badum-tsss

I thought the first time I appreciated comedy that was “bad on purpose”, it was Fred Willard in Best in Show.
It's possible that some of his quips and comments were funny, or funny to some people…but the point of that character (a clueless commentator at a dog show) was that he was out-of-place. I remember showing that movie to a friend who was laughing uproariously when he said “What is he even DOING there?”

The performance was helped by his partner, played by Jim Piddock (I think), who actually knew something about dogs and DID belong there.

The comedy came from the comments Fred Willard was making and the quiet, barely tolerant reactions from Jim Piddock, but there was real hilarity from the fact that Willard clearly did not belong there, and didn't know it, and was absolutely failing to be funny in a way that fit the venue.

This was given another dimension for me, with the BBC version of the Office, starring Ricky Gervais. His character was constantly trying to be funny and entertaining for the camera (in this “documentary” style comedy, same as Best in Show), and completely failing - but some of the employees would pretend to laugh sometimes. And what gave things an even finer dimension was that you could sometimes SEE the desperation and neediness in Gervais' character. He was clueless a lot of the time as well, but he was also pathetic a few times. This dynamic was a bit different in the American version of the Office, but had plenty in common with the original - Steve Carell's version would play those sympathy notes more often. Probably a good idea to give the character and show more longevity.

Another version of this character - and this show was earlier, but I didn't recognize the dynamic when I first saw it, was on the Larry Sanders show, sometimes with cheesy talk show host Larry, and often with his cringe-inducing sidekick, ‘Hey Now’ Hank Kingsley.

Really, though, the flailing wannabe comedian being lame and getting legitimate comedy from that is probably much older. When I think about it, Fozzie Bear from the Muppet Show may have been the first one I saw…and this may go way, way back to earlier versions I've never seen.

I've seen some comedians try and do this and fail completely, in my opinion. I mean, the on-purpose bad jokes are not funny in their badness. Or maybe the comedian is just not suited to that style.

Anyway, these are the free floating ideas that crossed my mind tonight.

I've tried to mimic this myself at times in conversation. Not sure how well it works since I'm not a professional comedian by any means…it's possible I was coming off as not lame-on-purpose, but just…lame…

In any case, see you next time!

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