOG” (from “The Milton Berle Show”) – Elvis Presley
LINK #4: “GOODBYE” (from “The Kid Brother”) – Harold Lloyd
LINK #5: “FIREFLY’S ENTRANCE” (from “”Duck Soup”) – The Marx Brothers
LINK #6: “THE MIRROR SCENE” (from “Duck Soup”)– The Marx Brothers
LINK #7: “THE STATEROOM SCENE” (from “A Night At The Opera”) – The Marx Brothers
LINK #8: “THE NAZ” – Lord Buckley
LINK #9: “CHRIST AND MOSES” – Lenny Bruce
LINK #10: “WHY, LORD?” – Godfrey Cambridge
LINK #11: “HEART ATTACK” (from “Richard Pryor Live In Concert”)
LINK #12: “NEVER MIND THE CHINESE EARTHQUAKE” (from
“His Girl Friday”) – Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
| |
 |
 |
| |
1:08:45-1:11:44 |
|
LINK #13: “THE SEX LIFE OF THE POLYP” – Robert Benchley
LINK #14: “THE STORY OF NICK” (from “A Thousand Clowns”) –
Jason Robards, Jr., Barbara Harris, William Daniels
LINK #15: “HALF-HORSE, HALF-ALLIGATOR” – Mark Twain; William Mooney
LINK #16: “WHO’S ON FIRST” (from “The Naughty Nineties”) – Abbott & Costello
LINK #17: “KIDNAPPED” – Woody Allen
LINK #18: “MR. BIG” – Woody Allen
LINK #19: STEVE MARTIN on “Saturday Night Live” (montage)
LINK #20: “RIBALDRY: THE DISPATCH OF AN EDIBLE MISSILE”
(from “”Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl”)
LINK #21: “BIGGUS DICKUS” (from “Monty Python’s Life Of Brian”)
LINK #22: “REGISTERING AN ALIEN” (from “Mork and Mindy”;
“Mork and the Immigrant”) – Robin Williams
LINK #23: “CUES” (from “A Shot In The Dark”) – Peter Sellers, George Sanders, Maurice Kaufmann
LINK #24: “TRAIN” (from “The General”) – Directed by Buster Keaton
LINK #25: “BALLOON / CANOE” (from “The Balloonatic”) – Buster Keaton
LINK #26: “HOUSE” (from “Steamboat Bill, Jr.”) – Buster Keaton
LINK #27: “PEDDLER” (from “Sherlock Jr.”) – Buster Keaton
LINK #28: “WINDOW” (from “Sherlock Jr.”) – Buster Keaton
LINK #29: “ROCKS” (from “Seven Chances”) – Buster Keaton
LINK #30: “SUGGESTION BOX” (from “The Office”; “Performance Review”) – Steve Carell and the cast
LINK #31: from “The Office”; “HALLOWEEN” – Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer
********************************
ERRATA
back to top
Table of Contents, pp. 139, 143: “collarbone“ should be “neck“.
My excuse: I remembered wrong. (Tip o’ the porkpie hat to Glenn Gers.)
P. 2, footnote: “Misch, Funny: The Book, 2012, p. 1” should be “p. 4“.
My excuse: The book was repaginated.
P. 6, footnote: At the end of the footnote…
* “This is a reference to the Introduction. If you skipped the Introduction, it’s an obscure in-joke.”
… there was supposed to be another footnote…
** “There is nothing worse for a joke than a footnote.” – Frank Baxter
My excuse: Didn’t check galley closely enough.
P. 35: “Okay,” said Berle, “but I’m only gonna take out enough to win.”
Evidently, a variant of this line was said to Berle in the bathroom; Berle credited
Jackie Gleason and said “It was maybe the funniest spontaneous line I ever heard.”
My excuse: Everyone knows it was Berle! Who you gonna believe, me or the truth?
P. 39: In the section on women in comedy, there’s no mention of Lena Dunham’s
ground-breaking “Girls” or Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s incredible “Fleabag” (both seasons.)
My excuse: They came out after I wrote the book. So, what, I should get a time
machine and rewrite the book knowing the future? Cut me some slack.
P. 53, footnote: “which brought Holocaust survivors to America” should be
“which ran the British blockade to bring refugees to Palestine“.
My excuse: Didn’t double-check source.
P. 74: “‘Modern Times” was released in 1936, not 1932.
My excuse: Didn’t double-check self.
Pp. 128, 185: “Pierre Monard, Author of The Quixote” should be “Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote”
My excuse: Remembered wrong.
P. 140: “there were five jet engines” should be “there were five airplane engines”
My excuse: Thought “airplane,” wrote “jet.”
P. 141: “dancing feet out of potatoes in The Gold Rush” should be “dancing feet out of dinner rolls in The Gold Rush”
My excuse: Brain-freeze. (Tip o’ the feet to Bill Glasner.)
P. 156: “Starting with I Love Lucy in 1951, sitcoms were videotaped in front of
live audiences.” should be “… sitcoms were sometimes filmed in front of live audiences.”
My excuse: That’s what I meant. (Tip o’ the recording technology to Prof. Timothy Dee.)
Freshman year, college: After a girl dumped me, I once spied on her through a window.
should have been After a girl dumped me, I never spied on her through a window.
Okay, that wasn’t an error. I mean it was, but my excuse is I was 18.
back to top
