The Arts in NYC

Yeah, I enjoy Marx Brothers also. I haven’t seen all the videos but from what I have seen so far, they have many intelligent jokes, something I see less and less on TV everyday.

Throughout the scope of history, the quality of comedy has changed in many ways. During the 1930’s the silent film comedy was replaced by dialogue from comedians like the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields in movies like Horse Feathers or The Man Who Came To Dinner. Then, as time progressed, comical movies came out such as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and the Home Alone series, which had a different comical perspective that was meant for families to watch together. But, by the twenty-first century, movies such as Not Another Teen Movie, the 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the Scary Movie series came out, which were, in my opinion, unnecessarily over-exaggerated and sexually oriented. Movies slowly started becoming less and less family-oriented and more sexually lenient. Comical films made in the 1930’s were made up of innocent, fun jokes, but in today’s pictures, in order for something to be considered a comedy, sex must be incorporated in some way.
Professor Judell really did introduce an entire new area of comedy to me when he showed me Horse Feathers with the Marx Brothers. I think they are hilarious and it’s innocently funny. I honestly have to thank Professor Judell for introducing a new field of comedy to me. I can actually laugh for REAL now! Haha. I think we should watch more comedies in class!

Angela, I definitely agree with you. We should watch more comedies! The Marx brothers are really funny, and like everyone else I’m really glad that we’ve been able to find an another outlet for comedy. The use of wit and intelligence in comedy is waning and it is tragic to see it being replaces by the moronic and the mundane…the trend of focusing on sexually oriented jokes is pathetic. The Marx brothers were truly refreshing.