Jerry d. Lewis

[jwdd27]

No thread yet on the death of Jerry Lewis?

The Guardian's report linked to a fantastically bad tempered interview he gave last year. I think he ended up playing up to his "miserable bugger off stage" persona, in the same way his partner Dino played up the drunkenness.

The thread title will work better when Jerry Lee Lewis passes, hopefully he hangs on a while and I can recycle.

[G-Man]

An obnoxious man with racist and misogynist views who admired Trump. His movies -- all that cross-eyed, whimpering village-idiocy -- are difficult to classify as comedy in as far as that genre is supposed to promise at least the prospect of laughter. His only good movie was one in which he basically played himself.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I never found him funny at all.

[Benjm]

I tried to see the positives while watching the potted obituary on the news but gave up at the first bit of face pulling. That said, barring a torrent of posthumous revelations of serious criminality, he was hardly in the same league as the UK's best known charity fundraising monster.

[Various Artist]

His only good movie was one in which he basically played himself.

The King of Comedy? Great movie, indeed.

[Jah Womble]

Not a nice person by any stretch. However, the 'he wasn't funny' bit that seems to proliferate on social media is a bit of a lame angle to take, IMO: the guy had a career that lasted decades based upon what he did being enjoyed by millions. It's not especially for me, either, but physical comedy such as Lewis's has long been a viable form of entertainment.

[Benjm]

That's a fair point, JW, but has anyone ever come across an individual who professed to finding JL funny? The discrepancy between his known and provable popularity and the difficulty of finding a single person who is a fan is quite marked, even allowing for time, place and taste.

[Jah Womble]

Well, not personally, I'll admit - although, back in t' day, I vaguely knew at least one 'name' physical comic who thought JL was an absolute genius. (I imagine most pursuing that line of entertainment would think this, tbh.)

[WOM]

I've raved about it before, but Nick Tosches' book Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams is absolutely must-read even if you couldn't give a shit about Dean Martin or Jerry Lewis. It's just so well written and insightful about the business of entertainment, fame, money, ego and heartache. But yes, not a nice man by any stretch of the imagination.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think the film routines are incredibly long, compared to cartoons from the same era, for example, and there was clearly a "filler" element in that they had to stretch the comedy to feature length, which is difficult if physical comedy is all you do and you have no wit in the act.

Norman Wisdom had the same issue, but I think he was more sympathetic (if overly sentimental) and less knowing.

[Bored Of Education]

As a kid, I remember loving his films with Dean Martin but, for the life of me, can't remember any of them.

[G-Man]

Well, not personally, I'll admit - although, back in t' day, I vaguely knew at least one 'name' physical comic who thought JL was an absolute genius. (I imagine most pursuing that line of entertainment would think this, tbh.)

I suppose it's fair to say that (a) there was a time when Lewis' shtick was regarded by many as amusing, and (b) comedy has allowed the objectionable likes of Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore and Adam Sandler to enjoy prolific careers, which proves the fact that some people find the absolutely unfunny funny.

But it's also fair to say that Lewis' is absolutely unfunny in the way that Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore and Adam Sandler are absolutely unfunny, and therefore to interrogate whether the performances of any of these conform to our (by the nature of such things subjective) definitions of comedy.

[Patrick Thistle]

Rob Schneider was in the Stallone version of Judge Dredd. One of the strangest casting choices imo

[ian.64]

When I were a nipper, there was some kind of enjoyment to be had from Lewis's films, his loose-limbed gurning and quacking voice being funny to the earnest kid who liked that kind of knockabout stuff. But approaching the teens, the appeal wore off and any Jerry Lewis movie just felt like the forced comedy of a man whose flailing 'look how goofy I am' schtick finally began to grate. Bit of a miserable, dislikeable arse, too (he was once quoted in an interview referring to women as 'baby machines').

Agree about King of Comedy, though. A very good performance elicited from him by a master filmmaker who knew how to use his fuck-you personality to great effect.

