In his 2013 New York Times profile of legendary comedy writer Jack Handey (perhaps best known among noncomedy writers for his "Deep Thoughts" interstitials on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s), writer Dan Kois said that interviewees kept on telling him that Handey could write “pure” comedy. Did I once laugh at a mean joke about gay people in front of a friend who later came out of the closet? Did I once adopt that especially cruel imitation of a disabled person I saw there to amuse a friend later? Norms have changed, and not just on "Cheers." Want more articles like this? Follow THINK on Instagram to get updates on the week's most important cultural analysisīut that's part of what makes "The Far Side" different, even today: It was so weird and so off-topic that even as everyone aged, the comedy didn't. But, then again, entertainment - especially comedy - from our formative years can be embarrassing. It rarely bothers me in the moment that old episodes of, say, "Taxi," have their regressive gags. Plus, the unexpected permanence of so much entertainment lets us read and watch old material to sample and understand both the past and who we were in it. This is mostly a good thing, as far as I’m concerned: I like my leatherbound Batman comics I usually don’t mind the recycled gags in old TV shows.
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June 2023
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