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Can you be funny without a sense of humor?

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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 12:51 PM
Original message
Can you be funny without a sense of humor?
Yes, of course, humorless people occasionally say or do something funny.

But I'm reading a biography of Lucille Ball, and the author claims that she really didn't have much of a sense of humor at all.

I know from other biographies that she was a stern, sometimes difficult woman to work with. But is it possible to have "acted" Lucy? The timing, the gestures, the looks... to me they speak to an inherent, inerrant sense of humor.

But maybe not.
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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 12:55 PM
Response to Original message
1. It is my opinion being funny has alot to do with...
intelligence.

With Lucy you have to keep in mind the times in which she worked. She accomplished much of what
she did through force of will.
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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 12:59 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Indeed
she was such a powerful woman at a time when women weren't generally powerful. She was a failure as a movie-actress, but, with Desi Arnaz, pretty much invented television as we know it.
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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. To extend the argument...
It may be an advantage to not have an overt 'sense of humor' while being funny in extended scenes.

One wouldn't fall for one's own jokes which would cause a disruption in the process.

I'm guessing she found her enjoyment through entertaining others. Which she was very serious about.
In other words maybe she found her humor outside of her current activity.

Intelligence would come into play in knowing what others would find humorous.

Timing.
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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:24 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. good points
and nobody had better timing than Lucy. I STILL watch "I Love Lucy" and just am awed by her talent.
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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:29 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. Also, she was a hell of a business woman.
Like you said above... She and Desi INVENTED television.

I sometimes wonder if most of it was Lucy.

Have you read about the strange set of circumstances surrounding Lucy making
it into the 'Big Time'... Had something to do with Damon Runyon, if I recall.
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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:30 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. No, I haven't heard that
I'd love to know more.

I read a bio of Vivian Vance a couple years ago that was very interesting, too.

Evidently William Frawley loved to fart around her.
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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:45 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. I read about it somewhere...
Don't remember much of the details... It's worth looking up sometime.


It involved Runyon and a recommendation of Lucy to him from Carol Lumbard... Just
before her fatal plane crash.

Some details here:

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/6066/bigstreet.html
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Bunny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:05 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. You are right. And so often women who are strong and powerful
are called stern, unfunny, difficult, and worse, whereas men with comparable ambitions are applauded and admired. All because they aren't afraid to do what it takes to be successful. In Lucy's time this was probably even more true than it is today.

Or, she could have been a total asshole. Who knows? :shrug:
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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:13 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Yes
Edited on Thu Jan-18-07 01:15 PM by MonkeyFunk
I wonder if that's not a huge part of it.

But this is a good biographer. He wrote a bio of Groucho Marx that I liked a lot.

Speaking of which, Margaret Dumont was known to be entirely humorless. She never got any of the jokes in the Marx Bros. movies. Similarly, Frances Bavier, who played Aunt Bea in the Andy Griffith shows, was entirely bitter and unliked by the entire the cast.

You gotta be a real prick to be disliked by Opie.
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Bunny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:21 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. I had heard that about Aunt Bea. You're right - you have to be
pretty bad if even Opie doesn't like you!
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La Lioness Priyanka Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:14 PM
Response to Original message
5. if you can make fun of other people but cant take a joke about yourself.
then sure you can be funny w.out a sense of humor.
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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Very true
n/t
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Left Is Write Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
8. I have a hard time believing Lucy didn't have a sense of humor...
looking back at all of her television shows.

I also loved her in Yours, Mine and Ours.
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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:26 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. That was the first movie
I ever saw in a real theater.

We'd only go to drive-ins when I was a kid.

I adore that movie - Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball... what's not to love?

One of the highlights of my life was when I visited San Francisco and went to the bar in which her underwear fell down.
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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 01:33 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. I find myself thinking of "Lucy and Desi's Long, Long Trailer"...
Edited on Thu Jan-18-07 01:57 PM by Prag
all the time.

I laugh about it... Every time I go on a road trip.

The ROCK COLLECTION! LOL! :rofl:

Edit: Oops! Correct movie, wrong title.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/
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Strawman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 02:04 PM
Response to Original message
16. I've read that about Will Ferrell
and kinda thought that when I've seen him interviewed.
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MonkeyFunk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 02:05 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. ahh
but Will Farrell isn't funny.
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MissMillie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-18-07 02:12 PM
Response to Original message
18. Well, I imagine you CAN be funny
but you just wouldn't realize it.

In other words, other people would think you're funny, even if you don't think you're funny.

Right? :shrug:
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