Word: laughed
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere." Thus spoke Dr. Seuss, and true enough. Novelist Erich Maria Remarque made a kindred point: "Not to laugh at the 20th century is to shoot yourself." Yet the sad fact is that mirth in the U.S. is neither what it once was nor what it might be. As early as 1968, in The Rise and Fall of American Humor, English Professor Jesse Bier solemnly declared that "we are in great part humorless as never before." Other humor experts, who cannily refuse to be associated with their opinions, believe...
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...
...short, happy days could be here again. Not Utopia, however. Far more often than now, Americans will discover that the public itself is the butt of some of the biggest jokes around. In such cases, laughter might be reduced. Still, half a laugh is better than none...
...couples lounging around the swimming pool. That proprietor could hardly have known it, but in hiring that kid he unleashed a comic force of staggering proportions upon the Borscht Belt and eventually, the rest of the world. Mel Brooks was plainly crazy. He would do anything to get a 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...
...earlier days as a Jewish comedian. The voice he uses in that scene is the same one he used as the 2000-Year-Old Man back in 1960. For all his attempts to change his patter, Brooks has to revert to his old stand-by to get the best laugh of the film...