Tommy Cooper was NOT funny

KungPao · 27-06-2020 4:18pm

Strumms wrote: »

I’d rather scoop my eyes out with a rusty spoon than be forced to watch Seinfeld. A DULL as dishwater comedian, desperate not to offend people. The type of fella who probably wakes up every morning having slept in his pullover and thinks... “hmm how can I make office workers amused today.”

Strumms is getting upset.

lsjmhar · 27-06-2020 4:21pm

byronbay2 wrote:

I've put up with this myth for a loooong time but now I have to speak out. It started (for me) in my early teens when there was a Tommy Cooper show on prime-time TV and, with only a couple of channels, I watched a few episodes. It was absolutely AWFUL! A bumbling buffoon, wearing a funny hat, getting card tricks (hilariously!) wrong and cracking a few terrible jokes. I knew he was popular at the time but it didn't bother me because most TV was terrible and I thought he appealed to an adult audience rather than me.

byronbay2 wrote:

Fast forward 40 years and I am an adult now myself! I have seen Cooper every so often over the years and my opinion has never wavered: totally unfunny rubbish. Yet now, every few weeks it seems, there are TC retrospectives (and a movie!) with contemporaries and modern comedians falling over themselves to say what a genius he was and how hilarious his bumbling character was.

byronbay2 wrote:

My question is: Am I wrong? Was he a genius? Or is there a giant conspiracy to fool the modern audience into thinking his act was hilarious? Surely, anyone watching him for 5 minutes could see that he was a total charlatan??

You have figured it out - 'Juz like dat!!'

Pkiernan · 27-06-2020 4:35pm

I think there's a minimum IQ level, below which people think Tommy Cooper isn't funny.

ILoveYourVibes · 27-06-2020 6:16pm

Ok didn't really know who he was.

But why would you expect a comedian from 60 yrs ago to be funny now?

No comedy ages well.

Read some jokes from the 1800s.

Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

Why are some people obsessed with people or shows from a time that was probably decades before they were born?

byronbay2 · 27-06-2020 6:27pm

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Ok didn't really know who he was.

But why would you expect a comedian from 60 yrs ago to be funny now?

No comedy ages well.

Read some jokes from the 1800s.

Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

Why are some people obsessed with people or shows from a time that was probably decades before they were born?

It seems a lot of people disagree with you. Based on this thread, Tommy Cooper's material is still funny and you would need to have below average intelligence to disagree!

ILoveYourVibes · 27-06-2020 6:29pm

byronbay2 wrote: »

It seems a lot of people disagree with you. Based on this thread, Tommy Cooper's material is still funny and you would need to have below average intelligence to disagree!

I could tell his punchlines miles before he said them.

In fact it was annoying having to wait for him to hmm and haw through them.

Plus everything he says is so simplistic.

The language he uses etc....

If you are looking for old comedy that was done well..Only Fools and Horses.

ohnonotgmail · 27-06-2020 7:43pm

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Ok didn't really know who he was.

But why would you expect a comedian from 60 yrs ago to be funny now?

No comedy ages well.

Read some jokes from the 1800s.

Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

Why are some people obsessed with people or shows from a time that was probably decades before they were born?

get away with your 60 years ago. he was massive when i was young and i'm nowhere near 60

DrGreenThumb82 · 27-06-2020 7:57pm

I loved Tommy Cooper's karate master routine. Hilarious

murpho999 · 27-06-2020 8:48pm

Any thread about about comedians here will lead to posters saying how unfunny they are.
Any comedian that appears on the Late Late Show will see lots of post on the TV forum to say how unfunny that particular comedian is.

In both cases it doesn't matter how famous or successful the person may have been.
So all the posters can't be right.

If you don't like Tommy Cooper then just accept it's not for you and get over it and don't let it impact your life. Then also accept that your taste is not what rules the world and let other people enjoy it.

It's sort of like music, all very subjective. I can't stand Westlife, think they're a crime against music but last year they packed out Croke Park and plenty of people I know went and enjoyed them. Didn't upset me in the slightest and I basically just ignored the event.
Live and let live.

