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Spliff · Dec 2, 2004, 07:01 PM

I recently rented the DVD of "Fawlty Towers." The last time I saw it, at least 12 years ago, I really enjoyed it. Not this time. I was disturbed to find that it wasn't all that funny. In fact, the humour seemed dated, forced, and unbelievable. Where I should've laughed, I often felt annoyed.

"Fawlty Towers" used to be one of my favourite sit-coms. I thought it was brilliant, classic, and that it would never date. And it isn't just with "Fawlty Towers." I've been noticing the same phenomenon with other sit-coms, books, and movies that I used to love and thought were brilliant.

What happened? Is it age? Is the humour in "Fawlty Towers" more suitable to teenagers and college students, with it's violence and sarcasm? Or is it simply that I've seen the series so many times that it isn't fresh to me anymore, even though I haven't watched it for over a decade?

I used to love that show and now it's dead to me.

dlefebvre · Dec 2, 2004, 07:43 PM

It's called evolution. The evolution of culture and cultural references, the evolution of the medium and also self evolution. You also probably enjoy things you would have frowned upon a few years ago.

mubach · Dec 2, 2004, 07:58 PM

Seems like Basil's antics have just turned, well old. I wish they would bring back the same humour as in earlier shows, that being said I think the best British comedy to date has to be "Are you being served?" The manner in which they can make soo many jokes from such a finite location, is just brilliant.

Eventually, shows just loose steam, so many great shows like Friends/Sienfeld/Are You Being Served?/Keeping Up Appearances just stop being funny due to a lack of new material. In an attempt to make new material, writers take a "new direction" often loosing touch with what made the show funny in the first place. *shakes head* Thank god for "Lost" on ABC, it has saved me from disdaining good comedy.

SimpleLife · Dec 2, 2004, 08:00 PM

Originally posted by Spliff:
I recently rented the DVD of "Fawlty Towers." The last time I saw it, at least 12 years ago, I really enjoyed it. Not this time. I was disturbed to find that it wasn't all that funny. In fact, the humour seemed dated, forced, and unbelievable. Where I should've laughed, I often felt annoyed.

"Fawlty Towers" used to be one of my favourite sit-coms. I thought it was brilliant, classic, and that it would never date. And it isn't just with "Fawlty Towers." I've been noticing the same phenomenon with other sit-coms, books, and movies that I used to love and thought were brilliant.

What happened? Is it age? Is the humour in "Fawlty Towers" more suitable to teenagers and college students, with it's violence and sarcasm? Or is it simply that I've seen the series so many times that it isn't fresh to me anymore, even though I haven't watched it for over a decade?

I used to love that show and now it's dead to me.

I started to put stuff in storage to really enjoy them later.

I remember a videoclip from Peter Gabriel that was required to not be shown after a certain time so that the creation would keep it's novelty, by respect to the artist.

I think we see too much of the same also. I stopped watching television almost 5 years ago, and I do have reminiscences of some great shows; Seinfeld for instance. I have not seen that show for the last 5 years. I am still not sure I will buy it on DVD, for fear of being stuck to revert watching it for fun, and not appreciate it ever again.

There are artists, I believe, who would prefer their art destroyed than preserved for eternity.

I have mixed feelings about that, but I do share your grief.

nooon · Dec 3, 2004, 06:12 AM

I used to think The Adventures of Ford Fairlane was funny as hell back in the early nineties, but I recently watched it and thought it was boring and cheesy - so I'm with dlefebvre on this one. It's just evolution.

techweenie1 · Dec 3, 2004, 06:39 AM

Originally posted by Spliff:
I recently rented the DVD of "Fawlty Towers." The last time I saw it, at least 12 years ago, I really enjoyed it. Not this time. I was disturbed to find that it wasn't all that funny. In fact, the humour seemed dated, forced, and unbelievable. Where I should've laughed, I often felt annoyed.

"Fawlty Towers" used to be one of my favourite sit-coms. I thought it was brilliant, classic, and that it would never date. And it isn't just with "Fawlty Towers." I've been noticing the same phenomenon with other sit-coms, books, and movies that I used to love and thought were brilliant.

