I
believe it was Shakespeare who first said, "Let thy mouth be thy center
of comedy.....Place several helpings of thy creamed corn loosely in thy
cheeks and speak loudly, forgetting of thine mouth's contents, or
unto which shoulder they shall spill. Next...take a swig of thy favourite
ale inconspicuously in thy jowls. Expel said liquid in a spraying manner,
much like Danny the Earl of Thomas, forgetting the non-washable garments
of thy guests. " He
was of course speaking of what we know today as .... PHYSICAL COMEDY.*
Perhaps the earliest recorded act was that of the Greek philosopher Plato
who wrote in his dialogue Comedibus, "And so I slipped on the banana peel
and went cascading through the garden gates. The distance was that of twelve
armspans...and this caused pain to ascend from my lower torso up unto my
shoulder. Yet as even I was still in motion...I could hear squeals of laughter
coming from the commoners digging the floral beds. What can this relationship
between disaster and ignorance be? Thus begins my study..."
The following evidence of comedic form
was saved in Egyptian pyramid drawings. Once thought to be recordings only
of historic events of the rulers, recent study shows pharaohs spent years
developing their own genre of cheap laughs. We
see now the great King Ramses II had the largest repertoire of gags with
a penchant for the oversized floppy sandal, the asp down the skirt and
the dribble goblet. Carvings show he also loved wearing pharaohess clothing
and imitating jackal-headed gods during official ceremonies. And he was
often spotted climbing the Sphinx and sporting it with a Van Dyke beard
and moustache. Other noted Egyptian contributions include Pharaoh Amenhotep
III who is credited with developing the early "fake vomit patty" made from
falcon vomit sundried and preserved according to Egyptian custom and King
Tutmose III who was notorious for short sheeting all his mummies.
One of the gravest mistakes is
assuming any form of physical comedy works. Michelangelo was a prime example.
One of the great masters of the High Renaissance, he was best known as
a painter and sculptor. Unfortunately for Michelangelo, he also
felt he had a talent for comedy although it was painfully obvious to his
contemporaries that he was severely lacking and would never master the
technique. One
of his great sculptures, the figure David, he originally clothed in a milkmaid's
outfit, with braided wig, holding a bucket with a piece of straw hanging
out his mouth. He then hung a sign around its neck which read, "Leonardo
Da Vinci?". Da Vinci, who was in attendance at the unveiling
along with a prestigious audience could only shake his head as it was not
the first time he had witnessed Michelangelo's total lack of humor. Only
a few years earlier when he unveiled his greatest work, the Pieta, he had
greeted Da Vinci at the door with a pie to his face. When the
shocked Da Vinci complained Michelangelo retorted, "Hey I thought you could
take a joke." Although his Sistine Chapel was a brilliant showcase of paintings
and took years to complete, he couldn't help but splatter paint down on
the nuns who brought him his meals shouting out a lame "whoops!" and then
laughing to himself. He was finally set straight when one group of nuns,
who couldn't take his poor sense of humor, tied off the scaffolding device
he used to get to the ceiling and pelted him with paint soaked rags only
letting him down when he promised to wash all their habits.
During the American Revolution Ben Franklin showed his lighter side in
his Poor Richard's Almanac, but he was also known to have tried his hand
at physical comedy. He wore his "arrow-through-the-head" gag during the
signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Asked to remove it by John Hancock for decorum's sake, he was quoted to
have said loudly, "Who died and made you king?", which infuriated Hancock
and asked for his removal. Franklin then professed an apology by offering
the unsuspecting Hancock the first exploding cigar which blew off Hancock's
eyebrows and moustache, but did get a few laughs from John Adams and George
Washington to Franklin's delight. On another occasion as he stood out in
the famous thunderstorm with the kite and key in an effort to prove electricity,
he persisted at scaring his young assistant by simulating electrocution
several times. And although the assistant begged him to stop, at one point
he inconspicuously lit his sleeve on fire shouting, "AHHHHHH! A direct
hit!!"
Professional comedians
consider physical comedy to be the most difficult to master. When asked,
many will point to Harpo Marx as their inspiration. Yet it was circumstances
beyond his control that eventually lead him to perfect his form of silent
physical comedy. Unlike his brothers, with whom he later formed the comedy
team The Marx Brothers, Harpo was born with a voice that was unnaturally
low. Even as a small child his voice was already a baritone, prompting his parents to put him in a local theater/musical group. By age 6 when his voice reached deep bass, he was moved into adult roles but eventually left when one jealous member, who felt his own voice was being over-shadowed by Harpo's, plotted
against him insisting to their director that he be removed for his own
sake as their Tuesday night rehearsals were keeping Harpo up past his bedtime,
making him cranky. Then at age 13 Harpo's voice dropped another 3 octaves...low
enough to be detected by whales. Dubbed "the bullhorn" by his peers, Harpo
threw himself into learning the harp. It was then that he decided to feign
a severe injury to his throat. Although never fully deciphered through
his hand motions, most people believe he was either trying to tell them
he had mistaken battery acid for tea, swallowed a box of straight pins,
or was strangled by a cobra, electric eel, or vacuum cleaner hose... or
salesman. Never-the-less, this changed the course of his life. And fortunately
for him, being born into a family of brothers who all shared a desire to
perform comedy, this allowed Harpo to perfect his famous routines of whistling,
horn tooting and leg holds and lesser known gags of loud linguine sucking,
tripping over cats, and getting his boot caught in escalators.
Politicians, eager to use any
device to their career advantage, often study physical comedy as a companion
to law. Richard Nixon is a prime example. He was often seen as a
stoic figure having little or no sense of humor, but only because he preferred
to use physical comedy for his own personal pleasure. He was notorious
for intentionally handing out leaky fountain pens to his Democratic opponents
and then chuckling to himself as ink leaked mercilessly in their hands.
