Spring Music Box Series Will See Whether Classic Comedies Are Still Funny
By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 7, 2016 8:00PM
Comedies don’t always age well, as anyone who has recently watched Sixteen Candles (1984) knows. It would have stayed super cute, but it’s cartoonishly racist against Long Duck Dong (a literal gong plays whenever he appears) and Duckie’s happy ending with hot blonde Caroline is almost definitely date rape in modern parlance.
While changing social mores can make comedies look out of step, our ideas about what a good joke even is also change. Some old-timey jokes are just… weird. If you need proof, read the early jokes in New York’s “100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy.”
Lakeview's Music Box Theatre has decided to explore this whole phenomenon of comedy losing its juice (in some cases!) with a four-week series: “Is It Still Funny?”, hosted by former Tribune reporter Mark Caro.
The series, which will kick off April 12, will consist of four classic comedy screenings, each followed by a Caro-led discussion of whether the movie holds up.
National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) will start the series off. After that, the series will also feature, in chronological order: Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (1974); the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup (1933); and There’s Something About Mary (1998), where Cameron Diaz puts semen in her hair.
Series showings will be on Tuesdays at 7 p.m., and advance tickets are available online.