What happened? Is it age? Is the humour in "Fawlty Towers" more suitable to teenagers and college students, with it's violence and sarcasm? Or is it simply that I've seen the series so many times that it isn't fresh to me anymore, even though I haven't watched it for over a decade?

I used to love that show and now it's dead to me.

Check out Little Britain it's hillarious!

dlefebvre · Dec 3, 2004, 06:55 AM

Originally posted by nooon:
I used to think The Adventures of Ford Fairlane was funny as hell back in the early nineties, but I recently watched it and thought it was boring and cheesy - so I'm with dlefebvre on this one. It's just evolution.

Good example. I used to love that movie but I couldn't stand more than 15 minutes the last time I saw it.

benign · Dec 3, 2004, 07:09 AM

Originally posted by mubach:
...so many great shows like Friends/Sienfeld/Are You Being Served?/Keeping Up Appearances just stop being funny ...

Now that is funny.

pop-science - but I put it down to a lot of shows have no pathos,
no time-less empathic quality for characters or their plight.
They have a shock/humor factor that if not backed up by a little
warmth, date and become unfunny.

'Little britain' is a case in point - all bitter no heart.

Zimphire · Dec 3, 2004, 07:13 AM

Benign you'd get your point across better if you weren't so pretentiously droll with your posts.

This isn't a poetry contest. We aren't impressed.

benign · Dec 3, 2004, 08:09 AM

Originally posted by Zimphire:
...We aren't impressed.

But you sound so jealous, jealous of anyone
who is able to think or even write creatively.
Must be because you are just a graphics whore -
Photoshopping what everyone has photoshopped before.

AB^2=BCxAC · Dec 3, 2004, 08:16 AM

Personal growth and maturity has something to do with it, too. The older you get, the more your sense of the absurd gets rationalized and diminished, all because you have to cope with more responsibility as you get older.

Hence, witnessing a lack of responsibility in a character gets less amusing and more frustrating the older you get, because you tend to see the reprocussions better than you do when you're younger, and that dulls "zany" wit 7 times out of 10.

SamuraiDL · Dec 3, 2004, 08:49 AM

Yeah other british humor, however retains its luster. I recently viewed Monty Pythons Meaning of Life, that movie ages like a fine wine.

iOliverC · Dec 3, 2004, 10:31 AM

Originally posted by techweenie1:
Check out Little Britain it's hillarious!

Oh man are you right, funniest thing I've seen. Although, I'm not sure an American would *get* it.

[Edit: See http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/littlebr...s2/clip2.shtml]

SimeyTheLimey · Dec 3, 2004, 10:47 AM

Originally posted by AB^2=BCxAC:
Personal growth and maturity has something to do with it, too. The older you get, the more your sense of the absurd gets rationalized and diminished, all because you have to cope with more responsibility as you get older.

Hence, witnessing a lack of responsibility in a character gets less amusing and more frustrating the older you get, because you tend to see the reprocussions better than you do when you're younger, and that dulls "zany" wit 7 times out of 10.

That's an interesting post. I saw a rerun of The Young Ones a while ago. I was about 15 when it first came out, and I loved it and so did all my friends. Now it just made me cringe.

Of course, I still loved Team America: World Police, so maybe my humor hasn't changed that much.

mitchell_pgh · Dec 3, 2004, 11:24 AM

I enjoyed dukes of hazard when I was young... I actually remember it as being a serious show. Looking back, I now realize how silly it was.

mrtew · Dec 3, 2004, 06:29 PM

I used to think a lot of stuff was hilarous that I think is now totally stupid, for example America's Funniest Home Videos and Monte Python. I think it's because I stopped getting stoned.

techweenie1 · Dec 3, 2004, 07:45 PM

Originally posted by iOliverC:
Oh man are you right, funniest thing I've seen. Although, I'm not sure an American would *get* it.

[Edit: See http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/littlebr...s2/clip2.shtml]

Well I am American, I get most of the humour...then again been living in london for the past four months and had a scorching case of Anglophlia for a while in my teen years, my parents were here to visit me last week they thought it was funny as well, don't know if
I'll ever understand all of the things Vicky Pollard says, but I can't understand those certain people who live in my home city (Chicago) that speak in a ghetto accent aka ebonics, so I suppose it's all relative...