Comedy seems to work best when done in groups. This is not just true
of older comedy routines – most modern television comedy hits are such
due to the supporting actors. For example, Will and Grace would never
have survived were it not for the character of Karen Walker. This list
looks at ten of the most prolific and most well known comedy teams. It
is perhaps a little light on the British comedy duos such as the Goons –
but do feel free to name them all in the comments.
10. Amos and Andy
Voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, performing on the radio
from 1928 all the way 1960. This sketch comedy act was based on turn
of the century black minstrel acts, and the two voice artists depicted
black people as poor, lower class menial workers, who eventually move
from Georgia to Chicago and become taxi drivers.
At least once, in 1931, when the Pittsburgh Courier took up the
article of a black preacher who considered the show racially offensive
(since the two voice artists were white). They tried to get a million
names on a petition, in order to get the show canceled, but few people
would sign it, not out of racial fear as much as out of enjoyment of the
show. The black leads are always shown to be very simple-minded, but
very polite and good-natured, and smarter than the average white man.
They also thrived on malaprops, which are incorrect uses of a language.
One of George “Kingfish” Stevens’s (played by Gosden) best such lines
is, “Heck, naw, I ain’t gawn let my kids use no ‘cyclopedia! They kin
walk to school like I did!”
This was subsequently blamed on Yogi Berra, who, never to be outdone, said, “I didn’t say half the stuff I said.”
9. Frick and Frack
Werner Groebli and Hans Mauch, respectively. They were comedic
figure skaters, both from Basel, Switzerland, and performed all over the
world in lederhosen and traditional German “Oktoberfest” garb.
They performed in a few films, beginning with Lady, Let’s Dance, in
1944. They never performed in the Olympics, but a lot of Olympic figure
skaters think they would have been shoe-ins for gold medals.
“Frick and Frack” has become a household phrase in English, due to
their popularity from the 1930s to the 1950s. Some of the stunts they
performed defy belief, most notably Frack’s rubber legs, which were
twisting, collapsing legs while skating in a spread-eagle.
Frick’s signature move was a cantilever spread-eagle, which he invented.
8. The Smothers Brothers
Tommy Smothers always plays the slower buffoon to Dick Smothers’s
straight man. Tommy’s signature line was “Mom always liked you best!”
after which they would argue over whether that were true or not. When
their mother died, they never performed this routine again.
They are accomplished guitar players, and Tommy is a master of the
yo-yo. They have the distinction of being the longest-lived comedy team
in American history, having performed for about 52 years.
During the late 1960s, they had their own show, “The Smothers
Brothers Comedy Hour,” which was extremely controversial (and funny)
because of their peace advocacy. They regularly poked fun at the
Vietnam War, President Nixon, and racism. The show lasted an amazing 2
years, 1967 to 1969, before being canceled for what CBS was forced to
call “Anti-American Peace Propaganda.” Ah, the ’60s.
7. Cheech and Chong
The hippies and counter-culturalists found their idols in the
weed-smoking surrealists Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong. They broke up in
1985, but reunited in 2008 much to everyone’s delight.
They made a number of films from 1978 through the 1980s, all having
heavily to do with drug use, the free love of hippies, etc. Arguably
their best work is the 1983 film Still Smokin’, in which they travel to
Amsterdam, Netherlands, for a film festival about Burt Reynolds and
Dolly Parton. When the latter two stars don’t show up, Cheech and Chong
save the day with their own live stage performance. One of the best
bits is Chong as “the old man in the park,” and the duo as “Ralph and
Herbie the dogs.”
6. Abbott and Costello
Bud Abbott played the straight man to Lou Costello, and even if they
had only done one routine during their entire career, “Who’s on First?”
would net them the #6 spot. They had already rehearsed it to
perfection, but had not had a chance to perform it on stage.
The first televised performance of it was at the Steel Pier, in
Atlantic City, New Jersey. They had a few sheets of material written by
someone else, and they didn’t think much of it, so Abbot asked
Costello, “You wanna do Baseball?” “Yeah, let’s do it.” And they
walked out and made history.
It had been many times since before the radio days of burlesque
vaudeville, with the simple gag of Who and What being proper nouns.
Abbott and Costello were the first to hone it into its modern form of a
baseball team’s names. They copyrighted it, and performed it several
times in different films. None of this mentions the host of other
outstanding performances to their credit.
5. Laurel and Hardy
Well known to film buffs today as a duo of true friends. They were
vaudevillians, in countless silent films together and separate, before
teaming up in 1927, and remained together until Hardy’s death in 1957,
appearing in a lot of films. By the 1950s, their healths were declining
rapidly, and they no longer looked like their old selves.
They were masters of slapstick, and an interesting idea that Laurel
called “white magic.” A good example is in the film Way Out West, from
1937, one of their most famous, in which Laurel (the thin one) makes a
fist, pours tobacco into it, flicks up his thumb and lights it, then
blows real smoke out of his fist. Hardy proceeds to try duplicating it
throughout the film, getting it right at the end, and freaking out about
burning his thumb. They also have a famous soft-shoe dance number in
this film.
