Blast From the Past: Challenge #02427-F237: The Tune Called Yakety Sax
Explaining 'The Benny Hill Show' to future Culture classes. -- Anon Guest
Every entertainment is a product of its time and a product of its medium and a product of its culture. Nothing shows this more than the audio-visual media of the twentieth century. Here, technological progress evolves over the passage of a handful of years and highlights cultural evolution at the same time.
In this unit, we're examining a pre-Shattering comedian Benny Hill, and the show he created in his name and image. Here, we witness a grown man occupying the 'naughty schoolboy' archetype in a semi-burlesque series of sketch comedies that sometimes barely managed to sail past the censors. This is the direct result of the dying embers of prudism meeting the rising forces of sexual liberation, in an era where an older man interested in a younger woman was still not viewed as a creep.
Established values are parodied for comedic value. Here, the older man is not an authority, but rather a figure of ridicule. One that is ridiculed even further by being overwhelmed by young, virile, and powerful women. The titular player in the show is often incompetent, or accidentally beneficial in a way that offends the majority. The culmination of every episode is the chase sequence.
Every one of these sequences is a combination of mime, trick photography, stunts, assorted farce, and the aforementioned burlesque comedy. They have often been imitated, but never to the degree that the original artist was capable of. In fact, more modern imitations lack the pacing and style of the original, as well as some of the more cosmetic signatures of the original.
That said, much of the comedy inherent in this show depends on sexism, homophobia, outdated gender roles, and the male gaze. Much of the comedy is no longer funny, because the people being ridiculed now have voices we listen to when they explain how much that ridicule hurts.
Is anything lost in this process? Is anything gained? How has humour changed now that ridicule is no longer the goal? Study five complete episodes of your choice and compare them to modern farcical comedy. Share and compare your results.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Xochicalco]
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