Comedy Throughout History - Part I

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Comedy is a very hard subject to touch on since humor has taken up many faces throughout history. It gains its laughter from the simplest fart jokes to complex and intrinsically woven stories with a surprise ending. Much like beauty, humor is in the eye of the beholder – or ear of the beholder, depending on the case. However, there are specific comedic values and routines that are followed by the masses, gaining the hearts and laughter of many. Lately, in many shows on television, there’s been a noticeable shift in the type of humor presented. At one point in time, social jokes and slapstick performances were the crutches comedy relied upon for its laughs. Although these still hold a role in today’s society, their implementation has significantly changed as they make room for new styles of comedy. Let’s take a look back at the comedy of media-past for examples of what I mean.

One of the earliest forms of comedy we can see in popular media can be found from silent films. The typical slap-stick silent comedy. Charlie Chaplin’s films were probably some of the more well known films from the era. In these films, Chaplin can be found doing insensible things such as eating his own shoe for a Thanksgiving meal. Hilarious, right? No? I didn’t think so either. To me, watching a man eat his own shoelace like spaghetti seems sad, really. Well, maybe that’s because it doesn’t make much sense to us now. In the 1920’s this would be relayed as a joke about how a lower class citizen could enjoy a meal in the same way an upper class person would. A simple idea, but its comedy is found in the fact that the need to literally eat one’s own shoe is not quite as exaggerated as it sounds. Furthermore, it pokes fun at the upper-class citizen’s way of life. The poor Chaplin eats a shoe like it deserves to be eaten in a sophisticated way. No food really deserves that honor, let alone a shoe. This type of comedy appeals to both upper class and lower class citizens - everyone at the time. The upper class citizens laugh at how the poor attempt to be like them while lower class citizens laugh at the truth and the ridicule of the upper class.

Further down the line of comedy, the sitcom, short for situation comedy, was produced. A classic sitcom portraying such a similar social rift would be the Beverly Hillbillies. This 1960’s sitcom follows the story of a southern family who struck oil and was able to move to the high society terrain of Beverly Hills. The first episode opens with the narrator saying, “How could a bunch of Hillbillies possibly buy a mansion like this?”  Rather than conforming to their new lifestyle, the ‘Hillbillies’ retain their southern ways. Thus, comedy is found in the high-society situations they innocently place their southern low-society background in.

Today, we might not find these specific pokes at social rifts particularly funny. It’s not targeted towards us and it would be hard for us to relate to, considering we are so detached from the lifestyle of the 1920’s and 1960’s. For a more relatable joke, the split between these social classes might be pointed out through the portrayal of races that are tried for a stereotyped attribute of poverty. However, such a stereotypical joke, in today’s society, would be rightfully frowned upon due to its lack of sensitivity. Put in the hands of the right comedian, however, and such jokes may be received extremely well. It really depends on the situation and how well its played. Hence, why I said humor is a hard subject to touch upon. Its changed so much throughout the decades as the target audience slowly expands in diversity.