One hundred of history's most influential jokes

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100 you say, indeed many more exist…

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This makes me really miss khaha.com, a now defunct website that, in the late '90’s, before YouTube, streamed continuous comedy bits. The great thing about it is that like any radio station I was never sure what was coming up next and I heard a lot of comedians I might otherwise have never known about. I don’t know who was behind it but they either had very broad tastes or just plugged in bits from comedy CDs at random. One minute it was Maria Bamford and the next minute it was a “Roy D. Mercer” prank call. I emailed them to recommend Eddie Izzard and got back a nice email that said, “Never heard of him but we’ll see what we can find.” A couple of days later I tuned in to hear “COVERED IN BEES!”

I remember when my local public radio station also played episodes of Comedy College, also now apparently defunct. At least audio is no longer available.

Every time I look at just the quantity of what’s been done and what’s out there my admiration for anyone who goes into comedy goes up.

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Indeed indeed!

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Strange they call these “jokes,” when so many of them instead are something like “bits,” or maybe “gags.”

They missed one of my favorite oldies (about “the tabloids”), which I think is a joke? from “The Thin Man,” here at about 1:00 –

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It unsettles me that I can instantly name almost all the men in that illustration, and none of the women.

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I’m willing to go out on a limb here by predicting that these ‘The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy’ are all American. (Or at most english?)

Now, I’m off to check. Will I eat crow? I can’t wait to find out.

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Indeed we on our side of the pond do seem to have been written out of modern comedy.

I guess the author is one of those people who think that England is a small island somewhere north of Long Island, where there is a town named London which has a suburb called Stratford.

I now know what it feels like to be French or German in an Anglophone cultural discussion.

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Speak for yourself, eh.

Checked the list:
Charlie Chaplin, The Gold Rush - British
Leslie Nielsen, Airplane - Canadian
Jim Carrey, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - Canadian

Mind you, all 'Mercan production.

And it’s like they’ve never heard of Wayne and Shuster, MPFC, Spike Milligan (yeah, HE’S had absolutely no influence on comedy), Louis de Funes.

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Surely something by the Python troupe deserves to be there!

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Python? Are you looking for an argument? Never mind that, its cheesy. On second thought lets not even post on BB. Tis a silly place.

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And Harry Enfield, The Fast Show, Goodness Gracious Me (the 90s BBC show, not the song)…

Blessed are the cheesemakers!

(that bit is way up there for me)

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Oldest joke


Oldest English joke

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