Am I the only one that thinks Laugh-In is still funny?

I used to watch the show when I was a kid, but I wouldn't find it funny anymore as a lot of the comedy bits revolved around current events and trends...

 

Thought some of you might find this kinda fun:

http://framework.latimes.com/2015/01/09/rapid-fire-jokes-fly-on-rowan-and-martins-laugh-in/

Framework
Capturing the world through photography, video and multimedia


PHOTO BY: Los Angeles Times

Rapid fire jokes fly on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In

• Posted By: Scott Harrison
• Posted On: 12:40 a.m. | January 9, 2015

March, 1968: “Laugh-In’s” laugh makers perch precariously behind the Joke Wall waiting for their turns to zing in some one-liners. It’s the regular closing feature of the new NBC-TV show, which has opened up a fresh bag of comedy for viewers Monday nights.

This photo by staff photographer Judd Gunderson accompaned Aleene MacMinn’s article on the new hit comedy show in the March 17, 1968, Los Angeles Times’ Sunday Calendar section.

Aleene MacMinn wrote:

SOMEWHERE IN BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWN BURBANK – “And now folks, it’s sock it to me time!”

“Sock It to Me?”

“Eartha Kitt … call your draft board.”

“If Queen Elizabeth married Steve McQueen, she’d be Queen McQueen.”

“Verrr-ry in-ter-es-ting.”

“The Republicans have have a good chance this year, but they’ll probably spoil it by nominating somebody.”

“My daughter says that ever since the Supreme Court outlawed prayer in schools, the convent just isn’t the same.”

On and on come the funnies each Monday night, tumbling pell-mell out of a TV cornucopia known as “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.” “Laugh-In,” on NBC, is sort of a TV funny farm where gags fly faster than machine-gun fire, and if some of the shots are duds, no matter. There’ll be another barrage along in a second.

In fact, some “Laugh-In” viewers complain that the jokes come too fast. You miss two jokes while you’re sill laughing at the last one. But speed and a frenetic pace are what producer George Schlatter wants.

“Go for the joke,” Schlatter instructs his writers. “Don’t be usual. Don’t be ordinary. Take a 20-second joke and cut it down to five seconds.”

“Sure there’s more than anyone can absorb in an hour,” admits Schlatter, “but today people – especially kids – can assimilate faster. The casual viewer expects more of a show than the big production numbers of 15 years ago. …

“With this show, we’re knocking down the walls that have been hemming us in, freeing ourselves, blowing our minds. ….

The editing of the program alone is a monumental job, since there are so many cuts and bits and pieces of crazy business inserted into each show. “We use the same editing technique as they use in motion pictures,” explained tape editor Art Schneider.

“In the first nine shows there were 4,000 pieces of tape. We average 400 pieces and make 200-250 cuts per show. For a regular show, there would only be 20-30 cuts.” …

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In lasted 140 episodes over six seasons.



March 1968: Hosts Dan Rowan, left, and Dick Martin view antics of two “Laugh-In” cast members in front of the Joke Wall, a regular feature on the television show. Credit: Judd Gunderson / Los Angeles Times



March 1968: Writers for “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” include, from left: Digby Wolfe, producer George Schlatter, Jack Hanrahan, behind Schlatter, Paul Keyes, Marc London, secretary Susan Silver, David Panich and Allan Manings. Credit: Mary Frampton/Los Angeles Times.

These three photos accompanied MacMinn’s article in the March 17, 1968, Los Angeles Times.

In a PBS interview on YouTube, comedians Ruth Buzzi and Jo Anne Worley talk about the Joke Wall.

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• Tags: From the Archives :: California :: 35mm :: Black & White

 

Laugh-In will always be funny to me...it was a great time!

 

I remember when they would do that joke wall at the end of each show....it seemed at least once someone would open their window at the wrong time, forget their joke, or they would get out of order with the jokes. A lot of times, they would be cracking up at one of the jokes and everybody would lose it - including Rowan and Martin. Good memories.

