Introducing kids to classic comedy

February 15, 2013 6:57 PM

Can anyone suggest clean, funny classic comedy -- video or audio -- that I can use to introduce my kids to the idea that "funny" doesn't have to be ironic or mean?

Last week I showed some of my kids the "Who's On First?" sketch, and they loved it. Aged 14 to 8, they fell about the place, and the two boys set up my laptop with a web page showing the script so they could perform it together.

And then a couple of days ago a friend suggested that I find the Abbott & Costello "13 Times 7 is 28" sketch. I had never seen it, and I loved it. The kids did, too, and the boys made me show them on paper how it worked and whether bigger numbers would work they way, too.

Now, I did all my black-and-white comedy watching on UHF stations a long time ago. What else can I show them? Any particular Marx Brothers bits, or Three Stooges movies, or Abbott & Costello routines? Are there other performers that we all might enjoy? So much comedy these days is either too mature for them, or is ironic/observational/dirty -- and while they are bright kids who get most of the jokes, I would like to show them that you can be clean and funny.

Thanks in advance!

posted by wenestvedt to media & arts (47 answers total)

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast- Bill Cosby. Just the tip of the Bill Cosby iceberg.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:00 PM on February 15 [11 favorites]

Buster.

Fucking.

Keaton.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:00 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

The mirror scene from the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup.
posted by usonian at 7:04 PM on February 15 [5 favorites]

Maybe you have to be from rural extraction or be a country music fan, but: Lester Roadhog Moran and his Cadillac Cowboys. I still giggle at this.

Dr. Demento collections offer a variety of goofy musical humor.

I loved Duck Soup as a kid. I second that.

I was also a huge Monty Python fan, especially of the silly and surreal stuff, although I know that a lot of it won't meet your needs. I knew the Holy Grail movie inside out when I was nine. (This also allowed me to get the quoting of it out of my system at an early age.)
posted by Countess Elena at 7:09 PM on February 15

(I might add that there is a salacious scene in MPandtheHG, but it's fully clothed and I had no idea what was supposed to be going on in it until I was a teenager. There is hardly any of the peril.)
posted by Countess Elena at 7:10 PM on February 15

I saw an episode of the Dick van Dyke show once. I remember being struck by how really funny and well-written it was. Also, van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore were tremendously appealing young actors.

Especially Mary Tyler Moore. Very appealing.
posted by Alaska Jack at 7:14 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

Slowly I Turn
posted by cazoo at 7:16 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

Jim Gaffigan on cake
posted by Comrade_robot at 7:17 PM on February 15

I don't know if this answers your question, but as a kid my dad and I bonded watching classic SNL and SCTV. Off the top of my head I can't recall whether their humor was based in ironic/mean humor, but it's one of my favorite childhood memories.
posted by Sara C. at 7:21 PM on February 15

Arsenic and Old Lace
Bringing up Baby
Harvey
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad world
The Court Jester.....
posted by brujita at 7:25 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

Old Bill Cosby cd's -the early stuff when he's talking about Fat Albert. My kids used to listen to this in the car on trips and loved it.
posted by lasamana at 7:27 PM on February 15 [4 favorites]

When I was that age I loved Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One: The Early Years.
posted by Garm at 7:28 PM on February 15

I Love Lucy!
posted by sigmagalator at 7:41 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

Why not start them off on some Abbott & Costello movies? The monsters ones should be especially fun for kids, even if they're not super-familiar with the old horror movies that were being spoofed.

Keaton is great, too. Hard to go too wrong with stuff like The General. Even if the kids don't think it's that funny, they'll have to be impressed by Keaton's parkour-esque stunts. I remember loving Chaplin's City Lights when I was 14 or so, but Chaplin may be a little slow for today's kids, I don't know.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:45 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

Happy Days
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:51 PM on February 15

I was raised on the classics, with my first exposure being to Laurel and Hardy. By the time I was 7, I was addicted to classic comedy. Laurel and Hardy is gentle enough, I think, and the humor is easy to understand. Also, they are just SO GOOD. Abbott and Costello were also regulars at our house, along with the Marx Brothers. I agree with the comments about The Dick Van Dyke show and I Love Lucy. Excellent writing and acting, and oh so enjoyable to watch (even for kids!).
posted by Happydaz at 8:14 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

How about What's Up Doc? -- great slapstick! And free on Amazon Prime.
posted by Napoleonic Terrier at 8:22 PM on February 15

Seconding Laurel and Hardy! Here's one. The timing is so good.
posted by perryfugue at 8:26 PM on February 15

