When the skits come on, do the laughs drop off?

[shimp scrampi]

OK, here's a point of possible contention I was thinking about. Whenever I think of the great moments from the Benny show - either radio or TV, they are overwhelmingly the portions where the cast are playing 'themselves', chatting around the mike, Jack and Rochester at home, etc. - rather than the skit portions. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of one of the parodies that is just especially outstanding. I know some like "Autolight" and "The Fiddler" are well-known but they don't do much for me. There are scattered odd moments, to be sure, but usually those are one-off gags (the Snow White 'raspberry') or when the cast is breaking character within the skits (a la the jungle TV show with Bob Hope).

So, am I alone in this assessment? What are the skits you'd recommend to persuade me otherwise?

[Gerry O.]

Those skits may not hold up particularly well today (especially when compared to those portions of the show where Jack and the cast are playing "themselves"), but those sketches were quite ground-breaking when they were first performed in the 1930's shows....particularly the spoofs of then-current movies.

Jack was the first major radio comedian to satirize then-current films, and his film spoofs were as popular and had the same "punch" that Carol Burnett's movie spoofs would have years later on TV.

While I personally find the "sitcom"-type episodes of Jack's radio and TV shows to be the most enjoyable, there is a lot to be said for the cleverness in which then-current movies and books were satirized by Jack and the cast.

[Mister Kitzel]

The characters on the show were so strong that they made the show despite the situation they were in from week to week. Even during the skits there would be a mention of something said earlier in the program before the skit started. Everything tied together.

I, too, think more of the interaction between the cast members than the skits. You have a good point.

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

I can give or take the skits. I like it best when you know it's just the cast hanging around an open microphone talking with people knocking on the door and coming in (and leaving for that matter)

[shimp scrampi]

there is a lot to be said for the cleverness in which then-current movies and books were satirized by Jack and the cast.

This is where I differ...or at least just don't understand. There is a LOT that is clever and innovative in the Benny show - the timing, the format, stylized running gags, the characterizations, heck, even the commercials. I can see how those were all innovative.

But that's exactly why the skits, particularly the movie or book based ones, are lacking to me. They generally aren't especially clever or satirical. They just use the rough concept of whatever the source material is and use it for run-of-the-mill Jack Benny schtick that might well have been funnier without being part of a parody plot.

They never really seem to skewer the movies (even lovingly) like Carol Burnett or Mel Brooks later would - probably because of studio politics, I'm sure. But I can't think of a Benny skit moment that is the even the mildest equivalent of Carol's "curtain rod" GONE WITH THE WIND bit, if you know what I mean.

Maybe it was enough for the audiences of the day just to hear the radio cast citing familiar literature and movies ... but it's one of the few aspects of the show where I can't put my contemporary self in the mind of the past audience and understand why they loved it.

[Gerry O.]

there is a lot to be said for the cleverness in which then-current movies and books were satirized by Jack and the cast.

This is where I differ...or at least just don't understand. There is a LOT that is clever and innovative in the Benny show - the timing, the format, stylized running gags, the characterizations, heck, even the commercials. I can see how those were all innovative.

But that's exactly why the skits, particularly the movie or book based ones, are lacking to me. They generally aren't especially clever or satirical. They just use the rough concept of whatever the source material is and use it for run-of-the-mill Jack Benny schtick that might well have been funnier without being part of a parody plot.

They never really seem to skewer the movies (even lovingly) like Carol Burnett or Mel Brooks later would - probably because of studio politics, I'm sure. But I can't think of a Benny skit moment that is the even the mildest equivalent of Carol's "curtain rod" GONE WITH THE WIND bit, if you know what I mean.

Maybe it was enough for the audiences of the day just to hear the radio cast citing familiar literature and movies ... but it's one of the few aspects of the show where I can't put my contemporary self in the mind of the past audience and understand why they loved it.

Hey, it was still better than the stuff that Joe Penner was doing!

[bboswell]

I think this is where I differ with most of the people on this board. I think one of my favorite episodes is the "I Stand Condemned" with Boris Karloff. It is SO outlandish and SO surrealistic. Also, where else would Jack be able to use the joke:
"We had 3 children, Manny, Moe, and Jack. We had Manny and Jack, and then decided to have one Moe."
OK, it's a silly pun, but it works. (Trust me, it takes a lot for me to say a pun is funny.)

We also have Jack meeting Boris Karloff on a bus (or train,) and beginning to buy items from him at outlandish prices.
Boris: I also admire... your NECKtie!
Jack: My NECKtie!! (sting music)

I think this is funny stuff!

As I think about it, most of the other spoofs don't work quite as well for me as this one. But at least the "I Stand Condemned" episode gives Jack and the writers a chance to branch out and do some material that they couldn't ordinarily do.

(I also enjoy the "Murder at the Racquet Club" skits, and other times when they "break into" the skit to let Jack or another cast member do some mundane detail. Like Mel Blanc as the airline employee who interrupts Jack reading a book to give him a sandwich and say something like: "Now keep your big mouth shut," after Jack finds out that airline meal was free and he declined one.)

[Gerry O.]

Anoher exceptionally funny Benny movie satire is the show's 1939 spoof of MGM's "The Women". That sketch features Jack and the other male regulars in over-the-top "verbal drag", playing the various female characters of the film. The guys sound like they're having a lot of fun doing that one.

