On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 09:22:24 -0700 (PDT) Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com>
writes:
>
>
> ``...Hope always played the same character, which was Bob Hope. A
> fitting tautology. Hope was a fool, and nearly a clown, but he was
> never even remotely a comedian...'' Hitchens
>
> -------
>
> But much more interesting to ask, is why was Hope considered a
> comedian? How could a guy whose only humorous feature was his vanity,
> apparently make an audience laugh. The answer is consider the
> audience.
>
> Hope was a little older than my father, and I am here to tell you
> Hope
> was a whole lot funnier. The so-called great-generation of the
> Depression and WWII were some of the least funny, least pleasant,
> most
> authoritarian assholes I ever knew---right or left it didn't
> matter. They seemed to me to be grim bastards one and all.
Sounds about right. My parents were of that generation. From my experiences with them and most of their contemporaries, I would have to agree with Chuck. There seems to have something about growing up in the Great Depression that sucked the life out of a whole generation of people. We rightly remember the so-called "great generation" in this country because they defeated fascism, and yet I cannot escape the feeling that most of them would have just as gladly followed a US version of the Fuhrer as did their contemporaries in Germany.
> On the
> other hand, the very next generation, those who were barely old
> enough
> to get into the military by WWII were funny as hell. In fact, it
> seems
> to me some of them made a point of taking life a lot less
> seriously. My next father was one of these and he still makes me
> laugh.
>
> I actually agree with Hitchens for a change--but for reasons he
> probably wouldn't approve. If you never laughed at anything Hope said
> and I didn't, then remember who he was playing to. Night of the
> living
> dead.
>
> Chuck Grimes
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>
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