It's all about the movies for this stuff. A&C, L&H, Marxes, silents like Keaton & Chaplin and maybe Harold Lloyd. Silent movies were basically the end of vaudeville, so there's kind of a gap after that until standup gets reborn on LPs in the 60s (or so) and bite-sized comedy bits return to the mediascape. If you have a record player, I love "25 Years of Recorded Comedy" (cheaper on Amazon or Ebay) as a document of these eras, and the turntable also gets you cheap entree into classic albums by Bob Newhart, Bob & Ray, Cosby, etc.
posted by rhizome at 8:34 PM on February 15

The Carol Burnett show. Some it goes way over a kid's head, but I found it quite hilarious when I was little a million years ago.
posted by Deodand at 9:07 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

Classic WB shorts? Bugs Bunny, etc? Depends on how you feel about slapstick violence. But stuff like "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" is right up there in the comedic verbal gymnastics with Who's On First.
posted by egypturnash at 9:09 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

The Kid (1921), a Chaplin auteur comedy featuring a kid who would later play Uncle Fester.
posted by mr. digits at 9:12 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

I'd have to include The Andy Griffith Show during the years Don Knotts was on it. Barney Fife is one of the funniest characters I've ever enjoyed, and you couldn't find a more wholesome show.
posted by la petite marie at 9:27 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

It's really hard to find good comedy that's not even "mean." Some have theorized that aggression is essential to humor.

Anyway... the hotel room scene from A Night at the Opera. The Maurice Chevalier scene from Monkey Business (the Marx Bros. movie). Seconding The Kid and Bringing Up Baby. Zazie dans le Metro (don't worry about the subtitles — the words are mostly irrelevant).

If only you were to remove the "classic" requirement, I'd highly recommend Brian Regan's stand-up comedy. It's totally clean, mostly hilarious, and often about childhood.
posted by John Cohen at 9:34 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

When I was a kid, I really enjoyed The Goodies.

You can see the first part of the episode 'Kitten Kong' here.

The silliness, surreal humor, costumes, occasional cute animals and songs is a lot of fun for kids even though it's not strictly a children's show. The Kitten Kong (featuring an enormous kitten) and Loch Ness Monster (where the Goodies travel to Loch Ness to try to find Nessie) episodes are two of the episodes I remember loving the most.
posted by RubyScarlet at 9:49 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

Bringing Up Baby and It's a Mad Mad Mad World were both so annoying and unfunny to me that I had to turn each of them off in the second act. Arsenic and Old Lace is about murder.

Not saying you shouldn't give them a try; just that humor is... subjective... and so, apparently, is what people perceive as "mean." (The Three Stooges, on its face, is mostly about eye-gouging, hair pulling, and other physical violence; its subtext is a racist caricature of boorish immigrant behavior. Again, not saying you shouldn't laugh at it all day long; but it's plenty "mean.")

The "mirror" bit in Duck Soup does fit your criteria. Harpo was a genius.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:50 PM on February 15 [4 favorites]

Singing in the Rain might fit your criteria, although of course the Lena character is the butt of the main joke... they make her a meanie to make her deserve it, and it's overall fairly gentle. Donald O'Connor's solo "Make Em Laugh" stands the test of time.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:53 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

Oh, god, the lemonade scene from Duck Soup. I've seen it a hundred times, it still cracks me up. (This is shorter, but better quality.)

Ah, the whole movie is funny. Probably looking at the funny bits on YouTube is a good start.

Lydia the Tattooed Lady has bonus educational material. They could look up all the references.

I Love Lucy! Chocolate Factory or Vitameatavegamin or grape stomping.

I love all the screwball comedies, especially George Cukor's (Adam's Rib and Philadelphia Story in particular). I don't know whether they'd hold the attention of the 8 year olds, though, and even for the 14 year olds it might be a stretch.
posted by looli at 11:09 PM on February 15

My husband and I are huge Monty Python fans. My kids were about 4 and 7 when the Holy Grail was released on DVD and I thought it would be a huge treat to introduce them to the Pythons--plus they were into playing knights and swords. I hadn't seen the movie in about 20 years and had completely forgotten about the scene in Castle Anthrax where there is mention (but only that) of oral sex. I realized what was about to happen just moments before it did, and sat paralyzed with the remote, thinking it might just go over the boys' heads, and if I fast forwarded it would only raise questions. Before I had finished thinking about it, the scene was over and the kids seemingly none the wiser.

But two weeks later, as we were all in the car, the four-year old piped up, "Mummy, what does 'oral' mean?" Knowing exactly what prompted the question and not wanting to go there, I commented about oral /ear thermometers and oral / written exams and was hoping that would be enough. But my husband said, "Kid, where did you hear the word oral?" and Kid said, "That funny movie said oral sex so I wondered what it meant."