4. Monty Python
Britain’s, arguably the world’s, most irreverent comedy team so far,
appearing on stage and in films from the late 1960s through the 1980s.
Their films are still extremely popular, and very funny, the most famous
of which is probably Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In it, King
Arthur and his knights of Camelot, who eat ham and jam and spam a lot,
traipse all over the English countryside looking for the Holy Grail,
encountering a particularly tough Black Knight, a riddle-posing bridge
guard, and God Himself. They have no horses, but at least they have
coconuts to sound like horses, which a Cockney castle wall guard reminds
them are not quite the same as horses. The conversation goes downhill
thence.
Their stage work is comparatively unheralded in America, but you can
find a lot of it on YouTube. It is some of their very finest work.
This lister’s favorite is a bit involving a man who’s just lost his
mother, trying to get a mortician to bury her. The mortician replies
that the mortuary can cook her or bury her, or dump in her the Thames.
In finally ends with the mortician saying that he’ll cook her, the son
can eat her, and then they’ll dig a grave and he can throw up in it.
3. The Three Stooges
The most well known artists of slapstick in history were Moe and
Curly Howard, and Larry Fine. Curly died of a stroke in 1952, and
several people were chosen as replacements for a few more years, but it
was never quite as good without him.
Moe was the straight man, Curly the comedian, and Larry was something
of both. Some of their gags are as physically demanding and dangerous
as stunts you might see in a Looney Tunes cartoon. Curly or Larry would
accidentally smack Moe in the head with something made of metal, and he
would respond angrily, sometimes running a ripsaw over their heads, or
smacking them with hammers.
Their slap gags are always uproarious, and one of their most famous
moments comes in the short Micro-phonies, from 1945, in which they
lip-synch to the Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor.
2. Martin and Lewis
Martin was the straight man to Lewis’s utmost in zaniness. From 1946
to 1956, they were the pinnacle of the comedy world in Hollywood,
performing around the country and in films. Martin was one of the
finest crooners in history, but Lewis could belt out a song when he
wanted. They could do it all, sing, dance, slapstick, vaudeville jokes,
stand-up, and outstanding ad-lib segments. Their patented sketch was a
Martin crooner, into which Lewis would walk with a silly face, and
continue to interrupt him while he sang.
1. The Marx Brothers
Modern comedians of all kinds, stand-up, sitcom, sketch, film and
stage, look on the Marx Brothers with awe at how brilliant they were at
every aspect of comedy. They grew as vaudeville performers, and
although they couldn’t tapdance, they could certainly do everything
else, and this lister means EVERYTHING.
Harpo played the harp better than most professionals, and he taught
himself by ear. His form was all wrong, but professionals came to him
for instruction on how to play like him.
Groucho was a fine singer, and usually sent himself up as a horrible singer.
Chico could play the piano effortlessly, and was loved for his
“shooting the keys” manner of playing, seen in A Night at the Opera,
among others.
Groucho’s one-liners and insults run throughout all their films and
are still the stuff of legend. His greasepaint eyebrows and mustache
are part of the classic Halloween, or gag glasses, with huge nose, that
kids like to wear, or cartoons use to hide identities.
Harpo’s voice was a rich baritone, and too low for his clownish
persona, so he elected never to speak, except a few times at ceremonies,
and on a talk show in the 1970s. This was one of his finest jokes,
since he was begged to finally say something, and once he got going, the
talk show host could not shut him up for a good 15 minutes.
Chico’s name should be pronounced “Chick-O” not “Cheek-O,” because he
was the brother all the chicks were after (according to him). He was
also a gamblaholic, and they made some of their films just to pay off
his debts.
According to the late, great George Carlin, Groucho Marx told by far
the funniest “Aristocrats” joke in history. It’s a notoriously dirty
joke told from the turn of the century, by comedians who ad-lib the
nastiest filth they can think of, and then end with the stupid
punch-line “The Aristocrats!” Groucho didn’t care for dirty jokes,
preferring clean jokes, in which more art is required to get a laugh.
When asked about his version of it, he replied, “Well, bestiality’s not
all that dirty.”
Their performances in A Night at the Opera and Duck Soup are their
finest efforts. The former includes the famous stateroom scene, the
complete destruction of a production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and “The
First Party of the First Part” sequence between Groucho and Chico.
The latter includes their legendary mirror scene, the lemonade stand,
their combat spoof (Groucho wears an American Civil War hat, then a
coonskin cap, then a Napoleon hat, etc.) and their parody of Paul
Revere’s Ride.
They used a running joke throughout their films involving their
meager accommodations growing up. Whenever they spot food in a film,
they dash madly around the set, getting to the table, where they devour
everything in sight, even their clothing.
source : http://listverse.com/2010/04/27/top-10-comedy-teams-of-all-time/
0 Komentar untuk "Top 10 Comedy Teams of All Time"