h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The glass joke was hilarious! I remember seeing a film when I was a child, starring the pair and it was beside a wharf. A gigantic caterpillar reared up behind them and while I remember it nobody else does.

Okay, obviously we disagree as to what constitutes humour, then.

Talking of Mel Brooks and Jack Benny, I found the former's version of To Be Or Not To Be, funnier. Jack Benny's 'Your Money or Your Life' sketch was funny and as somebody said, he was master of the silent pause.

Stan Laurel was the brains behind the duo, so I am not surprised he wasn't the softer of the pair because of the discipline needed to write as opposed to act

I think it was the stupidity of the sketch, it's surreal nature that got me (my half was at the bottom). Don't you find that ridiculous? I did. It was the unexpected nature of the reply, not the act that got me

Personally, I find the original Ernst Lubitsch version of 'To Be or Not to Be' much better than the Carl Reiner version. More nuances.

Of course, Slavoj Zizek explains it all much better, as usual:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ikr0JJbjA

I agree that the statement in the glass sketch was absurd. But absurdity doesn't make me laugh by itself - there needs to be a purpose to the absurdity, or it's merely annoying. The purpose behind it struck me as mean-spirited, so I didn't laugh. In fact, it made me sad because I realised that Stan Laurel was not a very nice person.

I must say I agree with Dmitri, I don't think I'd have liked that joke as a child.

So now you're ganging up on me - that's not fair either!

As someone said are you laughing at somebody or with them at the realization of your own folly or theirs (as opposed to feeling hurt pride at failure and going on the defensive (ego))?

Last time I watched one of their films, I felt embarrassed. Whatever had made me laugh in the past had passed me by now as a more mature adult. Watching a lot of films nowadays, I am struck by how banal and childish they are. It is like sophisticated humour has gone out the window