For the record though I thought Tommy Cooper was hilarious and his wit was clever and more than just the fez and magic tricks. Here's some lines below

“I'm on a whisky diet. Last week, I lost three days.”

“I went to a fortune teller. She looked at my hands and said: 'Your future looks pretty black.' I said: 'I've still got my gloves on.’”

“Gambling has really brought our family together. We had to move to a smaller house.”

"She was so beautiful, when I took her home in a taxi, I could hardly keep my eyes on the meter.”

“What do you call an out-of-work jester? Nobody's fool.”

“I bought some pork chops and told the butcher to make them lean. He said: 'Which way?’"

“My doctor told me to drink a bottle of wine after a hot bath. But I couldn't even finish drinking the hot bath.”

“I always call a spade a spade. Until the other night, when I stepped on one in the dark.”

“Two fish in a tank. One says to the other: ‘You drive, I'll man the guns.”

“I said: 'Doctor, I keep getting these dizzy spells.' He said: 'Vertigo?' I said: 'No, I only live up the road.’”

“I sleep like a baby. I wake up screaming every morning around 3am.”

“I had a ploughman's lunch the other day. He wasn't very happy.”

“Last night, I dreamt I was eating a 10lb marshmallow. When I woke up, my pillow had gone.”

“I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.”

“What does a kangaroo eat for breakfast? Pouched eggs.”

“Got a new car the other day. I pushed the horn and it went: ‘Woof woof.’ It was a Rover.”

“Two cannibals were eating a clown. One said to the other: 'Does he taste funny to you?’"

27-06-2020 8:56pm

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Ok didn't really know who he was.

But why would you expect a comedian from 60 yrs ago to be funny now?

No comedy ages well.

Read some jokes from the 1800s.

Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

Why are some people obsessed with people or shows from a time that was probably decades before they were born?

60 years ago??

I was born in 1986, he was as regular a feature of my childhood as Mr. Bean or Billy Connolly. It's true that he was dead by then, but his comedy always seemed to be on the telly. How old are you?

murpho999 · 27-06-2020 9:02pm

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Ok didn't really know who he was.

But why would you expect a comedian from 60 yrs ago to be funny now?

No comedy ages well.

Read some jokes from the 1800s.

Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

Why are some people obsessed with people or shows from a time that was probably decades before they were born?

Totally not true.

Shakespeare comedies from over 400 years ago are still funny.

I still regularly watch Laurel & Hardy and find them funny.

Monty Python is still funny. I could go on and on.

AlekSmart · 27-06-2020 9:34pm

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

This time next week he'll get deleted for the cultural appropriation of a hat.

Even worse,is the OP en route to Caerphilly to start a statue demolition movement....:eek:

https://themagiccircle.co.uk/news/179-tommy-cooper-in-caerphilly

...or maybe the OP is a touch miffed at nobody,let alone Anthony Hopkins, yet having unveiled a 9 foot bronze statue of them....having one's greatness remain unrecognised is the burden of modern magician

elperello · 27-06-2020 9:42pm

Tommy could walk on stage just stand there and the audience would laugh.

The man had funny bones.

If you didn't get it that's ok too ............relax.

Golf is my Game · 27-06-2020 10:30pm

blueser wrote: »

There you go, see. I find him as funny as a fire in an orphanage. Does that make him not funny? Only to me. Different strokes for different folks.
To me, Cooper was brilliant. His timing and delivery were bang on the money.

True. Seinfeld isnt that funny. George is where the comedy genius is.

pavb2 · 27-06-2020 10:43pm

I didn’t find him particularly funny watching him but in reading his jokes There are some good ones two of my favourites.

Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese.
And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them.
It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother Colin.
Or my younger brother HoChaChu.
But I think it's Colin.

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar.
One says, 'I think I've lost an electron.'
The other says 'Are you sure?'
The first says, 'Yes, I'm positive... '

Hangdogroad · 27-06-2020 10:48pm

murpho999 wrote: »

Totally not true.

