Timeless Laughter

By Jeff Little

Not unlike Twinkies and Moon Pies, fine comedy has an almost indefinite shelf-life.

Comedic shtick that sprung from the 50's is still imitated today in one way, shape or form because it's still funny (when properly executed).

But it didn't just suddenly fall from the sky. It had roots that had grown many years before.

The 1950's style of humor that is still enjoyed today evolved primarily from Vaudeville.

Sometimes known as American Variety Theater, the Vaudeville stage became a starting point for some of the greatest comics of all time.

Even the comedy legends that never performed there often made their mark by emulating the style made popular by the now nonexistent theatrical form.

Born sometime in the 1870's, Vaudeville would later serve as a model for most television variety shows.

Vaudeville eventually gave way to movies as America's favorite venue for comedy. Later, the top spot for laughs would be radio.

Later still, television would become the country's main source for smiles as it became common to most homes in the late 1940's. And as TV's popularity exploded in the 50's, so did acclaim for purveyors of sketch, stand-up and situation comedy.

One of the most common showcases for humor in 1950's television was the variety show.

Seldom seen today, the variety show was a staple in the golden age of television and could best be described as electronically transmitted Vaudeville.

And even though programs like Your Show of Shows (1950-1954), The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950-1955) and Cavalcade of Stars (1950-1952) included song and dance, it was sketch comedy that became their main audience draw.

Entertainment icons such as Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Milton Berle and Red Skelton were common sights, household names and sketch comedy geniuses that shared the stage for years with singers, musicians and dancing bears.

But they weren't alone in the punch line department. Another consistent stream of yucks and guffaws came from the talents of an almost endless list of stand-up comics.

Alan King, Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, Bob Hope and countless others made their television mark in the 50's and kept the country laughing.

Still popular today, stand-up comedy is still available in various venues but has become far less common on television.

Most attribute stand-up's TV decline to another form of humor which sprung from early television: the situation comedy.

Situation comedy has become one of television's more common choices in programming, but the genre is seldom performed as artfully and creatively as it was in the 50's and 60's.

In fact, most television historians claim that most (if not all) plots of today's situation comedies are actually no more than a rehash of storylines used decades before on shows like I Love Lucy (1951-1957) and The Honeymooners (1955-1956). If Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason were still alive they would probably agree.

But whether taste runs to old or new in an audience member's mind is secondary to the primary importance of comedy. We should all remember that laughs have no expiration date.

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