Original subtitles

Gold.

You owe

me gold.

You owe

me. Specifically.

Hello. You know, judging from the age

of some of these books on visual

comedy here in the Benjamin P Hill

Memorial Library, 1 might be tempted to

conclude the visual humour that belongs

to the distant past or the eerie

black and white world of silent films.

Nowadays, you might think comedians talk.

But in fact, visual humour is everywhere

these days. Who could all those TV

commercials which try to seize your

attention with visual jokes? Study the

popular comedies on television or in the

cinema and you'd be amazed how often

the big laughs depend on physical rather

than verbal humour. I should like to

begin. By talking about the methods and

techniques of the physical comedian.

I hope you locate the trouble, Monsieur.

Madame, it is my business to look at

trouble.

This is Kevin Bartholomew, a young

actor with a comprehensive knowledge of

physical comedy. His one man show,

haha. Kevin has enchanted thousands of

schoolchildren since 1976. He's invited

our cameras to his studio home

where, with the occasional assistance of

Mr Driscoll and Miss Montague, he

will demonstrate many of the arts

of his profession. For Kevin, As

for any physical comedian. The body

is the essential means of expression.

His body is his tool.

The comedian may be lucky enough to

possess the kind of body that people

laugh at.

Or a tall, thin one. But a

normal attractive body is not necessarily

a handicap. It is what you can

do with your body that is important.

Yeah, it's, it's partially leg work, this

job.

There is comedy potential in every part

of the physique.

Feet.

Knees.

The bottom.

On the face.

It is possible to make comedy from the

whole range of human emotions, horror.

Pain. Sorrow.

Bewilderment. Whoop.

Joy. Smugness.

Even when the comedian appears to be

wearing normal clothes, it is rare that

they will fit perfectly. They are likely

to be slightly too small.

Or slightly too big.

Psychologically, these small variations

can be very significant for the performer

and the audience. The

character in the big clothes is likely to

be a completely different person from the

character in the small clothes. As in the

world of high fashion, half an inch on

the collar and cuffs can make all the

difference as to whether a costume works

or not.

Of course, it is not enough just

to look funny. The visual comedian is

under a certain obligation to do funny

things. So what is funny? Kevin will

now demonstrate 3 basic principles of

visual comedy using only the banana.

Principle number one. An object can

become funny by behaving in an

unexpected way.

Principle #2 An object can become

funny by being in an unexpected

place.

Principle #3 An object can become

funny by being the wrong size.

Call.

What applies to the banana can also

apply to Kevin himself.

Take principle #1 Kevin is an adult

human being, so we can immediately become

funny by behaving like something else.

Like an object for instance.

Or like an animal.

Animal company by behaving like a

human.

Principle #2 Kevin can become funny

by turning up in an unexpected

place.

And principle #3 Kevin can become

funny by being the wrong size.

That's a good plan, Frank, Alf.

Get out of this neighbourhood here

located small business that we can occupy

immediately. OK, return. I'll get right

on it. What happened? You think I ran

into a fire sprinkler? OK, good.

What?

If Kevin behaves like a dog eating

a tiny banana in a cupboard, then

all three principles are operating at the

same time.

Well, of course, this is

not necessarily three times as

funny.

It is in animation that we can see

our three principles taken to their

furthest extremes. The

animator makes things behave in the most

surprising ways.

He makes things turn up in the strangest

places. Hello.

And he gives things the most unlikely

proportions.

Moon.

Thank you. You've saved our city, but at

what cost?

And now?

So you see, the world of visual

comedy is 1 where doves lurk in

our underpants, where cats are 50 feet

high and buses can turn somersaults. The

jokes depend on sudden shocks and strange

transformations. That undermine the

normal laws of our existence. Now

let's have a look at some of the methods

that are used to make these jokes happen.

Slapstick is the most ancient and

enduring tradition of physical comedy. We

seem to take a constant delight in seeing

people hurt and humiliated by accidents

and acts of violence.

Phone is gone.

Is here.

Yeah.

The earliest American comedy films

consist almost entirely of violentaction.

That excitable character on the left

there is Max Senate. He was

the first great genius of screen

comedy and the inventor of the

Keystone Cops. He was a complete

anarchist who delighted audiences around

the world with films full of

people fighting. People chasing each

other and people destroy things.

These weren't just comedies, they were

the Terminator and RoboCop of their

day.

Right, it's ready. I would really go.

