To be fair, it's not funny to us NOW.
There's no denying that shows like "The Honeymooners" and "I Love Lucy" were groundbreaking and masterpieces of comedy for their time.
But if you watch them now, having not seen them when they first ran, they come across as simplistic, unfunny and somewhat lame.
Why is this?
I watched a scene from a Honeymooners that was presented as a 'test' of comic sensibilities. It's supposed to be a 'classic' scene. In the scene, Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton are talking about golf. Ralph is going to go play and is reading a 'how to' book on golf.
The setup is classic. Character A is delving into an area he's unfamiliar with and will either embarrass himself because he doesn't know the game or is physically awkward or both. This situation is common throughout situation comedies.
But "The Honeymooners" has a problem translating to now because of several factors.
First is the style of physical comedy that was the base of the show. Television was relatively new and most of the watching public was either familiar with movies or vaudiville theatre. In the theatre, the physical movements and facial expressions had to be broad enough to project to the back of the theatre. This thought followed, naturally, the actors to the new medium. So what we have is the over exaggerated reaction: Big bug-eyed gaping toward the camera/audience, along with a sustained pause. To those watching, this was a continuation of the comedic acting style that they were used to. It made sense. There was no reason to assume that there would be any other way to present comedy.
Secondly, the show, to us in the here and now, is not surprising. One element of humor that is often overlooked, though essential to humor, is that of the surprising or unexpected. What that means is that the humor has to be clever enough to not let us, the loyal viewer, know what's coming up next. If we KNOW that something will happen, then when it does, the element of surprise is lost, and we're left with a joke we've already heard the punchline to. It's true that in shows like The Honeymooners the jokes they presented were original and the audience DID NOT see them coming. But, by this point, we all have seen these set-ups a million times. The joke is a surprise, but when the punchline, as it is, is already known, then the joke is no longer a joke. And, except in rare cases, a joke that falls flat is not funny (unless it's on purpose.)
Back to the Honeymooners scene. Kramden is reading to Norton. Step by step instructions about how-to golf. Kramden says "first, address the ball." What the viewer is supposed to do is think, "ahh, 'address' in golf is to approach and get in my stance." And I'm sure that at the time the home viewer thought that. But everyone over the age of 2 in this day and age knows what will happen next. And, yes, it does. Norton approaches the ball, bends over and says "hello ball. . ." which is followed by extremely exaggerated physical movements by Ralph Kramden. The joke was so obvious that the humor is lost. To us.
These shows just don't translate very well.
Classic show. Groundbreaking. But just not all that funny. I don't blame them. I blame every comedy since 1956.
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