Tag Archives: comedy

Shakespeare Gets A Vaccine

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Illustration by Paul Gonzales/Los Angeles Times based on 1623 engraving by Martin Droeshout.

Nurse: Which arm?
Shakespeare: As you like it

Nurse: Was that painful?
Shakespeare: Much ado about nothing.

Nurse: Did any of your family or friends have the virus?
Shakespeare: Oh, lots: Two noble kinsmen, Antony and Cleopatra, and Troilus and Cressida

Nurse: You will have to have a second jab.
Shakespeare: Measure for measure?

Nurse: So, how was the experience?
Shakespeare: A midsummer night’s dream!

Nurse: So what do you think of the govt handling of Covid?
Shakespeare: it’s a Comedy of errors.

Shakespeare: There’s been a recent surge in the virus?
Nurse: Alas, The winter’s tale

Shakespeare: When will my quarantine end?
Nurse: On the Twelfth night.

Shakespeare: Who will foot my quarantine bill?
Nurse: The Merchant of Venice.

Shakespeare: Where will I be put up for my quarantine?
Nurse: In a Hamlet.

Shakespeare: Thank you for helping me!
Nurse: All’s well that ends well.

Thanks to Pearl Shifer for sending me these (with a few of my own additions)

… “With a Chance of Rain”

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Betty White died last week. She was a fine comedian and when she appeared on the Johnny Carson show, she and Johnny would team up to do sketches.

Here’s an eerily appropriate climate catastrophe sketch from the 1980s that was inspired by the then odd weather that Malibu was experiencing.

More at Johnny Carson

A Brotherhood of Man

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Daniel Radcliffe in a non-Harry Potter-ish role, insists on the unity of us all, as his corporate brethren in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying agree. Robert Morse and Matthew Broderick who both played the same role, introduce the high-spirited number at the Tony Awards.

Who knew that Radcliffe was such a great song-and-dance man?

Thanks to YouTuber The xNYr

The Pundemic

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On location in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, your intrepid correspondent brings you this live report from the 94th annual World Pun Competition.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the report as broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Looxury!: The Four Yorkshireman Sketch

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One more sketch from pre-Python days from At Last The 1948 Show, which was later revived for the Pythons. I think I like this original version best.

For some reason, the punch line is missing at the end. “And you try telling the young folk that today… and they won’t believe you”

Tim Brooke Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman.

Thanks to YouTuber BritBox

The Railway Carriage: Marty Feldman and John Cleese

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John Cleese, Marty Feldman from pre-Monty Python days on a tv program called At Last The 1948 Show. Feldman was hired as a writer as he was not yet a performer, but Cleese thought that Feldman would be great in sketches. And he was.

Thanks to YouTuber inedibledormouse

Perception Deception

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Magician Ben Seidman with a great effect and one of the most consistently entertaining and funny acts on Fool Us. It doesn’t seem to fool Penn & Teller, but I had no idea what Penn’s clues were there. Seidman claims on his YouTube channel that there were no camera effects involved, and that it could be reproduced live, in which case I’m totally stumped.

More at Ben Seidman