Shakespeare comedies from over 400 years ago are still funny.

I still regularly watch Laurel & Hardy and find them funny.

Monty Python is still funny. I could go on and on.

Laurel & Hardy used to be still regularly shown on TV up to about the early Late 80s/early90s along with the Three Stooges, Tom And Jerry etc. Always would find them hilarious as kids and it never bothered us that they were made in our grandparents time.

fleet_admiral · 27-06-2020 11:03pm

The video of him dying onstage is distressing. I always thought he'd get up and carry on with the act

ohnonotgmail · 27-06-2020 11:19pm

fleet_admiral wrote: »

The video of him dying onstage is distressing. I always thought he'd get up and carry on with the act

I remember watching that as it happened. he got a massive laugh when he fell down.

mick087 · 27-06-2020 11:19pm

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Ok didn't really know who he was.

But why would you expect a comedian from 60 yrs ago to be funny now?

No comedy ages well.

Read some jokes from the 1800s.

Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

Why are some people obsessed with people or shows from a time that was probably decades before they were born?

Oh my god your so wrong.
Watch Laual And Hardy and if you tell me they are not funny then i really doubt you have a SOH. I sugguest you watch the one where they take the piano up the stairs.
I think im gonna watch it again myself its hilarious.

I also find Tommy funny, quite different.

dd973 · 28-06-2020 1:01am

He used to put slip something into the pockets of drivers and chauffeurs and go 'Have a drink on me'.

They'd get home and pull a teabag out of their pocket.

murpho999 · 28-06-2020 1:19am

mick087 wrote: »

Oh my god your so wrong.
Watch Laual And Hardy and if you tell me they are not funny then i really doubt you have a SOH. I sugguest you watch the one where they take the piano up the stairs.
I think im gonna watch it again myself its hilarious.

I also find Tommy funny, quite different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_ZhJmVTD4A

There it is. Great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jtjo3UtL7E

And I just love this, especially the car scene near the end.

Strumms · 28-06-2020 1:30am

fleet_admiral wrote: »

The video of him dying onstage is distressing. I always thought he'd get up and carry on with the act

Yes, I’ve seen that, it’s grim, people in the audience pissing themselves laughing, he’s having this weird collapse... it was kinda obvious on tv something wasn’t right but it wouldn’t have been from the audience point of view.

tipptom · 28-06-2020 1:07pm

pavb2 wrote: »

I didn’t find him particularly funny watching him but in reading his jokes There are some good ones two of my favourites.

Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese.
And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them.
It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother Colin.
Or my younger brother HoChaChu.
But I think it's Colin.

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar.
One says, 'I think I've lost an electron.'
The other says 'Are you sure?'
The first says, 'Yes, I'm positive... '

First one is a cracker just written down.

skooterblue2 · 28-06-2020 1:32pm

blueser wrote: »

You've pretty much nailed it there. Cooper's jokes were not the funniest out there, not by a long way. You and I probably know better jokes than him, but could we deliver them like he did? I can't speak for you, but I know I couldn't. Cooper is miles ahead of likes of Tiernan, O'Carroll, Bishop, McIntyre etc etc.

When you consider Alison Spittle is the best new comedian on RTE.... the man is a genius.

mick087 · 28-06-2020 1:58pm

murpho999 wrote: »

There it is. Great stuff.

And I just love this, especially the car scene near the end.

Excellent both are completely and utterly funny nearly 100 years old these and still unbelievably hilarious.

The pen at the end of the music box :pac::pac::pac:

byronbay2 · 28-06-2020 7:59pm

pavb2 wrote: »

I didn’t find him particularly funny watching him but in reading his jokes There are some good ones two of my favourites.

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar.
One says, 'I think I've lost an electron.'
The other says 'Are you sure?'
The first says, 'Yes, I'm positive... '

That IS a good joke! I like the idea of two atoms walking into a bar. It certainly doesn't sound like a Tommy Cooper joke but I'll take your word for it.

