We've been up to our necks in scary for quite a while now, to the point where She Who Must Be Obeyed has commented negatively on my trend in dvd acquisition But as I pointed out, it's very hard to find good comedies these days and even quality romcoms or light-hearted fluff are thin on the ground, if like me you can't stand what America makes these days, where dialogue has been replaced by excerpts from the Dictionary of Vulgarity. The French still make some great stuff though. Hollywood used to make wonderful light romantic comedy. It came to mind the other day, I think it may have been just pre-tv, I went every day one week to see the Sinatra movie The Tender Trap. Of course I've been a Sinatra fan since the dawn of civilisation and Debbie Reynolds did something to my rampant hormones.
I've been thinking I'd write a short piece on what I see as the death of comedy, which I believe happened sometime around or just after 2000. What prompted this was a long time listening to comedy radio programs from the BBC, still ongoing, and noting how I couldn't find much humour or even intelligence in what was produced after a certain point. And much the same has occurred in movies imo. I don't know what the cause is. There has been much more stand up of course but a lot of that is inane too. During my years of playing in bands in big clubs I've seen and known a lot of stand up comics and in the main they were funnier that what happens now imo Rose coloured glasses? I don't think so, I think I'm a good judge of quality.
