Word: humorously
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Bronx cheer, more affectionate than derisive, for the marital problems of the lower middle class. Like the Oscar-winning Marty (TIME, April 18, 1955), the film was originally a TV play by Paddy Chayefsky, the troubadour of the tenements, and it has much the same shirtsleeved intimacy and gamy humor...
Take up the White Man's burden, And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard-The cry of hosts ye humor (Ah, slowly!) toward the light: "Why brought ye us from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night...
...whether a real revival was going on. Said third-year student Tony Jaffe: "Religion is just the fashionable thing nowadays, keeping up with the Joneses. The churches are becoming sociable meeting places. Anyone who pretends to be anyone just has to go. There is more interest in the humor of the preacher than in the purpose of the congregation. Perhaps it's a release from neurosis as well. The pace of Oxford life is killing...
What makes the whole business maddening, Allen observes, is that no one-from Aristotle to Freud-has yet worked out a satisfactory definition of humor. Allen concludes that the relationship of the TV fan to his favorite comic is a little like falling in love. Within six months the honeymoon is over. After a year, the fan begins to mutter critical asides. In two years he may switch to another channel. Allen's purpose in writing his book is to make "an examination and somewhat relaxed analysis of television humor"; his major concern is to give his readers...
Fred Allen: "Of all the prominent comedians, Allen most closely approached the status of a philosopher . . . Fred's was comedy with a heavy critical content. For . . . some reason, television is the first medium in history not only to put a low price on critical humor but practically to exclude it altogether...