TCM - Billy Crystal on Contemporary Comedy

[tlg201]

How can you say old comedy always gets stale? Woody Allen's films are classics. Watching Annie Hall or Manhattan 30 years later is still humorous. As Billy Crystal says, when comedy is about real people and situations, people are invested in them. This mixed with wit and intelligence makes for insightful humour. This sort of humour will always stand the test of time.

[LitCrit101]

Comedy ALWAYS gets stale. It's extremely rare for something to be funny ten years after it first appeared. Look in the bargain bins in bookstores and see something that was considered very funny a few years ago. It's for sale for 99 cents now, and it's no longer considered funny. The mystery is that comedy that still makes people laugh decades later. It almost never happens. It doesn't matter if you've never seen it before and it's new to you. Old comedy is not funny.

[ken131]

So, Billy likes Richard Curtis? NIce.

[TrustYourOwnInstinct]

"Love, Life, and Cows"

haaaahhhhahahahahaha

Aaahh, the french... XD

[mickeyb1000]

billy rocks

[crashcrazy07]

LOL

"You touch Mama?"

"You don't touch Mama".

[chawk111]

Billy Crystal is a hack. City Slickers - awful! The one with him and the giant - crap! To see him prophesying about comedy is just ridiculous. It's not just that he is not funny - he's antifunny - he creates, appreciates the sort of comedy that sucks the most. His criticism of contemporary comedy may be fueled by bitterness over not being more successful lately - as well of lack of understanding of rely great comedy.

[herbiesnerd]

His movies were not his best comedy. He was a genius on SNL and his stand up is second only to Robin Williams. Saying old fart comedians are simple is just rude and arrogant. Don't put down those early comedians. Comedy is cultural, and what is funny today may not be funny tomorrow and visa versa. Hearing him analyze comedy isn't meant to be funny, but his comedy was always packed with intelligence and quick wit. To not like him means you never saw him on SNL. SNL is not funny today.

[chawk111]

SNL was brilliant during the election but then promptly returned to being awful. You're right about that. And Crystal on SNL was before my time.

I rely think that comedy produced today will have a much longer half life than what was made decades ago. It's just of higer quality in a way that has nothing to do with changing current events. The Simpson's for example.

p.s. I honestly don't find anything funny about R. Williams.

[chawk111]

It would be a nice thing to pay tribute to dead/old people, but I rely don't think the whole "standing on the shoulders of giants" story fits when it comes to the development of comedy.

Crystal doesn't get it. In general I mean.

[chawk111]

"Physical comedy" is an oxymoron. Someone getting hit has NEVER made me laugh. When I see comedy from earlier eras, I think to myself, "You'd have to be some kind of an idiot to enjoy this. " And I think, to a certain extent, they were, or at least more of them were (the old ppl I know are simpletons). There has been a progression whereby more ppl are more sophisticated now and tv/movies, populist mediums, must be too.

Also this vulgar,edgy,profain/ people falling over dialetic of his is false

[boatgoball]

tits are very amusing in comedy

and cunts too

this man is very funny in that fact

merry christmas

[puppieluvr]

Too many people like comedy only when accompanied with vulgarity and T&A. True comedy does not have to be either of those, and Billy Chrystal is a class act in that genre.

[wanj101982]

i miss mr. crystal. i wish he'd keep making films.

[lovelyspringweather]

i agree. ilike him alot