Comedy clips

Time for another post of comedy clips!

We Faw Down.  The great Leo McCarey directed Laurel and Hardy in this silent short, in which they pull the wool over their wives' eyes to sneak out to a poker game, but in the end the women are coming for them with a shotgun!  Of course, they reused the basic story for the duo's classic feature Sons of the Desert, not to mention innumerable episodes of The Flintstones!

Speakeasy scene, Horse Feathers.  This is a scene from college comedy Horse Feathers, my favorite Marx Brothers movie.  This was before the 1934 Production Code, when they could joke about stuff like speakeasies. (Did you know that "Knock knock" jokes probably originated in speakeasy culture?)

Two short scenes from Footlight Parade.  Joan Blondell was in top form in this great comedy, with Busby Berkeley numbers to boot!

Ping Pong scene, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.  Circus huckster Larson E. Whipsnade is one of W.C. Fields' more unpleasant characters, but this movie still makes me laugh. (This is the one where he keeps mentioning snakes and causing the delicate lady to faint!)

"See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have," Destry Rides Again.  Marlene Dietrich, who'd become "box office poison" in the late '30s, had a big comeback in this western, as Frenchie, a knockabout comic saloon singer role. (Compare it to "Garbo laughs!" in Ninotchka.) This is her funniest number.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dsl7i

Operation:  Rabbit.  Chuck Jones had Wile E. Coyote pursue Bugs Bunny instead of a the Roadrunner in a few cartoons, and even gave him a voice!  The first one is really funny, with some great dialogue. "And--I'm a genius, while you could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten."

George Carlin, "Baseball vs. Football." In routines like this classic, Carlin looks at familiar things in very unfamiliar ways!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6gehc1

Maude, "The Case of the Broken Punch Bowl." Maude was an uneven show to be sure, but Norman Lear and Bea Arthur developed a great character (probably based on Mrs. Lear) in Maude Findlay, the liberal suburban diva.  I especially liked this 1976 Rashomon-style episode, partly because my own mother collected antiques. (Please pardon the reversed screen, which only really affects the credits.)

SCTV News, "Togo Earthquake." Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy originally developed their newscaster routine on the Second City stage. (For you Americans out there, Floyd Robertson and Earl Camembert are based on real-life Canadian anchormen Lloyd Robertson and Earl Cameron.) In case you can't tell, Floyd can't stand Earl. They must have been inspired by "The Mr. Bill Show" from Saturday Night Live here.

"Pirate Pete," Newhart.  My favorite episode of Bob Newhart's second sitcom, from 1985.