They also enjoyed Danny Kaye's The Inspector General, the early Pink Panther movies, Marx Brothers' movies, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Princess Bride (swords again), the Three Musketeers (more swords!), Roxanne (tennis rackets instead of swords, but same idea).

Hope you and your kids have a ton of laughs!
posted by angiep at 11:42 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

The Little Rascals!
posted by ouke at 1:01 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Seconding Dick Van Dyke show! Lots of funny situational humor and Dick Van Dyke's physical humor is amazing. And there's a cute little kid too.
posted by iadacanavon at 4:22 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Any of the Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies are suitable.
posted by yclipse at 6:25 AM on February 16

Homestar Runner! Pure and clean silliness. Perfect for kids your age.
posted by frecklefaerie at 7:46 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Give 'em more Marx Bros - early's better than later, IMO; "Horse Feathers" my personal favorite as it was my first exposure. Also, how about some OTR for road trip audio, in the car? Like some Jack Benny -- he used to be known as America's funnybone.
posted by Rash at 8:21 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Thirding "Bringing Up Baby."

I might add that the "classics", when it comes to comedy, aren't all they're cracked up to be. Humor was much less sophisticated and film's origins in silent films means that the focus was on physical comedy and the like rather than the writing. I find "City Lights" to be vapid and Harold Lloyd's oeuvre to be nothing but not-so-interesting physical comedy ("Safety Last!" is a fun romp of watching a guy hanging from the hands of a clock tower, if that's your thing). Even "Breakfast At Tiffany's" suffers from totally unnecessary and unfunny ethnic stereotyping that used to be consider Oh.So.Hilarious. at the time.

Modern non-sexual, non-nudity comedies (mild language) that are reasonably modern would include: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Blues Brothers, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Big, This is Spinal Tap, and Clue. 1950s movies would have been considered "classics" when I was a kid. No reason 1970s and 1980s movies can't be considered classics for kids now.
posted by deanc at 8:24 AM on February 16

Wayne and Shuster's Shakespearean Baseball.
posted by bentley at 9:01 AM on February 16

I'm sure kids can identify with and laugh at the Guy Who Knows Everything, like Barney's claim to have memorized the preamble to the Constitution on The Andy Griffith Show.
posted by Oriole Adams at 11:31 AM on February 16

My son liked "Mon Oncle" when he was young. There's almost no dialogue - lots of physical humor and absurd situations.
posted by cellura p at 12:08 PM on February 16

Ernie Kovacs, Spike Jones and The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.
posted by Brody's chum at 12:56 PM on February 16

Seconding a lot of Bill Cosby though his stuff is audio not much visual.

The Question Song.
posted by Mitheral at 1:08 PM on February 16

The Goon Show. The most wonderfully surreal and silly radio show ever, some of it may be a tiny bit dated but most of the humour has aged well. Very very silly and so much fun.
posted by wwax at 1:59 PM on February 16

We loved the Smothers Brothers when we were kids.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 4:35 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

You can't do better than The Music Box by Laurel and Hardy.

Can't do links on my phone but 1/2 is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh-tLlrFq2Q&sns=em and 2/2 is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV7bVdR9eAc&sns=em
posted by jasper411 at 10:49 PM on February 16

For my money, Abbott and Costello are funnier than Laurel and Hardy any day. This was the answer to a recent question, and is hilarious. The tablecloth gag slays me every time.
posted by hades at 11:14 PM on February 16

Bill Cosby albums. I loved them when I was a kid.
posted by empath at 10:37 AM on February 17

Thanks, everyone! I have requested a stack of DVDs from the library -- a lot of Marx Brothers, plus a Buster Keaton collection, Singin' in the Rain and a Bill Cosby CD. With luck they will help my wife get through School Vacation Week with sanity intact. :7)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a personal favorite of mine, but I think it's over their heads right now. The Blues Brothers is excellent, too, but it's definitely too old for them: the scene with The Penguin before she knocks them down the stairs would be enough to rule it out, without plenty of other stuff. (But, oh, the day we get to watch it together...)

I will investigate what I can get from the library of Laurel & Hardy, and also have my wife let them watch The Princess Bride -- which with Holy Grail and Blues Bros. counts among my very favorite movies ever.

Thanks again, and feel free to keep adding to this list!
posted by wenestvedt at 10:50 AM on February 17

Burns and Allen. I was just listening to the BBC's Great Lives on Gracie Allen, and they pointed out that, while you could perceive their act as making fun of Gracie for being a dumb girl, in fact, she was the driving force behind the act, and there's something about her utter charm and personality that makes her seem at least George's equal.

Also, maybe Stephen Wright? I'm kind of allergic to mean humor, and I love his absurdist take on things.
posted by kristi at 11:31 AM on February 18