SERIOUSLY FUNNY: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s
Gerald Nachman, . . Pantheon, $29.95 (672pp) ISBN 978-0-375-41030-7
Something happened to comedy beginning in the late 1950s. Geniuses like Mort Sahl, Mel Brooks, Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen took a tired medium ("Take my wife—please" was about as good as it got) and transformed it into a sharper, meaner, more personal and more politicized art form than any comedy that had come before. It was, as Nachman notes in this broad survey, a "satirical revolution." Suddenly, police might arrest a comic for obscenity (Bruce). Or the American president might demand an explanation of a punch line (Sahl). Or network censors might freak out over politically charged TV scripts (the Smothers brothers). As a group, Nachman argues, these comedians changed the cultural landscape, pushing the boundaries of humor, art and good taste. But for many, genius had a price. Jonathan Winters spent time in a sanatorium; Bruce succumbed to drug addiction; and Sahl became paranoid and unbalanced, oddly obsessed with JFK's assassination. The list could go on—and does. Nachman (
Reviewed on: 02/10/2003
Genre: Nonfiction
Open Ebook - 491 pages - 978-0-307-49072-8
Paperback - 659 pages - 978-0-8230-4786-4