[Yhtapmys]

Hey, it was still better than the stuff that Joe Penner was doing!

Which is actually a really important point.

You can't look at the shows in hindsight. Compare them to contemporary offerings. Benny was doing something reasonably new with his skits - something a far cry from the vaudeville humour elsewhere. And his stuff WAS better than other on shows in the 1930s trying the same thing.

People who are used to the sitcom Benny of the late 40s may be a little disconcerted with the constant silliness and non sequiturs found in the Jello-O era skits. I quite like some of them. Sure, the same thing today is much more sophisticated, but it developed because it had to start somewhere.. and the Benny show was a good starting point.

Yhtapmys

[Gerry O.]

Hey, it was still better than the stuff that Joe Penner was doing!

Which is actually a really important point.

You can't look at the shows in hindsight. Compare them to contemporary offerings. Benny was doing something reasonably new with his skits - something a far cry from the vaudeville humour elsewhere. And his stuff WAS better than other on shows in the 1930s trying the same thing.

Yhtapmys

EXACTLY....That's my whole point. Compared to the other comedy shows of that early era (most of which were still in the "hokey gag" stage), the Benny skits were top-of-the-line comedy.

[shimp scrampi]

Which is actually a really important point.

You can't look at the shows in hindsight. Compare them to contemporary offerings.

Well, again I disagree somewhat - but accept the point Gerry's making that the skits, were for their time, something new and different - and that even lackluster Benny writing was better than the overall standard.

So many other aspects of the Benny show clearly are better than other competing shows of the time. I think we've all pointed out on this board that the writing and performances on Jack's show easily equal or surpass anything offered today. But obviously we do look at the show in hindsight and marvel at how fresh and contemporary it still is overall. Part of the show's modern appeal is that you don't have to evaluate it by "the standards of the day", it's still great in 2007!

I'm not putting my head in the 1930s every time I listen.

I don't think the skits, generally speaking, were as clever and ahead of their time as the other aspects (and, thanks for pointing out some good ones - this isn't a hard and fast rule or anything!). I just think it's interesting what holds up and what starts taking on a little more of a dated patina. We've been around this block with other aspects like Dennis' singing or various racial/gender/other gags that would be out of place today.

But that's also part of what makes the show interesting... it's something like 90% just fun entertainment and then that other 10% is historical curiosity in my book!

[LLeff]

They never really seem to skewer the movies (even lovingly) like Carol Burnett or Mel Brooks later would - probably because of studio politics, I'm sure. But I can't think of a Benny skit moment that is the even the mildest equivalent of Carol's "curtain rod" GONE WITH THE WIND bit, if you know what I mean.

Oh I don't know...I like the moment (quoting from memory) in Gaslight where the wife is going through the list of things that the husband has done to drive her mad, topped off by "I made an upside-down cake, and YOU TURNED IT RIGHT SIDE UP!"

There were a slew of skits right after the new writers took over in 1943 that I think were pretty weak (this includes my least favorite Benny radio show), but I attribute that more toward the new writers still getting their sea legs. I'm pretty fond of the Buck Benny sketches, and as Gisele MacKenzie told me, Jack loved playing that character (under any name...e.g., the Cactus Kid in TV years) and you can hear how much fun they're having.

Elizabeth McLeod wrote an article in a past JB Times about how the structure of the Benny show is highly comparable to the well-defined structure of the minstrel show. Even "Jell-O again" roughly subs for "Gentlemen, be seated!". And one of the parts of the minstrel show was the buildup to a grand parody sketch that would close the show. We don't know for certain if they were intentionally patterning the show after this format, but there's enough there that it may have at least been a subconscious influence.

[shimp scrampi]

"I made an upside-down cake, and YOU TURNED IT RIGHT SIDE UP!"

OK, that is a funny line...

Good point on the minstrel show structure article - fascinating on where things get borrowed from, so even Jack's much vaunted "invention" of his radio format has traceable roots. And, you can see how the show evolved away from the closing skit over the years.

Aren't there are more than a few programs where they seem to announce what the skit will be but then never get around to it because of all the other crazy goings-on, I love those.

[krledu]

I've been reading the thread and you have a good discussion going on. I personally like the sitcom and skits format of the show. The parodies are aright but I don't understand them. I've never seen or know about most of what is parodied. One of the reasons that I enjoy the Jack Benny Show is that its humor that I can relate to rather than humor that only people from that era would understand. Thats why I don't like other shows as well. That said, the program does give some insite into the time back then. The racial stereotypes, and the war were some of the big ones that I see. I'm listening to the 1941 programs right now. (Been listening to them in order.) Very interesting!

[Maxwell]

I would imagine that it would be rather difficult for anyone born in the past 30 years or so to understand the skits, especially the movie parodies. I had the advantage of growing up in the '50s and '60s and watching a lot of the parodied movies on TV.

So here is a suggestion if you would like to get an idea of the movies that are being parodied on the show. If you don't mind spending a few bucks, check out the titles of the movies (39 Forever is a good place to do that) and then go out and rent the DVDs of those movies before listening to the show that parodies it. If you don't feel like spending the money, and if you have cable, go to the TCM web site, check out the titles for the month and find the movies Jack parodied. Then tape or Tivo them from TCM if they're on at a time you can't watch them.