Last week, we touched on some of the problems for me in assessing comedy of the middle of the twentieth century, as I have occasionally threatened to do in a series called “Is That Even Still Funny?”
One problem was that there was so MUCH of it. Except when the news was on, and I ignored it, our television was almost always tuned to either a sitcom or a variety show, where what I found most interesting was the comedians. If we watched a movie, it was a comedy. True, there was the occasional National Geographic animal special but even THAT was heavy with baby bears bumping into porcupines, otters sliding downhill, and albatrosses coming in for bouncy, bumpy landings. I can’t go back and watch EVERYTHING.
And, at that, I forgot about some of my very favorite sitcoms, which are very seldom discussed when comedy of the 1960s and 1970s are concerned. These were those little one minute sitcoms crammed between segments of longer shows. Oh, the uninitiated might call them “commercials” or “ads”. But we knew the characters, and reveled in the situations they found themselves in in each installment. These really entered into our consciousness because, unlike longer sitcoms, which in those dark days were broadcast once, seen a second time in reruns, and then disappeared until someone sold the show for syndication, these could be enjoyed several times a night for up to a year.
So to redress my own neglect, as well as that of scholars, let us consider those thirty to ninety second shows we all watched and quoted for years thereafter.
QUESTIONS
Q1.Smokers of what cigarette were always having part of it torn off by passing darts, an elevator door, or a butcher knife because they were “A silly millimeter longer?
Q2.As with the Three Stooges, we KNEW the violence was coming. What “fruit juicy” soft drink always resulted in the hero knocking the same innocent bystander for a loop?
Q3.what long-running series hero yearned to steal a breakfast cereal that was colored “raspberry red, lemon yellow, and orange orange”?
Q4.What hero was trying to keep his marshmallow and cereal combination (which included “green shamrocks”) from being stolen by others?
Q5.what product spokesman, instead of trying to steal his product or protect it from being stolen, was obsessed with proving he had enough good taste to get a job with the company?
Q6.Sunny, another series hero, had to be prevented by his friends from even SEEING what product because he would “go cuckoo”?
Q7.Silent movie slapstick was the main feature for whose commercials which featured a bear in the land of sky blue waters, a brief commercial for the product, and then the bear again?
Q8.What was the name of the authority figure who spent his time in the grocery store trying to prevent a crime, only to be (always) caught committing that crime himself?
Q9.What product offered a domestic sitcom dealing with the protagonist’s varied menu, resulting catchphrases like “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” and “Try it, you’ll like it”?
was the catch phrase of the domestic sitcom which centered on the efforts of the protagonist’s wife to provide exciting new, if undigestible dishes?
Q10.What product used silent movies as the inspiration for commercials which, among other things, reminded people women achieved the right to vote in 1920 AND featured one of the most hated jingles of its day?
ANSWERS
A1.Benson & Hedges 100s
A2.Hawaiian Punch
A3.The Trix Rabbit
A4.Lucky, the Lucky Charms leprechaun
A5.Charlie the Tuna, for Starkist
A6.Cocoa Puffs cereal
A7.Hamm’s (the beer refreshing)
A8.Mr. Whipple, who wanted people to stop squeezing the Charmin
A9.Alka-Selrzer
A10.Virginia Slims Cigarettes (Sing it with me, “You’ve come a long way, baby, to get where…what, out of time? Gee whiz.)
Blogsy Babbles 