TV/Movies Megathread

[crazy canuck]

Python don't seem to resonate much nowadays. A lot of people I know aged 30 and under don't know or don't find them funny at all.

That's because 30 years ago, it had been 20 years since their skits aired on the BBC.

[Maladict]

Python don't seem to resonate much nowadays. A lot of people I know aged 30 and under don't know or don't find them funny at all.

Comedy rarely ages well. It's not really meant to.

[crazy canuck]

They had a very good run. They were still relevant and funny into the late 80s.

But complaining that nobody's coming out to see their show in the 2020s is ridiculous.

[HVC]

Not sure about Eric idle, but John Cleese's main problem was marrying too many times. It's a bad sign when your Google profile has an expand option to show your spouses. Expensive habit.

[Maladict]

Not sure about Eric idle, but John Cleese's main problem was marrying too many times. It's a bad sign when your Google profile has an expand option to show your spouses. Expensive habit.

Cleese and Idle definitely are more showbiz than the other Pythons, I don't think Palin and the Terries have the same spending habits.

[Syt]

Python don't seem to resonate much nowadays. A lot of people I know aged 30 and under don't know or don't find them funny at all.

They may have missed a trick - many brief Python skits should do well in the modern "short video content" attention economy.

[Josquius]

Not sure about Eric idle, but John Cleese's main problem was marrying too many times. It's a bad sign when your Google profile has an expand option to show your spouses. Expensive habit.

Python don't seem to resonate much nowadays. A lot of people I know aged 30 and under don't know or don't find them funny at all.

They may have missed a trick - many brief Python skits should do well in the modern "short video content" attention economy.

True.
Invest a bit in AI HD upscaling to mask the age and some could hold up very well.
As I think thats the key problem with old media. Its not the contents- though there are issues there sometimes with different expectations of pacing et al- its that many are unforgiving or grainy square footage.

Even besides teh yoof though, there's plenty of people still alive born before 1970 that they could be selling something to if they put in the effort. Which I suppose is what Idle is spending his time doing,.

I think me getting suggested this article could come out of some reading I did yesterday- about a Discworld point and click adventure game remaster. I was surprised to read that Eric Idle did voice work in it as I can't remember that at all and it seems really impressive. Though if his finances aren't great now maybe they weren't then either.

[The Minsky Moment]

Michael Palin as Molotov - the man still has it.

[crazy canuck]

Michael Palin as Molotov - the man still has it.

You know you are getting old when you refer to a seven-year-old movie in the present tense.

[Sheilbh]

Also until relatively recently Palin had a steady income from the BBC paying for his holidays

While I think Idle and Cleese maybe tried to go a bt more Hollywood.

[Barrister]

Python don't seem to resonate much nowadays. A lot of people I know aged 30 and under don't know or don't find them funny at all.

Comedy rarely ages well. It's not really meant to.

I gotta disagree - the best comedy is timeless.

Go watch some Marx Brothers, or some classic Looney Tunes - that stuff will never not be funny.

On the other hand we do now have this kind of lazy comedy that relies on making lots of topical references.  Which I mean yes, it can be funny, but dates itself incredibly quickly.

[HVC]

Whose on first still makes me laugh, and I know the routine basically by heart. But it's survivors bias. We remember the classics because it's great, or exceedingly simply (three stooges is just pretend funniest home videos). A lot of old humour misses. And our greats now might still be greats in a generation or two, and most will be misses.

[Maladict]

Python don't seem to resonate much nowadays. A lot of people I know aged 30 and under don't know or don't find them funny at all.

Comedy rarely ages well. It's not really meant to.

I gotta disagree - the best comedy is timeless.

Go watch some Marx Brothers, or some classic Looney Tunes - that stuff will never not be funny.

Nobody watches that either.

Comedy, like any art, goes in and out of fashion over time. Plus, a lot of comedy is intentionally a product of its time, because it holds up a mirror, pushes boundaries. That is bound to give it an expiry date.

Some of it is more timeless, yes. But who really watches Laurel & Hardy or Charlie Chaplin anymore?

Try laughing at Moliere, or Aristophanes. You can admire it, but it's not funny like it must have been to their intended audiences.

[Barrister]

Python don't seem to resonate much nowadays. A lot of people I know aged 30 and under don't know or don't find them funny at all.

Comedy rarely ages well. It's not really meant to.

I gotta disagree - the best comedy is timeless.

Go watch some Marx Brothers, or some classic Looney Tunes - that stuff will never not be funny.

Nobody watches that either.

Comedy, like any art, goes in and out of fashion over time. Plus, a lot of comedy is intentionally a product of its time, because it holds up a mirror, pushes boundaries. That is bound to give it an expiry date.

Some of it is more timeless, yes. But who really watches Laurel & Hardy or Charlie Chaplin anymore?

Try laughing at Moliere, or Aristophanes. You can admire it, but it's not funny like it must have been to their intended audiences.

People don't watch Laurel and Hardy because its in black and white.  I've noticed this with my kids - they don't want to watch old stuff simply because it looks old.

I put on "Whose on First" for my kids a year or two ago.  They thought it was hilarious - once they got past how old it looked.

Monty Python is hurt because it looked cheap even when it was brand new - and age has made it look worse.  But I swear - if you remastered it to look "new" modern generations would love it.

You mention Aristophanes or Moliere.  I have to admit that while I know the names, I'm not terribly familiar with their work.  Let me come back with Shakespeare however.  I will admit - the language can make it hard to follow at times.  But if/when you "get" a Shakespeare joke they're still quite funny.

Is there old humour that doesn't really stand up?  Sure.  But I think I said "the best comedy is timeless".  As you said - it holds up a mirror.  But the human condition has still never changed.

[Savonarola]

Some of it is more timeless, yes. But who really watches Laurel & Hardy or Charlie Chaplin anymore?