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.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.