Word: witness
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...whenever they appeared kept the audience in a continual series of hysterics. Honorable mention should be given as well to Mr. Brown's mouth. As a combination of both humour and music the manager offered Ted Lewis, which statement is quite sufficient unto itself; his saxophone and his wit are still in first-rate repair. And as the prettiest girl of the evening, we vote for Bird Millman, who left us all "Up in the Air" over her slack-wire dancing...
...subscription list, so my personal feelings are untroubled by Mr. Code's tirade. Lampy, I think--and I am not alone in this opinion--, is at a point of development which is nearer to the type of a professional humorous publication, however, than any other representative of collegiate wit, and I think also that Mr. Code, if he takes a dose of pepsin and another look at the sheet, will agree with me. I am, sir, Yours etc, G. EMMONS '16 Concord...
Some of the material in the Lampoon is silly enough to be laughed at by a person drunk enough. It is fairly easy to be foolish, but it is the hardest thing in the world to be a clever Fool. Both wit and humor require intelligence, wit chiefly in the manner of presenting an idea, humor in the sympathetic study of life's absurdities. Satire, another form of art that makes its points by emphasis on the absurd, depends also for its force chiefly on the intelligence behind the ridicule. For satire is a form of criticism and as criticism...
...substance and lack of though are the chief defects in the Lampoon, the imperfection in form is notable, especially in the verse. Slovenly verse is not funny though it may be ridiculous. Humorous verse requires the greatest perfection of form. A skillful rhymester uses his rhymes to point his wit and obtains additional effects by surprising rhymes. Everyone is familiar with the lamentable effect of even a good joke haltingly and redundantly told by a dullard who remembers it imperfectly and repeats it clumsily. Concise expression, accuracy, and fluency are essentials of wit in verse and even more in prose...
...embezzlement (of which, strange to say, he is really guilty); with them comes a third pal, the unknown and unknowing Spoofy, a victim of gas aphasia with a penchant for "lifting". From this combination, aided by convenient coincidences, innumerable droll situations arise, genuinely comic, of the type not wit but humor. In fact the play depends little on its lines; it is from character, incident, and pure stage effect that the author, Frederick Isham, has gleaned his laughs. The play moves amiably from situation to situation, with little suspense except in the person of the hapless Spoofy, whose mystery...