At state dinners he would wear his squirting daisy in his lapel and when
his guests were immersed in conversations with each other to his exclusion,
he would squirt them with shots up to ten feet long across the table. His
final hurrah he wrote in his memoirs. "No one knew this at the time, but
as I left the office of the Presidency and stood to give my final wave
to the country at the White House with the helicopter to my back, I actually
was using a wooden right hand which I held securely with my real hand up
my sleeve. I
raised my arm in a farewell gesture and let the helicopter blade strike
the hand. It fell to the ground and I had the intense pleasure of watching
the scared faces of that pack of liberal reporters as it hit! I then shouted,
'I thought you pansies came for blood!' I laughed. Pat laughed. Trisha
and Julie laughed. Even Gerald Ford laughed. But those liberal reporters
didn't have the guts to print it."
or
unto which shoulder they shall spill. Next...take a swig of thy favourite
ale inconspicuously in thy jowls. Expel said liquid in a spraying manner,
much like Danny the Earl of Thomas, forgetting the non-washable garments
of thy guests. " 
He
was of course speaking of what we know today as .... PHYSICAL COMEDY.*
Perhaps the earliest recorded act was that of the Greek philosopher Plato
who wrote in his dialogue Comedibus, "And so I slipped on the banana peel
and went cascading through the garden gates. The distance was that of twelve
armspans...and this caused pain to ascend from my lower torso up unto my
shoulder. Yet as even I was still in motion...I could hear squeals of laughter
coming from the commoners digging the floral beds. What can this relationship
between disaster and ignorance be? Thus begins my study..."
We
see now the great King Ramses II had the largest repertoire of gags with
a penchant for the oversized floppy sandal, the asp down the skirt and
the dribble goblet. Carvings show he also loved wearing pharaohess clothing
and imitating jackal-headed gods during official ceremonies. And he was
often spotted climbing the Sphinx and sporting it with a Van Dyke beard
and moustache. Other noted Egyptian contributions include Pharaoh Amenhotep
III who is credited with developing the early "fake vomit patty" made from
falcon vomit sundried and preserved according to Egyptian custom and King
Tutmose III who was notorious for short sheeting all his mummies.
One
of his great sculptures, the figure David, he originally clothed in a milkmaid's
outfit, with braided wig, holding a bucket with a piece of straw hanging
out his mouth. He then hung a sign around its neck which read, "Leonardo
Da Vinci?". Da Vinci, who was in attendance at the unveiling
along with a prestigious audience could only shake his head as it was not
the first time he had witnessed Michelangelo's total lack of humor. Only
a few years earlier when he unveiled his greatest work, the Pieta, he had
greeted Da Vinci at the door with a pie to his face. When the
shocked Da Vinci complained Michelangelo retorted, "Hey I thought you could
take a joke." Although his Sistine Chapel was a brilliant showcase of paintings
and took years to complete, he couldn't help but splatter paint down on
the nuns who brought him his meals shouting out a lame "whoops!" and then
laughing to himself. He was finally set straight when one group of nuns,
who couldn't take his poor sense of humor, tied off the scaffolding device
he used to get to the ceiling and pelted him with paint soaked rags only
letting him down when he promised to wash all their habits.
Asked to remove it by John Hancock for decorum's sake, he was quoted to
have said loudly, "Who died and made you king?", which infuriated Hancock
and asked for his removal. Franklin then professed an apology by offering
the unsuspecting Hancock the first exploding cigar which blew off Hancock's
eyebrows and moustache, but did get a few laughs from John Adams and George
Washington to Franklin's delight. On another occasion as he stood out in
the famous thunderstorm with the kite and key in an effort to prove electricity,
he persisted at scaring his young assistant by simulating electrocution
several times. And although the assistant begged him to stop, at one point
he inconspicuously lit his sleeve on fire shouting, "AHHHHHH! A direct
hit!!"
against him insisting to their director that he be removed for his own
sake as their Tuesday night rehearsals were keeping Harpo up past his bedtime,
making him cranky. Then at age 13 Harpo's voice dropped another 3 octaves...low
enough to be detected by whales. Dubbed "the bullhorn" by his peers, Harpo
threw himself into learning the harp. It was then that he decided to feign
a severe injury to his throat. Although never fully deciphered through
his hand motions, most people believe he was either trying to tell them
he had mistaken battery acid for tea, swallowed a box of straight pins,
or was strangled by a cobra, electric eel, or vacuum cleaner hose... or
salesman. Never-the-less, this changed the course of his life. And fortunately
for him, being born into a family of brothers who all shared a desire to
perform comedy, this allowed Harpo to perfect his famous routines of whistling,
horn tooting and leg holds and lesser known gags of loud linguine sucking,
tripping over cats, and getting his boot caught in escalators.
At state dinners he would wear his squirting daisy in his lapel and when
his guests were immersed in conversations with each other to his exclusion,
he would squirt them with shots up to ten feet long across the table. His
final hurrah he wrote in his memoirs. "No one knew this at the time, but
as I left the office of the Presidency and stood to give my final wave
to the country at the White House with the helicopter to my back, I actually
was using a wooden right hand which I held securely with my real hand up
my sleeve. 
I
raised my arm in a farewell gesture and let the helicopter blade strike
the hand. It fell to the ground and I had the intense pleasure of watching
the scared faces of that pack of liberal reporters as it hit! I then shouted,
'I thought you pansies came for blood!' I laughed. Pat laughed. Trisha
and Julie laughed. Even Gerald Ford laughed. But those liberal reporters
didn't have the guts to print it."
