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Tommy Cooper was NOT funny

13

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 28,379 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,005 ✭✭✭✭AlekSmart


    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 :)


    Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

    Charles Mackay (1812-1889)



  • Registered Users Posts: 14,086 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    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.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 296 ✭✭Golf is my Game


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,844 ✭✭✭pavb2


    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... '


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,811 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,747 ✭✭✭fleet_admiral


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


  • Registered Users Posts: 40,060 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,122 ✭✭✭mick087


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 625 ✭✭✭dd973


    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.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 28,379 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    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.




    There it is. Great stuff.






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


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,696 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,219 ✭✭✭tipptom


    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.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭skooterblue2


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,122 ✭✭✭mick087


    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:


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭byronbay2


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 85 ✭✭Realtai


    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


  • Registered Users Posts: 85 ✭✭Realtai


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,631 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 685 ✭✭✭Oscar Madison


    He was about as funny as Friends! :mad:


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,885 ✭✭✭OldRio


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,276 ✭✭✭Hoop66


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


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,086 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    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.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭skooterblue2


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,900 ✭✭✭trashcan


    "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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,200 ✭✭✭imme


    He was a funny guy.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,505 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    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 ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,113 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure


    ...

    Nothing funny today will be funny in 20 yrs time.

    you're probably right on that count


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,133 ✭✭✭Hamsterchops


    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.


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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    He was funny, shut up.


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