Word: comics
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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THERE IS A certain theory of the psychology of comedy that would have the comic think everything funny. For myself, I will laugh at almost any incongruity. When I go to The Comic Strip, a club in New York featuring unknown comedians, I giggle at each hopeless tyro while my companions self-consciously sip their beers and check their watches. Thus I have found this theory quite encouraging, and even fancied myself something of a comic...
...decided that its neither the theory nor the pretensions that must go, but the book. It's simply not funny. Ward tries to use words he finds intrinsically funny like "airsick bag," "acne," and "sweater vest." This comic strategy can work with great success, as with Esquire's annual lists of funny words. Ward, unfortunately, chooses the wrong words...
Cleverness makes a good comic, a broad vision of the human condition a great one. Ward's uninspired tales demonstrate neither. The book does introduce a masterfully controlled, subdued, wistful writing style, particularly in the concluding vignette, "With My Grandparents at an Inn: August, 1970." Here Ward has crafted a poignant, affecting reminiscence of his grandfather marvelous in its insights and impressively written, a welcome departure in style and substance from the rest of the book. If anything could save this book and Ward's reputation, this does...
Fits and Starts gives us a writing style badly married to a puerile sense of humor. Ward should give up comedy and write more about his grandfather. Unless, of course, he laughs at all the jokes in The Comic Strip...
...rice." Mr. Rogers, a takeoff on the dim-but-lovable kiddie show host, says: "Welcome to my neighborhood. Let's put Mr. Hamster in the microwave oven. O.K.? Pop goes the weasel!" Other bit players include Ernest Sincere, a redneck used-car dealer; Joey Stalin, a Russian stand-up comic; Little Sherman, a perverse little boy; and Walt Buzzy, a gay director. Grandpa Funk, based on an old wino Williams once saw in San Francisco, always appears at the end of the show. Clicking his gums and speaking in a raspy high-pitched voice, the old codger explains he used...