If ever your spirits need lifting, may I recommend you watch any (or all) of the three Paddington films which have enchanted cinemagoers, DVD purchasers and TV watchers since the first one was released in 2014.
While watching the latest in the trilogy, 2024’s Paddington In Peru, it didn’t take me long to pick up on the fact the writers and producers had peppered it with several visual references to classic movies, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Raiders Of The Lost Ark, which just added to the fun.
One visual gag was a very clever reconstruction of the famous scene in Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jnr (1928), where the wooden frontage of a house falls onto an unsuspecting Buster, who escapes injury as he’s standing under an open window.
This made me wonder what the difference is between what’s often generously referred to as an ‘hom-age’ to an original creative idea that’s previously been performed by someone . . . and ‘blatant theft’!
As styles of comedy have changed over the decades, ‘nicking jokes’ from other comedians happens less these days.
Many modern comedians don’t tell jokes, as such.
They prefer to create a routine or the whole of their act around one specific topic, quite often some personal trauma from their past.
The material is then so identified with that comic, no other performer would dare to ‘borrow’ any of it.
There’s a tendency to call what were once simply referred to as ‘jokes’, as ‘Dad’ jokes. Which is unfair to comedians who still entertain audiences by telling gags.
Barry Cryer was a much-admired, prolific comedy writer, yet there were stories about him allegedly watching comedians and writing down their jokes.
He was, apparently, so well-known for it that he once walked into a Green Room at the BBC where Spike Milligan was relaxing after a show.
On seeing Barry, Spike jumped up, threw himself against the wall as if he was about to be ‘frisked’ and said, “OK, Cryer! Don’t hurt me. Just take my gags”
A story that Barry probably told against himself more than once!