13 November 2007

The Idea of Progress Presents a Personal History of Comedy, vol.I

This is the single funniest thing I've ever seen. And I don't mean that ironically.

Most of my life I've been a night owl. When my family got cable TV, this didn't help, because now instead of reading books or watching UHF television, I'd watch Comedy Central until all hours of the night. They played reruns of Saturday Night Live then, and I was watching it one night when the following sketch came on:



(There's some sort of extra stuff at the end of this clip, so after 1:55 you can just shut it off)

I had never heard of Andy Kaufman before. This was a few years before Man On the Moon came out, and I had no idea what to expect.

I laughed so hard at this that I woke my mother up, who knocked on my door to find out what all of the racket was all about. She was not amused.

One day I hope I can create something as dadaist and hilarious as this.

What is the funniest thing you've ever seen? Don't cop out with a joke, post a link instead, and do someone a favor.

7 comments:

Splotchy said...

I love The Shmenge Brothers -- The Last Polka.

It's not for everyone, but it's definitely for me.

Here's the first part:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eTB1NUt8C_U

Splotchy said...

Oop. Schmenge Brothers, not Shmenge.

I regret the error.

Boldly Serving Up Wheat Grass said...

I think this video is among the funniest things I've ever seen. Your mileage may vary.

The Ambiguous Blob said...

we must have very different senses of humor. Because I didn't think this was funny. Maybe it's because I was distracted by the man cameltoe on that guy.

The Lady Who Doesn't Lunch: said...

It's constantly changing but when I was a child I loved The Flip Wilson show and Carol Burnett:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5mYiP2vAr8

When I was a little older SNL of course, especially the Eddie Murphy years

and most recently pictures that Cooper Green Lying Bastard puts on his blog:
http://coopergreen.motime.com/post/687012#comment

paperback reader said...

This is an old favorite of mine from years ago, mostly because anything olde tyme makes me chortle uproariously: Conan O'Brien's 1864 Baseball experience.

dguzman said...

For non-stop full-length funny, I like "MP and the Holy Grail" or Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety," but probably the funniest stuff I ever saw on TV came from Carol Burnett. "The Gone with the Wind" spoof; the Kung Fu spoof with Jim Nabors as "Young Fool;" the soap opera spoof episode where she's going to a funeral and a wedding on the same day, so everything she's wearing (down to the earrings) is black on one side of her body, white on the other. She is pure genius.