Wow- where did you see that? the HARVEY thing. I'd
love to see it-

About the word reversal thing, part of it is also
woody's delivery. He's got great delivery- his
pauses, nervousness- it adds a lot.


--- TodH1999@... wrote:
> 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]
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more
http://taxes.yahoo.com/