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Well that was great. Let's see what people on the internet think!
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this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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I was writing in the detached/supposed-omniscient voice of "The Critic", not necessarily me qua me.
I think its an interesting discussion to participate in, but I'd request a generosity of not thinking I am 100% ideologically committed to one side of any of those points (note my frequent use of "depends", "might", "may", "if", etc). I think they are interesting starting points for a conversation about this particular piece.
But - I also recognize that further up the chain, someone notes their displeasure at the very concept of art criticism. I take pleasure in it, others may not. Cest la vie.
Fair point about art critique. I'm not saying a person can't rate it low. I'm just not a believer that comedy can age badly. If anything, the opposite. It is a statement for the flaws of our past.
Take any classical book where slavery was commonplace, or men lorded power over women and abused them. Any book before suffrage, or before the 1850's will depict that. The classics we read or watch are of a worse time, and that should itself be a lesson for us.
Of Mice and Men. George killing Lenny. There's a laundry list 100x longer than Ace Ventura. Some parts of that were a statement about society, but some parts only became a statement about society 100 years later.
I dont know if I completely agree "no comedy can age badly"
this https://youtu.be/cZIQZZpprHw is one of my parents' fondest comedy memories from growing up. To a modern audience its almost incomprehensible
see also this gag from Romeo and Juliet
There's also a bunch of Monty Python skits featuring a Mrs N-word (yes that n-word), and modern renditions of The Philosophers Song cut all of the mentions of "poofters" (equivalent of the f-slur for gay men) from the preamble.
I think Shakespeare exemplifies the rule itself. One not understanding it is a product of a lack of context of the time around which it was released. Take a course in Shakespeare and it will be covered (I was so lucky enough take a course under an absolute expert on the topic). I can see the objection "I shouldn't have to take a course to get it", but remember we are now stuck objecting now to one of the greatest bodies of writing in European history, a body that invented the foundation of much of modern comedy in inventing the Pun.
Many scholars seriously believe Shakespeare was the only author to ever use Puns effectively. I think that's an over-reach.