Last night on Mandi’s recommendation we watched Revenge of the Pink Panther expecting it to be hilarious. It was not hilarious. I feel that this is a film that falls into the unfortunate comedy category of things that legend tells you are comic masterpieces but simply haven’t stood the test of time. Maybe it’s just me but this was not a funny film. Peter Sellers is a comedy legend so it is probably blasphemy to say this, but aside from a few notable exceptions (his special guest turn in Sykes as an escaped convict was a work of art) his work doesn’t really stand up today. I feel the same about The Goon Show to be honest, I can see the reason why it was so fresh at the time but rose-tinted nostalgia forbids us from saying that it’s actually a bit shit.

I’m not suggesting that all comedy has a shelf life of course; the works of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, and The Marx Brothers among others are still laugh-out-loud funny today whereas other things are spoon few to us and we are told how brilliant we are supposed to find them. Fawlty Towers is another case in point, we watched an episode a few days ago (The Builders) and didn’t laugh once. It is a matter of opinion of course, although if you don’t find Laurel & Hardy funny then you need to have a word with yourself. My comedy education was self-taught as a child, I couldn’t get enough silent films and sitcoms and used to religiously videotape and watch them over and over again. The first time I saw Happy Days was the first time I had seen an American sitcom and because of that along with The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Love Lucy, Roseanne, Cheers and Bilko, I was struck by how sharp and slick they were compared to our home-grown efforts. British sitcom has improved, especially since The Young Ones tore up the rule book, (before setting fire to it and sticking it up Neil’s bum no doubt), but there are still more hits from across the Atlantic than we make ourselves. My problem is when something is worshipped as a classic when in fact it should have been thrown out with the flock wallpaper and kipper ties. Even (dare I say it) Monty Python’s Flying Circus isn’t as good as I’m sure it once was, although the films are still as relevant today. Revenge Of The Pink Panther was riddled with childish slapstick, (funny how falling over can be a brilliant thing to watch, Chaplin made it look like ballet whereas I never found Norman Wisdom even slightly amusing), and lazy racism aimed at Bert Kwouk’s character, mainly references to him being ‘yellow’. A candidate for the wheelie bin of comedy history if ever there was one.

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