Was Bob Hope funny?

R1 is an ass.

The issue seldom involves such bullshit as the "Zeitgeist." Trendiness in humor doesn't last. Comedy that deals with life's themes, even when expressed in contemporaneous terms, lasts, provided ample wit and technique are applied. Much of what is funny changes with time, but it's not the "Zeitgeist" that determines this - it's the staleness that comes with silliness becoming too familiar, schtick getting stuck, and acute observation being sacrificed for cant. And of course humor about buggy whips will lost its fun when people forget what a buggy whip was. That ain't the Geist of the Zeit.

Citing Baby Shnooks is a false measure. Many of Martin's and Lewis' acts are still funny. W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges, Mae West, Oscar Wilde's dialogue, Shakespeare's "material," Josephine Hull, Margaret Rutherford, George Carlin, Redd Foxx - these people remain hilarious in retrospect to many contemporary audiences in various comedic genres.

But the question of the thread concerns Bob Hope. Hope lost his savor not because of the times but because his schtick was lazy, detached, impersonal, and untimely, and in his age he lost his touch and his understanding of his talent. Not all older comedians do - Henny Youngman, against all odds, could break an audience up at the end of his career, and Moms Mabley only got better as she aged.

Hope's oldest available work, as in his early films, remains very funny - delightfully "present," surprisingly modest and self-aware, snide and cynical. And seeing his best work with Crosby is revelatory.

I go on because putzes such as R1 are a bane of the DL and similar cites. A grand pronouncement, invoking an unevidenced claim sometimes with a cherry-picked anecdotal example, serves to slap a smug expression on the dolt's mug, when all that is being shared is personal opinion, personal limitations and shallowness.

I never found Steve Martin's stand-up routines funny. Was I ahead of my time? No. But plenty of people still laugh at them. And I can admire his timing and invention even while not laughing.

Ugh - such people.