Comedy Gems: Musical Irony/Satire
No this isn’t dating myself. I barely remember this show (I was in kindergarten and remember my parents watching it). But if you LOVE and STUDY comedy as I do here is a comedy gem.
A lot of people think irony, satire and musical take-offs began with Saturday Live or Weird Al. Not quite.
Here’s a 1955 clip showing Sid Caesar and a couple of well-known colleagues (guess?) doing a hilarious musical take-off on early 50s rock-and-roll. In the way it’s performed, it’s the kind of a lampoon we’ve seen performed on Saturday Night Live…only Caesar was there first. You’ll watch it several times.
Note. This was posted on You Tube by Caesar (whose profile if you read the link shows that he is now 83).
Footnote: Over the years I’ve seen bits of his shows, which my parents would never let me stay up to watch). I seek out and study classic comedians and watch and rewatch their work on DVDs these days — a hobby less blood-boiling than doing a weblog. I don’t have Caesar’s stuff yet…but he’s next on my list. It holds up very well.
PS: There are some contemporary comedians who I think are geniuses (Larry David’s show is a classic and almost any comedy starring Bill Murray will be studied for years to come). Some people wonder how some people (like me) could enjoy recorded performances of people done either many years ago, totally before our time or featuring long departed performers. The reason: good comedy stands the test of time and becomes part of our comedy heritage…to be enjoyed by those who love comedy and studied by those who try to enhance their own skills.
2 Responses to “Comedy Gems: Musical Irony/Satire”
Yes Joe. Politics are friggen horrible, but everything else on the blogs are friggen boring.
I have often thought of developing an online personality specifically for politics. Then I realized that I was not a politician. What you get, is me. Anything else is impossible, not to mention dishonest. I do appreciate the suggestion to temper my comments and I do. But as Yoda says, “the future is always in motion, hard to see the future is”.
Spontaneity is honesty in its purest form. Much like a laugh.
You like Sid Caesar, (so do I). But I am more like
Don Rickles, a very misunderstood performer.
I didn’t like this clip as much as I have some of the others. The problem is that the style of music they are parodying has pretty much died out. Although I’m 42, I can barely remember that style of music. This clip just lacks some of the timelessness that the other clips you put up have. I was amazed to see some of the parallels to more recent music however.