comedy – Flash Pulp

Tag: comedy

The Drunk Conundrum

Still from the first season of Life Goes On Please excuse me if I do a little thinking aloud on this sunny Friday afternoon, but:

Remember when people used to find drunks funny? (I mean on TV and in movies – they’re still pretty hilarious on YouTube.)

Sure you do.

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH3tG5t9cN0]

So, what happened? Where did they all go? Well, sometime during the politically correct ’90s, I suppose we all realized that a life of hard drinking rarely leads to humour – instead, it more often ends in a sad state of loneliness and medical bills.

It wasn’t the first time popular culture has had to reevaluate one of its stock characters, (I don’t think we need to go into the the moronic housewife/uneducated black servant/black-faced entertainer,) and I’m here to suggest that maybe its time to take another look at an old standard.

Now, listen, sometimes a talented artist can find himself in a bad bit; Rowan Atkinson is a hilarious fellow with fantastic timing and a glorious wit – when used properly.

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umRRCkspaQU]

The problem, however, is the dimwitted mute which arguably made Atkinson famous overseas.

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW6R9kSGV2Q]

While there are many that fit the category of lovable imbecile, the worst offender, to my mind, is Mr. Bean. Of course, I utilize “imbecile” in place of a word I was much freer with in my youth – one associated with Down’s Syndrome and a bevy of other genetic and mental disorders.

I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, but aren’t we just laughing at people too stupid to be functional? I understand the need for slow characters – I’ve used them myself on more than a few occasions – but if the person realistically ought to be in some sort of assisted living home (or, say, has a number of odd facial ticks and tends to wander around with a stuffed animal,) maybe it’s something we shouldn’t be laughing at.

Just sayin’.

Return Of Pigheart

Just a quick note to cast further light on the barnacle-encrusted jabbering of Captain Pigheart, yarn spinner and peglegged entrepreneur.

He’s a favourite around the skinner.fm labs, and he now has mp3 versions of his misadventures available for sale.

[It should be noted, in case you can’t scrape together a couple of doubloons, that most of his recountings are available to be read on his site].

A silent sample:

It were the kind of island where a man longs to bury his treasure. Alas, me gold was now being colonised by humourous octopi who amused themselves by hurling coins at me splashing crew.Now I knows ye may be afeard for the safety of meself and me crew and yet ye should worry little, for this maroonin’ lark is bread and butter to us pirate types. Ye forestation were lush as Eve’s own lady garden before she choked on the serpent’s apple, so we’d not want for sustenance. In time we’d assemble a rude craft to take us back to our wives and other foes. In the meantime we rigged shelters and foraged amongst the local flora for spit-roastable fauna.

– From Pigheart’s Tale of The Delicious Sweet-Monkey