OK, the death of someone familiar is always tinged with a
little sadness, but I have to say that I never found him even slightly funny. I
don’t mean to denigrate him in saying that; maybe it’s a matter of personal
taste, or maybe it’s symptomatic of the difference between what we Brits find
funny and what Americans laugh at. But the fact of the matter is that I never
found him anything more than irritating.
I think it’s also true that comedians of his generation
generally followed a style which oozed ego. Bob Hope often fell into that trap,
and it was certainly true of the big British comedian, Bob Monkhouse. The
persona always seemed to radiate the same message: ‘Look at me and worship, for
I hold you in the palm of my hand.’ Comedy actors were a different species,
which is where Bob Hope redeemed himself in my book.
And what about Jim Carey’s accolade:
That fool was no
dummy. Jerry Lewis was an undeniable genius, an unfathomable blessing, comedy’s
absolute. I am because he was!
If ever there was an unmitigated expression of ego wrapped
up in an overly effusive overstatement, that has to be it. I find Jim Carey
hard to tolerate even when he’s acting.
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