 

Darryl

 

Thier blooper reels have some good moments as well.....

 

Darryl

 

Thanks.....

 

I think those posting clips of individual bits are doing the show an injustice...Laugh-In's main appeal was its fast pace, which can only be appreciated by seeing original full-length eps...

 

Absolutely. The Bravo runs of full episodes were hilarious and breathtaking, the chopped up syndicated half hour comedies were dire.

 

How can anyone not love a show featuring a young Goldie Hawn in body paint?

 

Sorry - Goldie of that era does little for me. Too thin, bad haircut..

 

Found this thread
Am I the only one that thinks Laugh-In is still funny? »
but it has been locked
Oh well, I'll revive it cause I think it's one of the funniest shows ever. They pushed the envelope for the FCC It aired first as a special in 1967 then ran from 1968 to 1973 It's now being aired on the Decades channel daily still funny and reverent to today IMO

 

I don't think it's held up well over time, it was good in it's day though.

 

Much of its topicality is lost today. Still I think it holds up surprisingly well -- perhaps because it moves so fast: one joke may lay an egg, but it's quickly followed by something else.

The fascinatingly ironic thing about Laugh-In is how hugely influential its style was in music, commercials, and drama -- in everything, curiously enough, except comedy. While everything else after Laugh-In sped up (eventually bringing us MTV), comedy slowed down: All In The Family, SNL, Animal House, etc...

I've believed for decades that a new Laugh-In -- half an hour, with no production numbers -- could succeed. But apparently no one agrees with me.

 

There was an attempt to revive Laugh-In with a cast that included Robin Williams but it wasn't successful. Here's the Wikipedia Link: Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In - Wikipedia »

 

Yes I actually saw that at the time. The only thing I remember is some painfully cute cabaret-type song called "Relationships".

My idea is to dump all that and have nothing but blackout gags and quick cuts.

 

I wonder if the 1967 Pilot/Special still exists? I saw it then, but nobody acknowledges it and there's nothing on YouTube.

 

I loved Ruth Buzzi and Artie Johnston on it! I never did figure out what a 'bippy' was though (or how to bet with it).

 

I think the humor is a little too dated to be funny.

 

Don't you get it? The mailbox was Haldeman.

 

I have a couple of Laugh In box sets. They still make me, um, laugh. I remember when the shows were originally on, and how this was the only show, besides All In The Family, that my father would laugh out loud to. You can tell everyone was having a great time doing the show, especially the joke wall, which I'm sure was never rehearsed. Yes the jokes are dated, but so am I.

 

I have the exact same feeling. Even when Laugh-In creator George Schlatter cut the shows down for syndication in the 1980s, the stuff didn't even work in short bits. It all felt very "late '60s" to me, despite the fast cutting and the jokes and so on. Some TV shows are very much a product of their time, and they just don't hold up well 10 or 20 years later.

A TV writer I casually know wrote a good essay on why Murphy Brown was a huge bomb in syndication in the 1990s. It seems like once Bill Clinton took office, nobody wanted to see a TV series that poked fun at George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle jokes. They were very funny in the late 1980s. Not so funny in 1995.

But shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, and Frasier... still funny today.

I got to record some radio commercials with Ruth Buzzi and Artie Johnson (though not at the same time) in the late 1970s, and they were as funny and professional and entertaining as you can imagine. They often ad-libbed lines that were far funnier than was written, and were really nice people.

Side-note: I have mentioned before there's a terrific book written by the guy who edited Laugh-In, and that was a groundbreaking show in many ways for its use of videotape and film and fast-paced editing. Art Schneider was the multiple Emmy-award-winning editor who did the early seasons of Laugh-In, and he was a really talented, interesting man. His book Jump Cut is at this link.

 

It's been tried and failed. I'm not convinced it's possible to do a prime-time comedy sketch show anymore, and definitely not a musical/comedy/variety show. Some things are extremely hard to do on modern TV: I would count traditional Westerns and soap operas in that category.