The Honeymooners

Today is the day most people recognize as New Years Day, the first day of the year that began at midnight last night. Some will also recognize it as the day channel 11 does their annual Honeymooners Marathon.

Beginning at midnight, the start of 2009, and ending at 5PM this evening, the channel is showing almost every Honeymooners episode. While not being one who spends my entire holiday watching television, I will turn it on and watch an episode or two or three and appreciate some of the best comedic work in television history. Not the writing. Oh, the writing is good. And it actually seemed better at the time before their plots would be used and reused by shows of less quality for years to follow. The writing is good, but not amazing.

When I speak of some of the best comedic work in television history, I speak specifically about the performances of Jackie Gleason and Art Carney. They are perhaps perfect. And perfect is not a word I like to use. The writing, in reality, was mostly a bunch of excuses to let these guys rant at each other. Their dynamic was perfect. They both played their characters so well, and understood exactly what was funny about them and how to heighten those details in every single episode. They didn't even really need a script. I could watch these two characters just sit in a room and talk about non-sense and it would be hilarious.

Consider the following exchange:

Gleason is yelling out the window for Carney, who lives a floor up in the same building. Gleason, however, doesn't realise that Carney is already downstairs and in the same room as him. So, when Gleason yells his name out the window, Carney replies from behind him causing him to get startled and jump.

This is a gag that would be trivial if almost any two other actors had done it. To be sure, similar jokes have been done on many a sit-com throughout time. But, in the hands of these two actors, it is great.

Everyone compares the Honeymooners to the Flintstones and, while they did get the idea of the Fred and Barney characters from the Gleason and Carney characters Ralph and Ed Norton, the comparison is not totally accurate. The dynamic is different. Barney was always subordinate to Fred. He was a dolt, flat out. They fought about big things, but didn't usually argue about the general planning of Fred's schemes. Barney participated in these schemes because he was Fred's dumb friend.

Norton participated and Ralph's ridiculousness because he wanted to. He was not the straight man to Ralph's crazy character, he was just as crazy. The women were the straight man. He was also, in a way, Ralph's intellectual equal, which is much different from their animated kin.

And, now, concerning the women. Trixie and Alice are almost never discussed in conversation concerning this show. But they were invaluable. Here amongst two of the most ridiculous characters in entertainment history, are two normal, cold, wives. Which is necessary. If no one was there to tell Ralph he was an idiot, it just wouldn't have been as funny. Alice also gave Ralph a reason to get mad. And Ralph getting reasons to get mad and scheme things with Norton was pretty much the whole point of the show. This (not to keep bringing up the Flintstones but...) was another difference in the two dynamics. Wilma and Betty were giggly and silly. Alice and Trixie and just real women. The writers of the Honeymooners were smart enough to know that Ralph and Norton are funniest when in a otherwise regular world. No one else needed to be funny on that show but them.

I easily rank both of these actors amongst the funniest performers in sit-com history. If I had make a list of the top six, I believe it would look like this.

1. Jackie Gleason in The Honeymooners
2. Art Carney in The Honeymooners
3. Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy
4. Christopher Lloyd in Taxi
5. Carrel O'Connor in All in the Family
6. Ricky Gervais in The Office

Those are not in order. I can't order those geniuses.

I am a huge fan of smart entertainment and those above names, particularly the two I've discussed in this blog, are models of smart performers. The know what is funny about themselves, their characters, and their show. And they play just that, and nothing more or less. Being one who values little more in life than discovering exactly what is funny about everything and what will make people laugh, their accomplishments are inspiring.

This is the day everyone is discussing what's going to happen over the next year and personally, I hope we get more people like these. More people who can entertain us, smartly, and inspire us who wish to be inspired.