Word: humorously
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Good Doctor itself, a dramatization of several short stories by Anton Chekhov, is no great shakes. These tales are early Chekhov, written under the name Antosha Chekhonte for sale to various humor magazines. They are merely anecdotes, where character is subordinate to the twist ending (which Chekhov was to chop off in his later, masterful works), deriving their charm from the compassionate tone, the airy, economical descriptions, and the flashes of pain in between chuckles. Neil Simon shatters Chekhov's mood, replacing it only with his shrill Broadway yocks, heavy-handedness, and sentimentality; moreover, the inherent Semitism of his phrasing...
...brain-damaged child. In 200 pages of brief takes, Greenfeld created a whole familial world. A Place for Noah is a sequel to that earlier diary, and together the two books are a contemporary classic that directly transmits the experience, emotions, conflicts, practical difficulties and even the humor that can attend such a domestic tragedy. Entry for March 5, 1973: "Last night we had Chinese food. Noah's fortune cookie: 'A little conversation can remove great hindrances...
Certainly Americans are getting some laughs, but often of a low quality and seldom provoked by real humor. Laughter fans instead rely more and more on professional comedians. Many are so desperately in need that they even laugh at Don Rickles or Joey Bishop. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer people partake of the real humor that is all around. Studio audiences at TV talk shows of the Mike Douglas genre tend to laugh at the host, presumably for nervous relief. But they frequently fail even to chuckle when the list of guests is proclaimed, even though such lists usually contain more...
...laugh, and while his written gags frequently bore the stamp of genius, he often resorted to simply slapstick or "dirty" words. Either way, audiences loved him or his material, and today Brooks is perhaps the most successful comedian in America. His manic energy and his sense of humor carried him from Lake Kiamesha to television and finally, inevitably, to Hollywood, from whence he has just released his sixth film, High Anxiety...
Despite all the shenanigans--and there are lots of them--High Anxiety somehow fails. In his search for a less manic style of humor Brooks has gone too far in the other direction; his own characterization provides an apt example. Thorndike, as played by Brooks, is a very serious gent, with all the dignity that befits a Harvard faculty member (tenured, of course) and a Nobel laureate. Thorndike radiates a sort of nervous rationality, except during his seizures of High Anxiety, so most of his good lines seem like deadpanned straight lines. Only once is Brooks himself very funny...