Stand-up roundup
Comedians are never under oath (not unless they're testifying against Anthony Pellicano). So the implied comprehensiveness of the subtitle of "Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America" shouldn't be held against the six-hour PBS documentary series.
"The Funny Business of America Over the Past 90 Years or So" would be more accurate. Lively and fast-moving, it's your basic compendium of clips and talking heads. Think "American Masters" - except the masters wear baggy pants and spray seltzer.
Channel 2 broadcasts the first two parts tonight, with subsequent two-hour chunks the next two Wednesdays.
"Make 'Em Laugh" can be refreshingly on the ball. The hipster-monologist Lord Buckley gets a nod in the first episode, as does the singer-satirist Tom Lehrer in the sixth. It can also be annoying with its pandering to the contemporary audience. Starting the series with . . . the films of Judd Apatow? The only acceptable justification would be alphabetical - except Abbott and Costello show up in episode four.
So expect no Mark Twain or S.J. Perelman. For that matter, expect very little silent comedy (other than Chaplin, Keaton, and Harold Lloyd) and hardly any radio. There's no musical comedy or screwball comedy. Chuck Jones and "Looney Tunes" go unmentioned, as does the single most famous comic figure of the 20th century - more famous even than Chaplin - Mickey Mouse.
Tonight's broadcast opens with a truly inspired Billy Crystal takeoff on Ken Burns's "The Civil War." Crystal, who's looking more and more these days like Christopher Walken on mood elevators, is billed as "host," which means he does a brief intro for each hour. Almost as funny as the Burns parody is his episode six lampoon of PBS fund-raising. Amy Sedaris handles voice-over chores. Alas, her flat, vinegary tones make listening a chore.
The series is organized in six highly porous categories; each highlights a dozen or so comedians. Tonight's pairing is "Would Ya Hit a Guy With Glasses? Nerds, Jerks & Oddballs" (which somehow puts Bob Hope in with the likes of nerd Woody Allen, jerk Steve Martin, and oddball Robin Williams) and "Honey, I'm Home! Breadwinners and Homemakers," an ode to sitcoms. The latter includes "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening's brilliant observation that "Bart Simpson is the son of Eddie Haskell."
The other episodes look at physical comedy (from Keaton to Jim Carrey), trailblazers (from Mae West to Richard Pryor), wiseguys (from Groucho to Larry David - but who let Paul Lynde in?), and satire and parody (from Will Rogers and Sid Caesar to "Saturday Night Live" and Jon Stewart).
The talking heads are a who's who of contemporary American comedy: Apatow, Crystal, Martin, the late George Carlin, Chris Rock, Robert Klein, Michael McKean (who's particularly insightful), Conan O'Brien, Jerry Seinfeld, Joan Rivers, and on and on. You would not want to have been the booker for this show.
What's dismaying is the paucity of critical thinking. Is there such a thing as stand-up cheerleading? Just three comments over the course of six hours are anything less than adulatory: Bill Cosby, in a period interview, questioning the funniness and daring of "All in the Family"; Bill Maher pointing out that, ultimately, "Lenny Bruce forgot to be a comedian"; and writer Anne Beatts noting that as a symbol of female empowerment Rivers's career marked "Two steps forward, and one step back."
It's not as if the interviewees lack for intelligence. Larry Gelbart describes Jack Benny as having "the look of a calf who'd just found out where veal came from." Phyllis Diller says that "The shortest distance between two laughs is a one-liner." Chris Rock makes the ecumenical observation that "To be a comedian is to be raised by Jews." This could be the motto of the National Conference of Comedians and Jews.
What may be the single funniest line in "Make 'Em Laugh" doesn't come from an interview, but period footage. It's the punch line to a Redd Foxx joke. "I rang the doorbell, didn't I?" You'll have to watch episode five, two weeks from tonight, to get the setup. It can't be printed in a family newspaper. 