Realtai · 29-06-2020 3:59am

OP you are not the only one who felt that way about Tommy Cooper. My mother couldn't stand the man, and didn't find him funny at all. I was just indifferent to him. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

However, I did think that he was good in "The Plank", along with Eric Sykes

Realtai · 29-06-2020 4:03am

fleet_admiral wrote: »

The video of him dying onstage is distressing. I always thought he'd get up and carry on with the act

I agree. I made the mistake of watching it on youtube one night and it stayed in my mind for quite a while afterwards. Horrible.

whisky_galore · 29-06-2020 7:50am

skooterblue2 wrote: »

When you consider Alison Spittle is the best new comedian on RTE.... the man is a genius.

A turnip with connections to the RTE 'family' could make it as comedy talent on RTE.

29-06-2020 8:02am

He was about as funny as Friends! :mad:

OldRio · 29-06-2020 8:54am

I actually saw him on stage about 1971ish. He was appearing in some variety show in London. You couldn't take your eyes off him. He was a big man. Very tall. He had a presence about him. Very very funny.

He could stand on stage and do next to nothing and the audience would be in stitches.

Hoop66 · 29-06-2020 9:44am

So you're going to come on here and post this? Just like that?

elperello · 29-06-2020 2:54pm

To be honest comedy and what makes one laugh is very much subjective.

It's possible for one to enjoy Tommy Cooper, Alison Spittle and Friends or none of them.

Thankfully it is not compulsory to like any comedy act.

It's easy to come on here and make disparaging remarks about people but it's hard to make an audience laugh.

skooterblue2 · 29-06-2020 3:21pm

elperello wrote: »

To be honest comedy and what makes one laugh is very much subjective.

It's possible for one to enjoy Tommy Cooper, Alison Spittle and Friends or none of them.

Thankfully it is not compulsory to like any comedy act.

It's easy to come on here and make disparaging remarks about people but it's hard to make an audience laugh.

Its hard to judge Tommy Cooper but he did fill halls and was in demand. I watched "Friends" and I can judge it because I was a peer of that time, maybe it is a bit risque because of political correctness now. On the other hand, I am a peer of Alison Spittle and she isnt original, funny or has charm.

trashcan · 29-06-2020 5:07pm

JohnFalstaff wrote: »

"I sleep like a baby. Every morning I wake up screaming around 2 o’clock."

One of my favourite Tommy Cooper jokes. The man never tried to be one of those comedians who provided social commentary, which makes much of his material timeless. The only time he died onstage was the time he actually died onstage. Which is also hilarious - the final punchline.

I remember watching one of those review programmes where they were discussing comics, and the presenter actually asked " did Tommy Cooper ever die on stage". Then she realised what she had said. Mortified wasn't the word.

On the original question, no I never found him really funny, mildly amusing at best.

imme · 30-06-2020 10:56am

He was a funny guy.

Mad_maxx · 30-06-2020 12:55pm

Riddle101 wrote: »

I've never watched Tommy Cooper but it seems to me that a lot of comedy acts could be attributed to a certain generation of fans. I think my grandfather liked Tommy Cooper, and he would also have been into the likes of Laurel and Hardy and The Two Ronnies yet you'd probably wouldn't see a lot of fans of those comedy acts nowadays. On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have been into a lot of the modern comedians today, he was very old fashioned.

my grandfather loved tommy cooper , he did die in 1986 however , believe cooper was himself dead before that ?

Quantum Erasure · 01-07-2020 5:15am

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

...

Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

you're probably right on that count

Hamsterchops · 01-07-2020 9:29am

byronbay2 wrote: »

My question is: Am I wrong? Was he a genius? Or is there a giant conspiracy to fool the modern audience into thinking his act was hilarious? Surely, anyone watching him for 5 minutes could see that he was a total charlatan??

I suggest you are totally wrong. Tommy Cooper was one of the comedy giants back in the 70s.

He was hilarious at the time, although if you watch him now his gags don't have the same effect as they did the first time round nearly fifty years ago!