The slapstick we tend to find funniest

now is that from real life? The

comedian finds it difficult to compete

with reality because the more real it

is. The funnier it is.

The more dignified the victim, the

funnier it is.

To get a laugh out of

some active slapstick violence these

days, the comedian must strive for

believability. Oh.

Oh. Blue.

And since Kevin seems to

have difficulty achieving. Believability.

Perhaps he needs the help.

Of vegetables.

Nowadays you have all the resources of

the soundtrack to add conviction to your

violence. The

secret is to find the vegetable which

gives you the most authentic effect.

Cabbage. Maro.

Broccoli.

Right sound effect, wrong reaction. The

comedian must achieve the shock of

violence without the reality of pain.

America.

The simplest way to transform pain into

comedy is by the use of overstatement.

The overstatement may lie in the

comedian's reaction to being hit.

The alternative to overstatement?

Is understatement.

The physical comedian seems fated to be

the victim of his own comedy, and not

only does he suffer from violence, he is

also constantly at the mercy of magic.

Many of the tricks which the comedian

uses to amuse us are similar to those

which the magician uses to astonish us.

For instance, a lot of visual jokes are

based on people suddenly appearing or

disappearing.

The sudden appearance had the sudden

disappearance are important elements in

slapstick. If someone falls over, it is

funnier if they disappear at the same

time. Maybe she did.

And the Foss of people running in and

out of doors is comic because it provides

a rapid sequence of appearances and

disappearances. The faster a character

shoots in and out of vision, the more

effective it is likely to be.

Telling you, Ralph, how's it going?Great.

Apart from appearances and

disappearances, the main business of

the magician is to achieve

transformations turning one thing. Into

something else.

A magical transformation becomes comic

when it is absurd as well as

astonishing.

Get.

Alright, great. Plus, please, one quick

nobody is going to stay there. Yeah,

with the trade, you get one of

these. One click.

They just do that.

The first person to make surreal jokes

using film magic was George Mellier,

working in France at the turn of the

century. His

films are full of sudden

appearances, disappearances and

transformations achieved through simple

camera tricks.

Of course, when the comedy depends on

tricks like these, it has more to do

with the mind behind the camera than the

performer in front of it. He has to

resign himself to becoming a victim of

the effects.

The most commonly used camera trick is

that of speeding up the action. This

makes any kind of movement look

mechanical and therefore comic. It was a

device much used by Milly A. And

it is never gone out of them.

On your left? He asked the Parliament. On

your running entire London on your left.

Left to focus square bright Lewisham.

Here we are at the seaside.

It is often been said that all comedy is

rooted in fear.

Things we laugh at are closely related to

the things which frighten us.

The world of Spooks and hauntings,

for instance, is very popular among

comedians because haunted places are full

of all those elements which make

comedy happen, like sudden appearances.

As the special effects nowadays tend to

be more sophisticated than a simple sheet

over the head. But

the haunted house tradition lives on

in films like Ghostbusters.

There's a sudden appearance joke,

although the effects are more elaborate.

In an expensive film like this, the

principles of comedy are just the same.

There's an object come to life which is

also a joke about proportion.

One of the joys of visual comedy

is the sheer pleasure of being liberated

from boring old everyday reality into a

bizarre dream world. Where anything is

possible. Comedy is a licence

to fish out the strangest images

from the depths of our unconscious.

Now you may be starting to see how

the different methods of visual comedy

all tend to strip. People live their

normal human dignity. You can achieve

this by hitting someone over the head

with a fish, or by transforming them into

a toilet. But you can also do it simply

by imitating them.

One person imitating another is

funny. The sheer impudence of

it is funny if the

imitation. Is exaggerated. It becomes

parody. This is imitation, which implies

some ridicule of the person being

imitated.

If the person being parodied is a

representative of power and authority,

than the parody becomes sat out.

High in satire, Visual comedy is

used as a weapon #73 Ronald

Reagan, take one.

Cat. Petco.

Frankly, my damn I don't give a dear cat.

Take 3. Dearly, my Frank.

I don't. Dammit. Give shot, take 37.

I dear. I'm Frank. Give Madam a

donut, Jacks. An

endless amount of modern comedy is based

on parodies of well known films and TV

programmes. This immediately gives the

comedian of form and structure within

which he can work.

Help help.

The handy thing about parody, to be

frank, is that you don't have to think up

too many original ideas and you can still

get 3 different kinds of comedy happening

at once.

