In a message dated 2/12/2003 3:49:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,
kingkimb@... writes:

>
> I heard Woody Allen plays the sax (is it the sax?) every Monday at
> Michael's Pub. I have a question. Is it a pub/restaraunt, or just a
> pub? You see, I really want to see Mr. Allen play, but I can't get
> into a pub because I'm 17 years old. By the way, do you think he
> really hangs out at Elaine's like in Manhattan? Is Elaine's even
> still around?
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> woodyallen-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

It's Michael's Pub and the place serves food (good steaks) so I think you can
probably get in. As for Elaine's, he used to go there and I suppose it's
still in business. I'm not a native New Yoker. He plays clarinet by the
way -- dixeland jazz and you can see WILD MAN BLUES if you want to see a
documentary on his playing. It was a post-Soon Yi image-improvelment
documenary on him by a fan of his.

I just recently saw HARVEY WALLINGER -- an unaired PBS from 1972 Woody made
about a Kissinger-like character. It's 30 minutes long. PBS never showed it
b/c it was viewed as too political and critical of the gov't that was paying
at least some of their tab. It has a few great lines in it though. Woody
into phone as Wallinger: "'I want you to get an injunction against the
times. Yes, the New York Times is a Jewish left-wing communist homosexual
paper, and that's just the sports section."

Another great line was during a brief biographical sketch of the Wallinger
character -- "His father died during childbirth."

I'm surprised he never reused both of these jokes in other works as the show
was never shown or television and was never made publicly available.

The "father died during childbirth" brings me to another joke form -- the
"key word reverse." This form takes the key word of a sentence and reverses
the usual expectation to a joke by changing the key word of meaning in a
sentence. How's that for comedy?

Why is something funny in the first place? That's a very good question and
I'm glad I asked it. Something is funny because, well, I have no idea. But
I'll make a guess. Something is funny because we have one set of
expectations and then an event takes place (visual, verbal, written) that is
outside or normal expectation and this creates a gap. Our reaction to it is
a laugh. If it's a threatening event, the reaction may be fear ; negative
event may lead to dread. So we have to make people laugh without making them
cry or scream unless they are crying and screaming from laughter.

The interesting thing is the point at which comedy falls into absurdism. At
some point something is so off the wall it's absurd and not particularly
funny, though you could have something both absurd and funny. Absurd but not
funny is seen in the works of surrealist artists such as Dali or Conan
O'Brien.

Back to the key word reverse, the key word in "father died in child birth" is
father which is the reverse of, in some sense, of the word mother. Back to
the book of cliches, "the mother died in childbirth" is a common phrase in
literature in history. That's the expectation. Changing mother to father
creates the joke and our expectation is thwarted opening the gap. There's
also an element of absurdism as exactly how did this father die during
childbirth? Did he give birth which is impossible or watch it and the shock
of seeing the young Woody Allen-looking child killed him?
So there's the laugh.

Another example of the 'key word reverse' is another great Woody Allen line
from his standup days. He holds up a gold pocket watch to check the time,
"You see this watch? Yes, it's a lovely watch. My father on his deathbed
sold me this watch."
The key word is sold. The cliche phrase or concept is the father giving
something to the son on the father's deathbed like Jacob did. This joke,
which is improved by Allen's delivery (get the record if you haven't heard
it) as he places emphasis on the word "sold" which is the key word that's
he's reversing.

Those are just two examples. You see these jokes in sitcoms, standup,
movies, etc. Have fun writing!

-Todd



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]