Cooper was of his time, and his comedy was of its time, not to be compared with today's acts. So much TV stuff from back then that doesn't have the same impact now, but he was loved by millions of people, he was great.

01-07-2020 11:19am

He was funny, shut up.

01-07-2020 11:30am

Amusing but not funny. To me the fact that they were laughing as he died suggests the audience weren't hard to please. They were laughing because a man slumped over. How is it funny?

I also think some comedy lasts. I watched fools and horses and red dwarf as a child. I still laugh at fools, not red dwarf so much. I have also shown Seinfeld and only fools to a younger audience and they found them funny albeit a little confused in parts, like the bit relying on not having tech that exists today.

Will I Am Not · 01-07-2020 11:33am

Always thought he was a comedian that even though you mightn’t like his act, it’s inoffensive and daft enough that you wouldn’t bother going out of your way to say it. Apparently not.
I’d put Harry Hill and Tim Vine in that category too. I can see why people wouldn’t like their acts but can’t see why anyone would hate on them.

OldRio · 01-07-2020 11:51am

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Amusing but not funny. To me the fact that they were laughing as he died suggests the audience weren't hard to please. They were laughing because a man slumped over. How is it funny?

Your comment about the audience? Condescending in the extreme.
He was totally unpredictable. He was a visual comic. Falling down was part of his act.

murpho999 · 01-07-2020 11:54am

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Amusing but not funny. To me the fact that they were laughing as he died suggests the audience weren't hard to please. They were laughing because a man slumped over. How is it funny?

I also think some comedy lasts. I watched fools and horses and red dwarf as a child. I still laugh at fools, not red dwarf so much. I have also shown Seinfeld and only fools to a younger audience and they found them funny albeit a little confused in parts, like the bit relying on not having tech that exists today.

You're looking at something from 30 years ago out of context. People didn't know at the time he was dying but you did and that makes a difference.

He had such a presence at the time and was so famous that he had people laughing all the time.

Edgware · 01-07-2020 12:45pm

A lot of the older comedians were of their time. Cooper, Harry Worth, Benny Hill, Wilfred Bramwell and Harty H Corbett .(Steptoe and son)
All very talented, good timing . Every joke didnt have to be about irritable bowel syndrome or premature ejaculation!

skooterblue2 · 01-07-2020 12:57pm

Edgware wrote: »

A lot of the older comedians were of their time. Cooper, Harry Worth, Benny Hill, Wilfred Bramwell and Harty H Corbett .(Steptoe and son)
All very talented, good timing . Every joke didnt have to be about irritable bowel syndrome or premature ejaculation!

Tommy Cooper was a great Man, Brother and Master and loved throughout the world. He gave massive amounts of money to charity. So Mote It Be. Jokes like those would have been abhorrent to a man of his character.

We will not see his like again and we are all the poorer for it.

Harry Palmr · 01-07-2020 1:06pm

As a child I didn't get it as an adult I do. This tells you as much about me as him

murpho999 · 01-07-2020 1:07pm

Edgware wrote: »

A lot of the older comedians were of their time. Cooper, Harry Worth, Benny Hill, Wilfred Bramwell and Harty H Corbett .(Steptoe and son)
All very talented, good timing . Every joke didnt have to be about irritable bowel syndrome or premature ejaculation!

Still very funny today. Good writing and acting will always stand the test of time.

01-07-2020 3:05pm

murpho999 wrote: »

You're looking at something from 30 years ago out of context. People didn't know at the time he was dying but you did and that makes a difference.

He had such a presence at the time and was so famous that he had people laughing all the time.

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I don't think I accused them off laughing at a man dying did I?

Simple reality, he slumped over and this was for some reason, hilarious .

Thelonious Monk · 01-07-2020 3:33pm

He's iconic. With the Fez, what an awesome sight he was. It was a different time and is subjective obviously but at least he was unique, I'd rather one of him than 100 of those idiots on those panel shows trying to be witty.

Tommy Cooper was NOT funny

Comments