[Incandenza]

Lewis' ego lead to two of the biggest "WTF were they thinking" moments in Hollywood history: The Day the Clown Cried, which is pretty well known (and seems to have undergone a sort of reappraisal from people who still haven't seen the whole thing), and also ill-fated The Jerry Lewis Show talk show, which I had never heard of before reading in Kliph Nesteroff's excellent book The Comedians. He wrote about it on WFMU's website:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/01/late-night-.html

[WOM]

Yes, that's indeed an excellent book. Unfortunately, I gave my copy to an aspiring standup who quit the ad biz to pursue her dream.

[Gerontophile]

G-Man: Why is Adam Sandler "objectionable"? I can understand the adjective 'shite', but don't know of reasons for the other.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I never found him funny at all.

Me neither. Revered by many in France however, which is truly perplexing.

[Jah Womble]

I suppose it's fair to say that (a) there was a time when Lewis' shtick was regarded by many as amusing, and (b) comedy has allowed the objectionable likes of Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore and Adam Sandler to enjoy prolific careers, which proves the fact that some people find the absolutely unfunny funny.

But it's also fair to say that Lewis' is absolutely unfunny in the way that Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore and Adam Sandler are absolutely unfunny, and therefore to interrogate whether the performances of any of these conform to our (by the nature of such things subjective) definitions of comedy.

I suspect any form of debate here will be rather pointless, but I don't think it's so much 'people finding the unfunny funny' - which unfortunately can only ever be an non-objective opinion, no matter how hard we might try - as it is these same folk generally not giving a toss about what their objectionable heroes get up to off-screen.

However, there are sh*theads in all walks of entertainment. In terms of music, many of them feature on recordings that I own.

Me neither. Revered by many in France however, which is truly perplexing.

That doesn't especially surprise me. The French have always warmed to this type of comedy, have they not?

[Various Artist]

G-Man: Why is Adam Sandler "objectionable"? I can understand the adjective 'shite', but don't know of reasons for the other.

I assumed the one, erm, flows from the other.

[caja-dglh]

Yes, that's indeed an excellent book. Unfortunately, I gave my copy to an aspiring standup who quit the ad biz to pursue her dream.

Would cost you US $12.50 to replace. So you might have to mortgage your house.

[Hot Pepsi]

I suppose it's fair to say that (a) there was a time when Lewis' shtick was regarded by many as amusing, and (b) comedy has allowed the objectionable likes of Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore and Adam Sandler to enjoy prolific careers, which proves the fact that some people find the absolutely unfunny funny.

But it's also fair to say that Lewis' is absolutely unfunny in the way that Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore and Adam Sandler are absolutely unfunny, and therefore to interrogate whether the performances of any of these conform to our (by the nature of such things subjective) definitions of comedy.

Sandler has done some funny stuff, on SNL, Wedding Singer, Billy Madison, and Happy Gilmore

Rob Schneider is playing a theater show here. I don't have tickets.

[WOM]

Would cost you US $12.50 to replace. So you might have to mortgage your house.

I'd never re-read it, but I hate not having copies of books I've read and particularly enjoyed. Parting with book is *really* difficult for me. Anything else? Meh...take it...

[Lang Spoon]

I assumed the one, erm, flows from the other.

Sandler is a Republican, no?

[tee rex]

I was thinking of starting a thread along the lines of "How do kids watch old stuff?", and Lewis seems to fit the bill.

With no other viewing available, we'd be fed a diet of films from before our time: Ealing comedies, Laurel & Hardy, and (unfortunately) Jerry Lewis. I wouldn't get too nostalgic (and I don't want to be told tomorrow that 99% of my screen options today are suddenly gone), but it did mean that you got to know movie history, whether you liked individual films or not. We didn't say "oooh, retro cool" - we just said "nothing else on".

I don't imagine kids now are sitting through those really old (to them) films from the 1980's. Every TV comedy seems to include knowing references to John Hughes movies, but the gags are for the middle-aged, aren't they?

Which is why we suffer these bloody remakes, I suppose.