Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120064
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM MAURSTAD DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The moment resonates, in large part because legendary show-biz funny-man Jerry Lewis plays the father, and it's easy to imagine the actor-comedian saying the same thing about himself.
``The part was written with Jerry Lewis in mind; I can't imagine someone else playing it,'' says Peter Chelsom, the movie's writer-director-producer.
There is a sweet sense of timing in the arrival of a film that contemplates the differences between physical and intellectual humor and stars Jerry Lewis.
In recent months, physical-comedy movies, from ``Dumb and Dumber'' to ``Tommy Boy,'' have been box-office gold, while ``D&D's'' Jim Carrey has become Hollywood's hottest property, with performances that amount to an ongoing homage to Lewis.
Meanwhile, Eddie Murphy is filming a remake of the Lewis classic ``The Nutty Professor,'' Jaleel White's nutty uberklutz Urkel is going strong on TV's ``Family Matters,'' and Lewis himself is enjoying a career surge. He's receiving generally favorable reviews for his turn in Broadway's revival of ``Damn Yankees,'' and the early word on ``Funny Bones'' is strong.
It's a strange time that casts Jerry Lewis as the patron saint of American comedy. Who would have thought that after all these years, it turns out the French were right?
``Like just about everything else, comedy's a cyclical thing,'' says Mel Helitzer, author of ``Comedy Writing Secrets.'' ``Every generation has had its physical comedians, from the '20s with (Charlie) Chaplin and (Harold) Lloyd, to the '50s with Jerry Lewis to the '90s now with Jim Carrey. People just seem to be in the mood once again for comedy that isn't about words or thinking, that's just silly.''
Silly is right. At 69, Lewis has been around long enough to accumulate several personae, but his essential character is the hyperanimated idjit who will make a fool of himself in any way that gets a laugh - funny walks, funny faces, funny voices, whatever it takes. This, in turn, serves as a working description of rising young film comics from Carrey to Pauly Shore to Chris Farley.
``I do get a sense that there is a greater desire for the simple fun of slapstick, of visual humor,'' says the Rev. John Naus, a Jesuit priest who teaches a course on the philosophy of humor at Marquette University. ``Certainly, the feedback I get from my students is that with everything else going on in the world, the stress and confusion it generates, they like their comedy to be silly, even escapist.''
What we want to escape to, judging from the latest comic wave, is the fantasies of adolescent boys. Whether it's ``Dumb and Dumber'' or Shore's ``Jury Duty,'' any scene revolving around breasts or toilets is a guaranteed laugh riot.
``Sure, a lot of this is obviously being designed for an audience that doesn't want to think,'' says Helitzer, who teaches a comedy writing workshop at Ohio State University. ``I'll have very intelligent conversations with some of my students about all sorts of very serious subjects, but when it comes to comedy, they turn into 12-year-olds who think funny is dropping your pants and saying a dirty word.''
Physical humor also seems to be overwhelming stand-up comedy. Gone (or at least greatly diminished) are the precision and timing of classic monologuists from Rodney Dangerfield to Woody Allen. Indeed, even jokes - in the classic sense of a scripted set-up and delivery - are a waning commodity.
In the midst of all the big-screen and on-stage silliness, television has, ironically, become an important forum for the stand-up tradition of clever wordplay and witty banter. With the success of such comedian-centered sitcoms as ``Ellen'' and ``Seinfeld,'' plus the sophisticated laughs of ``Frasier'' and ``Friends,'' TV has become, of all things, America's leading source of intellectual humor.
But on the big screen, physical comedy rules.
``Physical comedy has accumulated a rather shabby reputation because of all the abuse it suffers from lazy thinkers,'' says ``Funny Bones''' Chelsom. ``We live in a world of short cuts where very few people are going to bother with the tedium of things such as rehearsing. No one wants to work that hard. ...
``But I think people have a deep need for silliness, and it's easy to forget what a wondrous thing silliness can be. That's what funny-bones comedy is all about; it's about someone like George Carl (the renowned vaudevillian comic who co-stars in ``Funny Bones''). He used to come on stage and spend the first five minutes trying to get untangled from the microphone wire, or getting his foot stuck in an imaginary piece of gum. The audience would be rolling in the aisles, and he hadn't even said a word yet. ...
``I think of Jerry Lewis. It's always been easy to make fun of him, of his ridiculous antics. But then, that's the point of it. He has always been willing to take that risk.
``We admire the joke-teller, but we love the funny-bones comedian. He is prepared to lose his dignity in pursuit of a laugh, in pursuit of the moment. And what is that if not an act of love?''
by CNB