Having seen Albert Brooks' hilarious stand-up in the early 1970's, I have been much disappointed over the years to find that his films--seven or eight of them I think--well, contain enough good laughs to fill one good one.
Brooks has a brilliant comic mind, but his humor comes out so rarefied, so subtle, to render it almost non-existent. The viewer gets the feeling that Brooks is the only one that really gets the joke and that's good enough for him.
But, now, I submit for your approval or otherwise, "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" (2005), which may be the comic's best and most potential-fulfilling effort.
Brooks, as himself, is sent on a mission by the State Department to find out exactly what Muslims (and Hindus) find funny. Of course, the object is noble-- rapprochement---a first step toward understanding a culture many Americans find alien and menacing.
I will ruin nothing by telling you to envisage Brooks basically doing his 70's act to a bewildered, clueless audience of Indians who doesn't speak English.
Along the way, Brooks innocently becomes embroiled in and intensifies Pakistan-India tensions, all the while thinking he's doing something truly noble.
The ending is darkly hilarious and bitingly ironic, considering that it's all basically about a man trying to find out what make people laugh.
Think "Sullivan's Travels" with a decidedly less upbeat finale.
The One Liners #365
16 years ago
2 comments:
On one of his albums, Albert does a routine where he lets the listener play the other character. He provides a script and says his lines while leaving pauses for the listener to play the other character. On my college radio show, I read that other lines and performed the routine with Albert on the air.
Ofcourse, you'd have to buy "Watermelon Season" to know that.
I intend to buy thr book when my bank balance jumps from 0 to $20!!
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