Time to break "camp"? Why we laugh at the past

[Fletch]

This blogger writes about the "small stuff" of history and why it makes us laugh - and according to this guy, why we shouldn't laugh.

He also wants to remind us that time only moves forward, which I think we Loungers know all too well.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

This blogger writes about the "small stuff" of history and why it makes us laugh - and according to this guy, why we shouldn't laugh.

But what if you can't help but laugh? I remember seeing Back to the Future for the first time. The film is full of '50s vs. '80s comparisons that were, well, funny. Not hiply smirking or arch. Just plain funny.

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[Fletch]

Well, that was a nice tight script that artfully exploited the differences in eras for comic value. ("I'll have a Tab." "Can't give you a tab unless you order something." "OK, a Pepsi Free." "Mister, you get a Pepsi here, you pay for it!" lol)

The laughter under discussion, I think, is the forced, "knowing" guffaw I got used to at college film society showings whenever anything even close to an easy stereotype came onscreen.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Well, that was a nice tight script that artfully exploited the differences in eras for comic value. ("I'll have a Tab." "Can't give you a tab unless you order something." "OK, a Pepsi Free." "Mister, you get a Pepsi here, you pay for it!" lol)

Yup! And remember when Marty sees a car stop at a gas station, and six attendants immediately run toward the car and start servicing and cleaning it? The whole movie theater cracked up! It just seemed so alien to see that happen at a gas station.

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[Elaina]

Yeah, but I get it's laughing at something just to prove how much more sophisticated you are, which, of course, merely proves the opposite.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

This blogger writes about the "small stuff" of history and why it makes us laugh - and according to this guy, why we shouldn't laugh.

He also wants to remind us that time only moves forward, which I think we Loungers know all too well.

Camp makes me giggle, only it's with delight.

 

[Fletch]

Yup! And remember when Marty sees a car stop at a gas station, and six attendants immediately run toward the car and start servicing and cleaning it? The whole movie theater cracked up! It just seemed so alien to see that happen at a gas station.

I'm trying to think how many attendants used to come up to a car in a movie actually made in the 50s. I don't think it was like that; the characters only seemed to stop at out-of-the-way mom & pop stations.

 

[Haversack]

A question on just this topic was asked of Mick LaSalle, the San Francisco Chronicle's film critic, this past weekend. Here is the URL:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/02/25/PKGRJN85DS1.DTL

This whole idea that the everyday detail depicted in old movies is deserving of derisive laughter smacks of hubris.

Haversack.

 

[Fletch]

But consider the source. The man has written about both men's and women's gender roles in vintage cinema. He's obviously up to his eyeballs in the esthetic. Can his judgment be trusted?

I mean, maybe there's something happy and well-adjusted about people who have no sense of history. They can just bounce along in their Japanese car and their cushy crosstrainers, sipping a smoothie, and be productive, smiley citizens who work and play well with others. Maybe we need people like this. Maybe we need most people to be like this.

Or am I just having an attack here? I've been a little under the weather lately...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Smug hipster irony makes my head hurt. If you can't take *anything* seriously, can anything *be* serious?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Smug hipster irony ...

My neighborhood is crawling with 20-something smug sarcastic hipsters ... and there isn't even a university nearby, so I don't know what their excuse is. I'm sick and tired of seeing, hearing and smelling them.

Say, why do young kids think that they're the first on earth to have discovered sarcasm and hipness? The reason why older folks lack the stuff is because they outgrew it.

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[Fletch]

I hope I never outgrow my irony. Irony need not be smug. I got me some old fashioned shootin' irony.

What these kids have now, that's just another media-made pose. It's either an ironic take on irony, or an earnest imitation of irony, or I dunnowhat the heck it is.

All I know is that when I was their age, David Letterman was my pop culture hero. Now it's like some tired old sit-com character has killed Dave and is living in his skin.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Smug hipster irony makes my head hurt. If you can't take *anything* seriously, can anything *be* serious?

Exactly.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

If you can't take *anything* seriously, can anything *be* serious?

Welcome to the Dada Manifesto.

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[The Wolf]

I think this is on topic

The funny thing about smugness considering how hipper we are "now" versus "then" is that the people don't realize that their formative years will be the rediculous "then" in a matter of years.
For example, a young co-worker was talking about a photo he saw of his father when his was a youth. My co-worker, let's call him Eric, commented on how stupid his father's style was. His rebutted that he was styling at the time. Eric couldn't believe it because his dad looked like a dork. I told him that his clothes that were so hip would look foolish to when he had a son. This was beyond belief to Eric. His faddish clothes, he was positive, would look great down through the years. He felt his future son would be impressed by how great his father (Eric) looked.

Something I have found amusing is watching a show or movie from decades past that have a cool character and a nebbish friend. The cool character has au courant hair and fashion. The nebbish would wear something simple like jeans and button up shirt. Decades later the cool character looks silly and the nebbish still looks normal.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Lady Day]

I think he is saying "Dont mock the procedures of the past, cause without them we wouldnt have what we have now." People tend to laugh at the past like that with a modern mentality. Like if THEY were living then, THEY would think as they do now? Plah-ease!

Thats what I get from it.

LD

 

[Senator Jack]

His complaint is my complaint too. Film Forum is our repertoire theatre in these parts and whenever there's a festival (such as the Morrione that just ended) the newspapers (usually The Village Voice) pick up on one of the films as the 'must see' for the hipster crowd. "Wildly campy!' the review will read, and sure enough the hipsters are laughing at every line of dialogue and every bit of business because they've been told that they should. It's irksome to sit with these dolts, to say the least.

If there are two words that make me cringe, however, they are 'camp' and 'kitsch'. For me, the 60s Batman series wasn't campy. It was fun. It was clever. But never did I think it camp. I've even heard people in an antique shop describe Danish Modern furniture as 'kitschy'. :eusa_doh:



Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Is this campy or not?


Here in L.A., we have a cemetery that's full of Hollywood stars' tombs and mausoleums. When the weather is warm, an unusual outdoor movie festival takes place: dead stars' films are projected on the walls of their own (large) tombs. For instance, Rudolph Valentino's last movie, Son of the Sheik, was flickered on his mausoleum.


Camp? A touching homage? Or both?


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[Fletch]

A T.H., but one that I'll wager would not even have been dreamt of before C.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Is this campy or not?


Here in L.A., we have a cemetery that's full of Holywood stars' tombs and mausoleums. When the weather is warm, an unusual outdoor movie festival takes place: dead stars' films are projected on the walls of their own (large) tombs. For instance, Rudolph Valentino's last movie, Son of the Sheik, was flickered on his mausoleum.


Camp? A touching homage? Or both?


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Can I vote for "gauche?"