It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
I am wary of so much current comedy. Before I was into music, there was comedy, my father’s Monty Python records and books fascinated me at a very young (and possibly mildly inappropriate) age. This was linked closely with affection for all the classic BBC material from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. As I got older there was a time in the 1990’s where comedy was prominent in the TV schedule; The Fast Show, Fist of Fun, The Day Today, Alan Partridge, Brasseye and later Spaced, there was no shortage of innovative and original programming, all of it hilarious and memorable. After 2000, comedy seemed to become scarcer with the onslaught of cheaper, less demanding material. There were certainly shows which gained massive followings; Black Books, The Office and The Mighty Boosh to name but a few. There was something about all of these shows which left me feeling a little hollow. Black Books started out with such great potential, but then the characters became diluted and it became nothing more than a vehicle for Bill Bailey and Dylan Moran to test their stand up material. The Mighty Boosh became (about two episodes into series one) the most horrendous case of style over substance I have ever witnessed. It is now the visual equivalent of having the cast of Skins scream the contents of the NME at you, while they tell you how great they are, and how shit your hair is. It also gained the infuriating tag of ‘Surrealist’ comedy, which is a fancy way of saying that it’s a series of non sequiters which circle around the main characters, who are ultimately the pointless focus of the whole thing. The misuse of the term ‘surreal’ has been rampant in recent times, almost as much as the terms ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘genius’.
The comedy from the USA began, possibly for the first time in history, to take the lead in originality, scripting and most importantly, humour (or should that be humor?). South Park, Reno 911, Frasier, The Daily Show, The rise of Adult Swim and many others grew stronger in their progression whilst simultaneously; Ricky Gervais was still making money from his smug c*** routine which he maintains is all an act and therefore ‘ironic’. Oh yes, we also got the ‘genius’ of Russell Brand, a screeching Dickensian transsexual with the talent of roadkill. If posing, wearing flamboyant clothing and being louder than everyone else is what constitutes comedic genius, then we can be assured that hundreds of current Art School undergraduates now have their futures secured. The two most consistent British comedy writers of the 00’s are Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris who have brought us Jam, Nathan Barley and Screenwipe, all of which are excellent.
It was only recently that I sat down with the collected seasons of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’. It had been some time since I watched something back to back for so long and enjoyed it so much. The premise is a thin one, four reprehensible people own an Irish Bar in dilapidated southern Philly, and the business is almost non existent, leaving the main characters to get into loveable and hilarious scrapes in each episode. Sound horribly clichéd? It is, but the point is that it works. Each episode is nothing more than an improbable, ridiculous situation, complete with a jaunty classic comedy soundtrack. Adventures such as ‘Charlie Got Molested’, ‘The Gang Goes Jihad’ or ‘Charlie Wants an Abortion’ are examples of well written, stand alone 30 minute programming that are not cleaver, trendy or surreal but funny, very, very funny. In short, this is not genius, but entertainment and in my own humble opinion, that is what comedy should be.
I haven’t even bothered to mention Corden & Horne in all this, because they are about as funny as Justin Lee Collins, ‘nuff said.
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