Tom & Jerry. Good taste, good taste. 
Why do you like comedy so much? Page 6
The classic era of course. Not when they could talk.
They ... talk? 
Quote: Aaron @ April 10 2008, 12:28 AM BSTThey ... talk?
You are indeed blessed if you haven't seen the later Tom and Jerrys. Try to keep it that way.
How to describe the later ones? Like an own brand-box of cornflakes, or Planet of the Apes on TV, or the Stones since the 80s, or summat.
pop-pickers
Next you'll be telling me that they remade Bill and Ben!
(I will definitely keep it that way. Ugh.)
Like Leevil, I also watched and loved a lot of cartoons when I was younger, especially Tom and Jerry and the Warner Brothers ones. Bugs Bunny remains my favourite cartoon character. I often tried to draw some characters, and then I got into the Hanna Barbera line of animation, until I realised that they recycled a lot of backgrounds and sound effects. Then I watched some of the newer ones like Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, Ren and Stimpy, and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy which I still love for its sheer madness.
That then got me into The Simpsons, and then Futurama and Family Guy and so forth. I had seen a fair few comedy shows when I was younger but had never really "got" them. This changed in 2000 when I went to the Millennium Dome on a school trip, and saw Blackadder: Back and Forth. Someone mentioned that if I thought that was funny, I should watch the series. Which I did, and I think then my comedy fixation began.
I think I love the way humour can help to ruin and make fun of authority, even if it is in a childish way. The world does take itself too seriously a lot of the time, and a well-placed joke or a well-written sketch helps a lot. A housemate of mine likes comedy, but she says she prefers American dramas like Veronica Mars and Firefly. With that, I think that if your life is so miserable, why watch more drama to make yourself feel worse? I guess their argument would be that after you've watched it, you feel glad that it's not as bad as those characters on the screen, and indeed millions of viewers of shows like EastEnders, Coronation Street, The Bill etc. can't be wrong. But I will always end up with some running commentary in my head which is doing a mini stand-up act on how ridiculous this drama is, because it's taking itself so seriously.
I do have an awful lot of respect for comedians who can do that sort of thing, and would give anything for the chance to just have a long Parkinson-style chat with someone like Stephen Fry or Ricky Gervais or whoever, just for the joy of it. Comedians often don't get to make the shows that they want to do, especially in the 60s and 70s, and instead they get remembered, wrongly, for a repetitive catchphrase. It's a reason why I've enjoyed watching the Curse of Comedy series on BBC4, and yes, I know it's a drama so I'm being a little hypocritical, but I do think it makes for fascinating viewing.
Also, I do like making people laugh, although I do have several fears about it: whether I'm trying too hard to be funny; whether I'm actually coming across as insulting; whether I should be doing something more worthwhile, and so on. I think that it could be the only thing I like doing and enjoy doing. I know a lot of people don't often know what they want to do with their lives when they're at my age (20), and some even ten years later, but I cannot see any other profession which I would enjoy doing or which I would be good at, althoug the latter is negligible.
I think cartoons/drawing seems to be a developing theme.
I remember I started drawing when I was about 7 or 8. I would take my brothers Roy of the Rovers comics and just copy the drawings. I developed some sort of a talent for drawing and was very interested in it, but when I reached my teenage years in the 90's comedy started taking over.
I remember the 1st things that really made me laugh were films like Ace Ventura, Dumd and Dumber. Jim Carrey mainly. I loved to laugh but still felt no desire to write. I remember people asking me had I ever seen Monty Python. I think my parents had gotten 'the channels' (english channels) in Ireland by this time. But I had still never come across it.
In 1999 RTE (irish channel) started showing it. I had heard of John Cleese, Eric Idle etc and had seen Fawlty Towers when I was young but nothing prepared me for the Flying Circus. It absolutely changed my whole view on comedy. It was the funniest show I had ever seen. Soon after I started writing 1 liners and after a few more months I tried to develop sketches out of them. I was about 19 at the time. So i believe i'm writing comedy because of Monty Python.
Quote: Seefacts @ April 9 2008, 7:29 PM BSTWell BBC2 showed every episode of Dwarf in the run up to the premiere of series VI. So they showed about 30 episodes, one a week, during 1993. That's a lot of Dwarf.
Wasn't it straight AFTER series VI they did that?
Quote: Otterfox @ April 10 2008, 1:54 AM BSTI think cartoons/drawing seems to be a developing theme.
I remember I started drawing when I was about 7 or 8. I would take my brothers Roy of the Rovers comics and just copy the drawings. I developed some sort of a talent for drawing and was very interested in it, but when I reached my teenage years in the 90's comedy started taking over.
Haha, yeah. I used to copy my brothers Whizzer & Chips and Buster comics.
I never ever drew cartoons.
Quote: Badge @ April 10 2008, 12:22 AM BSTLots of shared family laughter watching comedy as I grew up in the 70s and early 80s - M&W
For a few minutes I could only think of Mitchell & Webb. "Eh? Surely they weren't around that long ago? Ah yes - doh!"
Mark's done the same when I've talked about 'M&W' in the past! Shocking, absolutely shocking.
Quote: Aaron @ April 10 2008, 11:12 AM BSTMark's done the same when I've talked about 'M&W' in the past! Shocking, absolutely shocking.
It is pretty shameful I must admit 
Quote: Gluben @ April 10 2008, 12:56 AM BSTRen and Stimpy,
Awesome! I used to have my friend tape it for me because I didn't have cable, and then pause it so I could draw the characters. Good call good call Ren & Stimpy's weird humor defently changed my sense of humor too.
This is a really fascinating thread.
I'm interested to read so many of you got into comedy via cartoons - you see, I never really watched them. What hooked me was Fawlty Towers - the first time I saw it I laughed so hard it really, really hurt. From that point on I made it my mission to seek out more comedy to re-create that buzz... it's a bit like a drug in a way.
I wonder if die-hard comedy fans like everyone here share any personality traits? There must be something in us that means we try harder and put more effort into seeking out comedy than most of the rest of the population?
Yeah, it's called being losers.