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the court jester
26 Dec 2018 01:20 amI'd never seen The Court Jester until earlier this year, and Danny Kaye was missing from my cultural knowledge until my wife told me who he was. When I did finally see it, that seemed a bit shocking.
I know it doesn't make any SENSE, but as I was watching it the first time I kept being disoriented by the fact that it's so funny - so reminiscent of later medieval comedy like The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (but better, maybe. Narrowly, but... yeah, I think I would put it above The Princess Bride as well) - and yet is older, as if I was subconsciously expecting the technology of humor to have advanced in the meantime. (I did say it didn't make sense.) And more logically, I'm a bit gobsmacked that with all the conversations I've had about The Princess Bride, Men in Tights, and The Holy Grail over the years, I haven't met with lots of people asking if I'd seen it and telling me how good it was.
One of the things that's fascinating is what it does with gender, both masculinity and femininity - while still being noticeably (cheerfully?) beholden to Hollywood beauty standards and notions of costume and hair and makeup of the time. I think there are several essays' worth of stuff to be said there, actually. (Not essays that I have time to write right now. I did look for analysis about it, but that mostly turned up positive reviews and trivia about Danny Kaye.)
But of course the biggest difference between those movies and The Court Jester is that it's the writing of the jokes which makes them shine - not that the acting in them isn't good and funny, but The Court Jester is very much a star vehicle designed and written for the skills of its star. Its physical comedy gags are for many people the most memorable parts of it, and they make up whole plot sequences.
I know it doesn't make any SENSE, but as I was watching it the first time I kept being disoriented by the fact that it's so funny - so reminiscent of later medieval comedy like The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (but better, maybe. Narrowly, but... yeah, I think I would put it above The Princess Bride as well) - and yet is older, as if I was subconsciously expecting the technology of humor to have advanced in the meantime. (I did say it didn't make sense.) And more logically, I'm a bit gobsmacked that with all the conversations I've had about The Princess Bride, Men in Tights, and The Holy Grail over the years, I haven't met with lots of people asking if I'd seen it and telling me how good it was.
One of the things that's fascinating is what it does with gender, both masculinity and femininity - while still being noticeably (cheerfully?) beholden to Hollywood beauty standards and notions of costume and hair and makeup of the time. I think there are several essays' worth of stuff to be said there, actually. (Not essays that I have time to write right now. I did look for analysis about it, but that mostly turned up positive reviews and trivia about Danny Kaye.)
But of course the biggest difference between those movies and The Court Jester is that it's the writing of the jokes which makes them shine - not that the acting in them isn't good and funny, but The Court Jester is very much a star vehicle designed and written for the skills of its star. Its physical comedy gags are for many people the most memorable parts of it, and they make up whole plot sequences.
