After 10 hours of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

After 10 hours of Laugh-In

I've been binge watching Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In for research. I've seen more episodes in the last week than I had in the rest of my life prior to this week.

The show at times includes surprisingly timely humor proving that we have many of the same problems we had 50 years ago. Occasionally, there are shocking jokes that make my eyes widen and make me ask "Did they really just say that?"

Laugh-In is not a soft show. It can quirky, strange and a nice bit of puff. It can also be shocking. Some things have become inappropriate like cultural and racial humor that is not for modern sensibilities. Other jokes were written to get a reaction. Some things have become risque like a costar planting a kiss on a surprised Goldie Hawn. All I can think of when I watch it, is did she know about it in advance? Did she agree to it? If not, it's not a joke.

I love Goldie Hawn but I love her more in other work (not Overboard, that movie is seriously messed up). She's a smart actress and the bubble-headed caricature gets a little grating. It's the infantilized version of her. The more extreme she plays the character, the more effective the parody is.

No subject was off-limits for Laugh-In but only if they could get it past the censors. There are parts that are meant to be a little scandalous. In Season 2, Episode 1, for one sketch the guest star Barbara Feldon of Get Smart fame plays a rich woman wants to get involved in the recent protest movement but she hasn't the time to do it herself. She offers to sponsor a college student and provide him with branded sweaters. She instructs him to only give the sweaters to the right sort of protesters. It's a dig at racism, the idle rich and the failure of some people to understand what the protests were about.

The writers packed scripts with jokes knowing the censors would hack and slash the script apart. Whatever the censors missed, Laugh-In got on the air. I would love to get my hands on a pre-censor copy of a Laugh-In script.

Laugh-In got away with scandalous jokes because it was a ratings juggernaut. Popularity gave it power. It also gave it a pre-presidential guest star. Richard Nixon guest stared two months prior to his election.

Jokes can be ignored, elicit laughter or trigger other emotions. Comedy is a reflection of the creators or society. Sometimes, it's a reflection of dangerous and sad ideas that are held by the creators' or bad ideas the creators want to draw attention to.

A problem with picking things apart is I rarely just enjoy. Some media overcomes my dissection habit and makes me laugh. But dissection means I don't become complacent and accept the ideas being presented without thinking about them or overthinking about them.

The world has changed since Laugh-In. I have an idea about wars and conflicts. They don't end. They transform and they stay with us. We're fighting the same fights. We need to push back.