Word: humors
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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POOR COW. TV Director Kenneth Loach's first film tells the story of a scruffy London slum dweller (Carol White) with humanity that is never sentimental and humor that never hurts...
...evening consists of a trio of one-acters, all set in Manhattan's Plaza Hotel. Each of the playlets concerns a middle-aged man (Scott) and woman (Stapleton) who are at the end of something rather than the beginning of anything. The underlying tone of much of the humor is that of middle-aged rue mocking itself, the slightly hysterical funmaking that springs less from high spirits than low morale...
...Proposition--clearly modeled after the now-famed Chicago improvisational troupes -- strenuously avoids stooping for the easy, gag-line laughs. Trying to create original situational humor, the production occasionally sacrifices a quick laugh in pursuit of something deeper, but that's the course an improvisational group must follow to be more than a cut-rate Neil Simon show. When the sought-after originality breeds laughs, then you've got a winner, and The Proposition wins more than it loses...
...HUMOR needs constant airing. The main reason why the Lampoon never makes anyone really laugh out loud (I hope The Proposition cast won't be too offended by this comparison) is that its pieces, though written by individuals, must be read to the rest of the organization for peer approval. Thus there is a tendency not to include anything strikingly different from what has been accepted before for fear that someone will frown and say, "I don't think that's funny." This is why most Lampoon pieces might just as well be written by the same, mildly amusing...
...obviously developed in a similar, group atmosphere. But because the cast faces four different outside audiences each week, there is a chance to spring new concepts, and learn through repeated experiment just what will go over (in terms of laughs, not good taste--good taste is the last thing humor needs...