Will Durst in MoJo on comedy

Tom Michael sends in this post-9/11 status report on American comedy by Will Durst. We've all been reading pieces like this since about February--"For a while it seemed comedy was dead, but it really wasn't, and now it's back and more irreverent than ever!" says the guy who makes a living doing standup/writing sitcoms/doing monologue for Letterman--and while it's not fresh, all you comedy folk might enjoy it.



Durst talks about how Chaplin cut Hitler "down to size" in The Great Dictator as an example of the usefulness of humor. Which brought to mind Peter Cook's comment about the splendid job the satirical nightclubs of Berlin did in preventing the rise of Hitler. We should be careful when we assign power to comedy--it may simply be entertainment, and in some cases, anesthetize us to something that needs more direct action than satire.