WJBC

Normal Theater: The evil-lution of British comedy

By: Dawn Riordan | Yesterday

Actors Brendan Gleeson, right, and Don Cheadle attend the 2011 Friars Club Comedy Film Festival Award presentation at the New York Friars Club on July 25, 2011, in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

No, I’m not going to require you to sit in lecture position for this grand dissertation on an art form from another land.

But seriously, there is a belief that British comedy is just not the same as American comedy, and if you blink or wander into your text messages, you’ll miss the joke. But there really are no jokes in British comedy – only humorous situations, devastatingly sarcastic characters and wily quips that aren’t exactly all-out jokes and therein lies the problem.

In a British comedy, you need to pay attention. The story, the characters and what they say all work in sublime comedy fashion to make for one master work of comedy; and this stuff is hard to follow for a society that takes everything is short spurts. Americans need their comedy segmented, like we get on YouTube. And it’s the kind of comedy that zings a one-liner, or a set up with a clear punch line from Humor 101 – we can all get it, and it’s over with and we’re ready for another pitch.

Traditional British comedy is subtle. It’s the casual way a character says something sarcastic under the breath. But in recent films, British comedy has become quite outrageous, most likely politically incorrect, and done with a blast of over-accommodating randy language impeccably pronounced, of course.

Take the film “Hot Fuzz.” Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who also did “Shaun of the Dead,” took two hardcore city cops, plunked them down in rural England and let ‘em go at solving small town hijinks with their urban training. Their harsh talk and big city police violence made you laugh at situations that were so out of whack it seemed the only way to respond.

In the film “In Bruges,” a similar situation occurs, this time with two hit men who, after just doing a “job,” have to hide out in a resort town. This film featured actor Brendan Gleeson as the hit man who makes the best of his down time by sightseeing while his partner in crime wallows in the misery of being sent to a remote place with no direction. The whimsical charm is that these two characters are yin and yang. It’s comedy to see them interact as such polar opposites.

In the interest of science and a good time, this week at the Normal Theater we’re featuring the latest of outrageous British comedy, “The Guard.”

Don Cheadle stars as a strait-laced FBI agent who must partner with a gruff and obstinate Irish cop on an international drug trafficking case. This film is not a blatant comedy-cop-buddy-film; it’s a crime thriller with dark humor and clever writing that only comes through because the actors give the characters so much life.

Gleeson is the Irish cop – and his character is and amazing blend of repulsion and magnetism. His character speaks his mind, sparing no one, and it’s this down-right forthrightedness that makes this film a pleasure to watch. I’d love to see this character in a sequel, but not in an American remake because we’d need to put in the jokes. And this film doesn’t need jokes; it’s got character!
Rated R for colorful, movie-cop inspired language and violence.

“The Guard” will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at the Normal Theater.
Dawn Riordan is director of the Normal Theater.