There's the fact that you've got

the comedian imitating the mannerisms of

a well known character. There are

jokes about the mechanics of the

parody itself.

How?And there

is the opportunity to send up the visual

style of the original film.

If the production values don't quite

match those of the original. Well, you

can say that's all part of the joke.

Whether it's working in slapstick,

surrealism or parody or some

combination of the three.

The comedian success depends first and

foremost on his ability to create

a funny character. As Charlie Chaplin

once said, in comedy, nothing transcends

character. And for

the physical comedian, this means his

ability to communicate through his body

language.

Just.

My name is very much Kevin's speciality

and his famous piano act his one of

the highlights of his stage show.

Part of the pleasure is to do with

illusion, making a see what is not there,

but it is mainly about using the body

to create character. Comic acting, in

other words.

Through his body language, the comedian

can introduce intimacy and even elegance

into the generally frantic world of

physical humour.

The comedy may lie simply in the shadings

of a facial expression, particularly now

in the age of TV, where the close-up

is so common.

This is the comedy of personality.

Rather than the comedy of gangs, it's

not about doing funny things, it's about

doing something quite normal in a funny

way. The skill lies

in the accuracy of human observation and

the precision of the execution.

About. What?

Jacques Tati, now there's an artist,

carried on the silent comedy tradition

into the sound there by making

films virtually without dialogue.

He was not only a creator of

jokes, but an observer of life who

saw humour in the smallest details of

human behaviour. He was a specialist in

the comedy of character expressed through

body language.

In visual comedy, we see the same ideas

crop up again and again.

The width of the comedian often lies in

simply inventing new variations of old

jokes. He could do this because the

success of any comic idea depends not

just on the skill with which it is

executed, but more importantly, on the

attitude with which it is performed.

Knew attitude. New joke?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very

much. Yes.

This is the first comedy ever

put onto film. Nearly 100 years

ago in 1895. Aboy stands on

the gardeners hose. He lifts his

foot and the gardener gets a

faceful of water. It's the humiliating

surprise, the basic. Practical joke. It

doesn't come over to funny now,

to be frank, because it is

crude, predictable and essentially

characterless.

However, if Kevin approaches the same

situation of man and hosepipe with

different kinds of comic attitude, we

should see how it can be

brought to life in different ways

by introducing character into the comedy.

Number one, the dim attitude.

The comedy of stupidity.

The crucial element in the character of

the comedian is his lack of awareness. He

knows less than the audience about what

is going on.

The dim comedian confronts the world with

a kind of bewildered innocence.

#2 the aggressive attitude. The crucial

element in the character is his lack

of consideration for others.

Get a clean one is clean

now.

Now.

Who has #3 The

crude attitude, The comedy

of vulgarity?

Who?

Crude comedian thrives on the comedy

of social embarrassment.

No. So

which comic attitude is funniest?

Probably the one you find funniest is the

one with which you identify most. Only if

you identify with the comic attitude can

you laugh. Take Chaplin

for instance. The whole world found him

funny in his day, but hardly anybody

laughs at him now.

Why, He's certainly far more skilled and

inventive than a lot of modern comedians

whom we do laugh at.

He does everything it is possible to do

in visual comedy, including all the

things we've talked about so far.

He wears comic clothes, he has

a comic walk, and he is

an expert in using his body.

He is constantly transforming himself,

turning himself into a woman.

Or an animal.

Or an object. His films

are full of slapstick.

And acrobatic stunts.

There is relentless

sadism, understated violence

and overstated violence.

There are surprising appearances

and disappearances.

There is surrealism.

And there is imitation.

He is an expert mind.

And a sharp observer of human behaviour.

Chaplin was also a perfectionist in the

execution of his comedy, doing hundreds

of takes to get things right. And yet,

however much we admire him, it is hard

for most of us these days to actually

laugh at his films.

There is often a considerable gulf.

Between what can be described as comic.

And what we personally find funny? The

problem with Chaplin. Is

that it is hard for us to get involved

in what he does. He is distanced from us

by time and by the silence of his films.

But the main difficulty, I think, is that

we just can't identify with his attitude

anymore. He seems too cute or too pleased

with himself. Although

the best physical comedians always have a

strong character and attitude of their

own, they also have a surprising amount

in common. There are certain qualities of

character which crop up again and again

because these are the qualities that make

visual comedy happen.

The first thing to say here is

that the physical comedian is an alien.

