COLUMBIA SHORTS : Your inclusion of anything beyond the great-to-formula-fare comedy ofyour younger years is spotty at best....while any number of folksaround here, meself included, find much to appreciate in the earlycomedians' work without embracing the uninspired junk along with thebrilliant. The fact that you would entertain the notion of promotingstuff like THE BOWERY BOYS MEETS THE MONSTERS or THE THREE STOOGESMEET HERCULES on the same list with the best works of W.C. Fields orBuster Keaton is actually an insult to the artistry of Fields, Keaton,Chaplin, and their superior, highly-creative breed. To say that you didn't find SNL funny much of the time is one thing;but to say you never found it funny is another. At the very least,SNL (and the Coens) when cooking have been much more inventive andtaken more risks than anything vaguely attempted by pedestrian comicclods like The Bowery Boys or The Stooges, who were basicallyactors-for-hire...studio puppets in mediocre franchises of second-ratejokes. Staff-writer stuff (and we ain't talking Sid Caeser's crewhere). They were shoddy, cheap fare for the kids, even in their day.
COLUMBIA SHORTS : And don't start in about how I need to see this or that or how theyare some undiscovered gems riddled with social commentary or tweakingthe establishment in inspired style (like you once attempted with theStooges canon). I was raised on that crap, from the mid-Fiftiesonward....I saw them all, Saturday morning after Saturday morning, andevery afternoon after school to boot. I was indiscriminate andaccepting of it then; but I also thought sticking out my tongue fullof vomit-looking Fruit Loops was a laff-riot.It's all in what you like. For recent comedy, I do enjoy the Woody Allen, MelBrooks, Christopher Guest, and Anderson/Wilson films quite a bit. But the SNLthing just doesn't make me laugh. I can't pretend that it does any more thanyou can enjoy the Stooges or The Bowery Boys.I agree. I said that I would put those films above Animal House -- certainlynowhere near Fields, Keaton, et al.I am being honest. I didn't find it funny during its alleged heyday when itwas at its supposed best. I have seen it only fleetingly since, but if Ididn't like it during its best years, I won't likely enjoy it now.Please visit the most poorly designed web pages online:
COLUMBIA SHORTS : I never found it funny either - but there are movies more recent than that Ihave found funny that aren't on your list - for instance "The Gods Must BeCrazy", not to mention many foreign language movie comedies.I was limiting the list to American films. Foreign ones would be a separatelist for me. I agree on The Gods Must Be Crazy.**************************************** ****And Nim, you're going to have to forgive me as well. Your vent has promptedmy vent. I stayed out of this argument when it was "Jerry Lewis vs. Pee-weeHerman," but afterwards, I felt a kind of cowardly shame--like Harry Morganhiding out in his home in HIGH NOON.(snipped SNL stuff, since it's not really relevant to what I want to argueabout)**************************************** ****But supposing the "uninspired junk" and the "brilliant" are one and thesame? Allow me to illustrate...As a child, I, too, like you, watched endless hours of old comedy shorts andmovies featuring The Bowery Boys, Henry Aldrich, etc. I had a particularNope. Make your list and include those. I would enjoy reading it.
COLUMBIA SHORTS : Sorry I got the lyrics of "Listen to the Mockingbird" wrong, butthat's the way I learned it in Cub Scouts. (Yeh, I know..."Scuse mewhile I kiss this guy...") It's hardly surprising that the Stooges would use two Public Domaintheme songs in their comedies, inasmuch as Columbia seldom spent anymoney for incidental music in their 2-reelers, even though formersong-plugger Harry Cohn was crazy about "pop" tunes. Most of the early Columbia shorts (1933-36) used stock themes from thestudio vaults; a few of these were written by Archie Gottler for theshort-lived "Musical Novelties" series (the only currently availableentry in this series is the Stooges' WOMAN HATERS). One of the mostfrequently-heard themes in the mid-1930s films was "Man on theParallel Bars", a novelty tune sung by Leon Errol in 1934's PERFECTLYMISMATED. From 1937 onward, the short-subject themes were lifted from PublicDomain. Andy Clyde's theme song fluctuated between "Old Gray Mare" anda medley of "Reuben Reuben" and "Turkey in the Straw" (the last-namedtune was also used for Columbia's two Slim Summerville shorts of themid-1940s). Charley Chase's theme from 1938 to 1940 was "For He's aJolly Good Fellow"; this song was later applied to the Hugh Herbert2-reelers. Most of the rest of the Columbia star comedians (BusterKeaton, Vera Vague, Harry Langdon, El Brendel etc.) had to besatisfied with "Merrily We Roll Along", which was used (withoccasional variations) from 1938 through 1956. The last non-StoogeColumbia comedy was TRICKY CHICKS, starring Muriel Landers; the themefor this 1957 short was "The Heat is On", originally heard in MISSSADIE THOMPSON (1954) (a brief clip from TRICKY CHICKS was re-used inthe Stooges' SWEET AND HOT; Landers' original "Heat is On" numberended with a striptease!)
COLUMBIA SHORTS : I know I've said this before, and it can't possibly have any effect onthe films at this late date, but I wish that Columbia had usedbackground music more often in their 2-reelers. I love that"high-society" piece heard during the dinner sequence in TERMITES OF1938, and I'm nuts about the dramatic accompaniment used in PUNCHYCOWPUNCHERS. Curiously, in 1936 the studio briefly toyed with background music inthe shorts, as witness Andy Clyde's PEPPERY SALT and Monte Collins &Tom Kennedy's MIDNIGHT BLUNDERS. There was also a bit more music thanusual in the Stooge films of this period: The violin/bass/harmonica"swing" tune in DISORDER IN THE COURT, the waltz theme heard duringthe fashion show in SLIPPERY SILKS (which evidently orginated in FrankCapra's BROADWAY BILL) and the can-can in WHOOPS I'M AN INDIAN. AfterThanks for the info. Also worthy of note is the music used in"Punch Drunks". The script (by Howard, Fine, and Howard)called for "The Stars and Stripe Forever" by Sousa as the songthat gets Kid Stradivarius excited. Columbia refused to paythe royalty, so they used "Pop Goes the Weasel" (that weasel tune)instead. According to Moe, in his autobiography.
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