Comedy Archeology - I Didn’t Get It First Time

I was going to begin this blog with the phrase “comedy is a funny old business” but even I couldn’t bring myself to do that. However, I couldn't come up with a better opening today so I’m going to continue as if I did open like that but also pretend that i didn’t. What? It’s my blog - I can have my cake and eat it if I want as I wrote the cake into being in the first place.

Anyway, sometimes it takes a little while to see the funny in comedy. Oftentimes, things that I dismiss on the first viewing can end up on a rewatch being something that I absolutely love. Let’s take a look at some key examples of things that I enjoy which took more than one go at it.

Father Ted
I love Father Ted. It is hands down one of my favourite sitcoms for the sheer joy it takes in knowing the sitcom archetypes and both playing up to and puncturing them at the same time, all the while being anchored by a solid core of characters delivered by great performers. This wasn’t always my view on it, mind. Being a comedy junkie type, I watched the first episode and it just sort of passed me by. Something about priests, didn't really seem to tick my boxes. So I left it and then come the second series, everyone I knew who was into the same comedy as me was raving about it. I grudgingly decided to give it a rewatch… and the something that hadn’t clicked before suddenly went off. This was great and it was exactly my sort of thing. I can safely say that I’ve watched every episode multiple times and am likely to watch them again.

Reeves & Mortimer
I briefly touched on this yesterday but I wasn’t always the Vic and Bob fan that I am today. When their first series, Vic Reeves Big Night Out, aired on Channel 4, it left me cold. I just didn't get it. Couldn’t see the funny. When the duo switched over to BBC2 for The Smell Of Reeves & Mortimer, something made me give it another try. This time, the jokes were readily apparent and I was hooked. Good job too as Shooting Stars would one of the defining shows of my university years. I have to say, though, while I do enjoy parts of Vic Reeves Big Night Out, it’s still not my favourite of their shows (Smell Of and Shooting Stars are tied on that one, although I do also have a soft spot for the weirdness that is Catterick).

30 Rock
I watched the first couple of episodes and it just left me cold. It wasn’t that I found it unfunny - it just wasn’t connecting for me. I went back and tried again and the first couple of episodes still didn't wow me but, this time around, I started to see the show’s two strengths - the collection of oddballs who make up this sitcom family and the unlikely friendship between Alec Baldwin’s corporate man Jack Donaghy and Tina Fey’s creative whirlwind Liz Lemon. Like many Us sitcoms, it probably ends up going a little past its natural end point but it does come to a conclusion and a fittingly appropriate one for this offbeat show.

Of course, there are then the times where, no matter how hard I try, I just can't connect with something…