I keep thinking about The Importance of Being Earnest, which is damn near perfectly witty -- almost every single line is gorgeously crafted wit -- and which Wilde described as "written by a butterfly for butterflies." Quick, light, darting, every line ending someplace you couldn't possibly have predicted, but which on looking (listening) back is exactly right and inevitable.
You always think harder is better. Maybe next time I patrol, I should carry bricks and use a stake made out of butter.
Buffy ,'The Killer In Me'
Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
JZ - Sep 19, 2006 5:55:31 am PDT #4410 of 10001
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
Matt the Bruins fan - Sep 19, 2006 6:04:10 am PDT #4411 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
What are the wittiest movies of the past 25 years? Is wit dead?
Would Wilde count, what with much of the wit having originated in the 19th century?
Fred Pete - Sep 19, 2006 6:09:20 am PDT #4412 of 10001
Ann, that's a ferret.
when society was stressed, laughing at someone's misfortunes (Charlie Chaplain, Buster Keaton, Three Stooges, Tom Cruise) was ascendant, and when society felt confident, humor that required the audience to be "in the know" was more popular (Johnny Carson, SNL, Eddie Izzard).
American society was very stressed during the '30s and '40s (at least, if the Depression and WWII aren't significant stressors, I don't know what are). Yet that era may have given us the peak of witty comedies.
Also, technology matters. Just looking at the movies, verbal wit only became possible when the talkies arrived.
Amy - Sep 19, 2006 6:19:35 am PDT #4413 of 10001
Because books.
Thirding what ita said.
I think wit is a subset of humor. Humor includes wit, but wit does not include all of humor.
But this, too. Maybe because of phrases like "keeping your wits about you," I usually associate wit with smart humor -- definitely a Gilmore Girls type of thing. Whereas broader humor includes things like Benny Hill and pretty much anything starring Tom Green. Not witty at all, but funny (in a completely subjective way).
Aims - Sep 19, 2006 1:34:50 pm PDT #4414 of 10001
Shit's all sorts of different now.
So, Joe and I rewatched Fellowship and Two Towers over the weekend.
I still have an issue with the way OB gets on the horse behind Gimli. I has to be a CGI fuck up.
Ailleann - Sep 19, 2006 2:30:04 pm PDT #4415 of 10001
vanguard of the socialist Hollywood liberal homosexualist agenda
IIRC from some DVD extra or another, that scene is a victim of injury. They had tried the scene, but it didn't look right, so they were going to come back and do it, but then he broke his back and they didn't get to come back to it. So they had to CGI it instead.
Matt the Bruins fan - Sep 19, 2006 2:34:03 pm PDT #4416 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
BROKE HIS BACK?!?
§ ita § - Sep 19, 2006 2:34:30 pm PDT #4417 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
He broke his back before the movie. It must have been another injury.
Ailleann - Sep 19, 2006 2:45:11 pm PDT #4418 of 10001
vanguard of the socialist Hollywood liberal homosexualist agenda
I thought that was the phrase they used, but now I feel this need to pull out the DVDs... sigh...
§ ita § - Sep 19, 2006 2:46:26 pm PDT #4419 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
He's only broken his back once, and it was definitely before the movies filmed.