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Kablooie

(19,108 posts)
Sat Feb 28, 2026, 01:32 AM Feb 28

Has anyone watched Laugh-In TV show recently?

I remember it as being amazingly funny and entertaining.
It was one of biggest TV hits of all time.

Watching it today it is not funny, tedious, childish and annoying.
What happened? How can our sensibilities change so drastically?

15 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Has anyone watched Laugh-In TV show recently? (Original Post) Kablooie Feb 28 OP
it was considered naughty at the time nt msongs Feb 28 #1
see I always found it not funny, tedious, childish and annoyiing Skittles Feb 28 #2
Remember all the catch phrases that became part of the culture at the time? MIButterfly Feb 28 #3
Same here. It was a laugh a minute back in its heyday. Mister Ed Feb 28 #4
How do reruns of Mr Ed hold up? Intractable Feb 28 #5
I don't know. I haven't watched any reruns of the classic sitcoms. Mister Ed Feb 28 #6
They hold up. For me anyway. Iggo Mar 6 #9
MR. ED Maninacan Mar 6 #11
Green Acres? Maninacan Mar 6 #12
Green Acres is a timeless absurdist comedy Zorro Mar 6 #15
Dick Van Dyke show still works though. Kablooie Mar 6 #7
Yes, actually. LudwigPastorius Mar 6 #8
i have Maninacan Mar 6 #10
It was very much a show of its time. surrealAmerican Mar 6 #13
Is "recently" defined in decades?!1 - (trying to be funny) UTUSN Mar 6 #14

Skittles

(171,724 posts)
2. see I always found it not funny, tedious, childish and annoyiing
Sat Feb 28, 2026, 01:41 AM
Feb 28

and I was brought up on ENGLISH humor

MIButterfly

(2,706 posts)
3. Remember all the catch phrases that became part of the culture at the time?
Sat Feb 28, 2026, 01:42 AM
Feb 28

You bet your sweet bippy.
Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls.
Beautiful downtown Burbank.
Sock it to me.
Very inter-es-tink.
Hear come da judge.

I'm sure there's more I can't remember.

Several years back, I saw a rerun of the News of the Future from 1968 where they talked about Pesident Ronald Reagan, which got a huge laugh. And then just 12 years later, it came true and nobody was laughing.

Mister Ed

(6,928 posts)
4. Same here. It was a laugh a minute back in its heyday.
Sat Feb 28, 2026, 01:51 AM
Feb 28

But in later times, the reruns I've seen have seemed dull as dirt.

Intractable

(2,114 posts)
5. How do reruns of Mr Ed hold up?
Sat Feb 28, 2026, 10:14 AM
Feb 28

I loved it as a kid. But 50 years later, I don't think I could watch it.

Now, Green Acres would be a different story.

Mister Ed

(6,928 posts)
6. I don't know. I haven't watched any reruns of the classic sitcoms.
Sat Feb 28, 2026, 11:56 AM
Feb 28

I've been thinking lately, though, that I should reach way, way back and see if the old Marx Brothers movies are as funny as I remember them.
(Not that I'm old enough to have seen them as first-run films. But when I was a teenager, my friends and I loved to go to a local theater when they occasionally showed vintage Marx Brothers.)

Iggo

(49,932 posts)
9. They hold up. For me anyway.
Fri Mar 6, 2026, 05:56 PM
Mar 6

Just remember, that was a different time. Lot of sexist stuff, and at least a couple of shockingly racist moments. (I think the racist stuff was cut out of the versions I saw when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s. I don’t remember ever seeing that back then.)

Maninacan

(299 posts)
12. Green Acres?
Fri Mar 6, 2026, 06:23 PM
Mar 6

I always wonder how the cars were brought onto the set. Were they pushed or towed with a cable?

Zorro

(18,697 posts)
15. Green Acres is a timeless absurdist comedy
Fri Mar 6, 2026, 11:08 PM
Mar 6

Still funny these days to me.

Likewise The Beverly Hillbillies and Get Smart.

LudwigPastorius

(14,739 posts)
8. Yes, actually.
Fri Mar 6, 2026, 04:59 PM
Mar 6

I ran across it on Tubi, I think, and watched the very first episode from 1968. It was incredibly cheezy, with dumb, sexist jokes. Hard to believe it was considered "edgy" back then.

(I'll admit, I do still find Dick Martin kind of funny, though.)

Maninacan

(299 posts)
10. i have
Fri Mar 6, 2026, 06:19 PM
Mar 6

I Like a few things but it is dated. Lily Tomlin got started there but she would have made herself without LI. Better than it's country copy HEEHAW.

surrealAmerican

(11,882 posts)
13. It was very much a show of its time.
Fri Mar 6, 2026, 07:04 PM
Mar 6

The same could be said of its predecessor, The Smothers' Brothers Show - important at the time, but hard to watch today.

The world of the '60s is almost unimaginable now, for reasons both good and bad.

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