He comes from the other side of

the looking glass. He is like us,

but different.

Whereas the verbal comedian is often

smarter, sharper and faster than those

around him, the physical comedian usually

has a quality of innocence, of

having been born yesterday.

Harry Langdon is one of the weirdest of

the lot. Someone once said that he looks

like a baby dope fiend. He is an

adult with the emotional and intellectual

equipment of an infant.

The comedian's childishness emerges first

of all, in his difficulties with objects.

He is constantly doing battle with them

in a way which invests them with

a life. Soul of their own.

But there is just as much

potential in very simple domesticobjects.

It is battles with objects. The comedian

is bound to be inept.

In order for funny things to happen,

he must constantly make mistakes and he

must constantly be susceptible to

accidents.

Throw it over your shoulder.

Although he is clumsy and inept, the

physical comedian is very tenacious. He

keeps on doing things long after the

point where the normal person would have

given up.

If we take Kevin into a fashionable

restaurant, the one thing he won't do is

sit there and behave himself.

So I don't know.

Muse. He needs to be

uncivilised.

He either doesn't understand social

conventions or he is incapable of

following them.

Mr Driftwood, Quickly, but allow me Mrs

Claypole, Mr Godley, Mr Godley. Mrs

Claiborne. Missus like Paula, Mr Godley,

Mr Godley, Mrs Piper, Mrs Claiborne. I

could go on like this all night, but it's

tough on my suspenders.

The physical comedian not only disregards

convention, he's got little regard for

morality or legality.

And he has none of that consideration for

others, which inhibits the rest of us

from behaving like comedians all thetime.

Now let's see what happens if we swap it

around so that Kevin becomes the waiter

and Mr Driscoll becomes the customer.

Since waiters are supposed to be polite,

hardworking and competent, the comedian

guard go far wrong if he is

rude, lazy and useless.

If he were to conform to social

expectations, he wouldn't be funny

anymore. One

way or another, the physical comedian has

got to be a threat to decent and

respectable people.

He may be aggressive or he may

be affectionate, but the comedian is

always causing offence and spreading

confusion.

He makes a mockery of

all authority, politeness and pretension.

I'll take this side.

None of my business, but I think

there's a brace of woodpeckers in the

August Drunkenness, like childishness,

immediately supplies the comedian with

the stupidity, incompetence and

irresponsibility that he needs in order

to be funny.

The physical comedian is certainly no

match for the verbal kind when it

comes to flashes of searing insight.

Visual comedy is a more blunt instrument.

But this means that everyone can

understand it.

Most of the time you only have to be

human to get the joke.

Since he is such a maladjusted outsider,

the physical comedian finds it hard to

form normal human relationships with

women. He is bound to get it

all wrong. Let's

have a look at three different

approaches from the Comedians Manual of

Sexual Relationships. This first one

we'll call the Romantic approach is

Emotional age zooms up from childhood

to early adolescence.

This leads us straight into the comedy of

embarrassment, as all his efforts to

appear impressive are bound to come to

grief.

Body.

Butter.

I think we're on

a winner registry. Alright,

nice and cool son,

Nice and cool, you

know what I mean?

A second possibility is the direct

approach. The

comedian simply ignores all codes of

proper behaviour and act immediately on

his desires.

Hey, you got a nice pair there. And of

course.

Shut up your city pictures only bit of

fun.

The third possibility we might call

the startled virgin. This one depends

first of all on the comedy

of role reversal, with the woman

as the sexual aggressor. While the

comedian is impossibly innocent, he

remains a bewildered. Child masquerading

as an adult.

2nd

physical

comedian

is

really

the

ultimate

outlaw.

As we've seen, he breaks all the rules

of decorum and convention. He does all

the things we can't, couldn't, and

shouldn't do in real life.

Second, you can't break

the rules without getting

into trouble, and consequently

the physical comedian is

suffering most of the

time. He is an

eternal victim, subject to

constant hostility. From all quarters.

Move up the grass. Goes around

it.

Well, that's about it. I think we're

finished with Kevin now. So I just like

to make one final point.

The final point being that

the physical comedian is indestructible.

Ah, thank you.

Yes, that split second timing when

instinct tells you.

That's haha ahe

wave of assassination.

Whatever the odds against him, the

comedian always survives to walk away at

the end of the story.

However, whatever you say about comedy,

the opposite is also true.

So if you like, you can

ignore everything I've said.

Is that OK?