When I was about 10 years old, my sister and I loved watching Get Smart on Nick at Nite. We thought it was hilarious. Agent 86 was stupid but loveable, and we adored Agent 99 with her mini skirts and go-go boots. It was predictable and full of slapstick comedy, just right for an eight year old and a ten year old.
So when I saw the Get Smart season one DVDs at the library, I grabbed them and thought it would be fun to watch since I haven't watched the show in decades. I watched the first episode last night, and it was... lame. I had trouble making it through the whole episode! No wonder I loved it before, a fifth grader must have written the script. I think part of it is just a difference in the times; the show was from 1965, and things hadn't changed that much when I was watching in 1986, but they've changed enough now that the jokes aren't funny anymore. So there's a phone in his shoe. Big deal. That's a stupid place to put it, but whatever. But back then we thought it was brilliant. The other part of it I'm just chalking up to youth. When you're ten, a little tiny man named Mr. Big = funny. A man slipping on a banana peel = funny. Now... not so much.
Anyway, it was weird to watch it last night and realize how different the show was from what I remembered, and how much I've changed. I wanted to call up my sister last night and ask her what we were thinking back then. I didn't want to wake her up, so I'll ask her now: Skeeter, was mom slipping a little crazy in our bologna sandwiches or what? And I'll ask my 2 or 3 readers - Do any of you like this show? And have any of you loved anything as a child and then had a completely different opinion of it as an adult? Discuss.
9 comments:
So the real question then is, did your boys think it was funny?
P.S. Yes, I remember watching it on Nick @ Nite when I was little and cracking up.
I agree, not so incredibly funny. But eat all your old Easter candy, stay up till two a.m. and don't have sex for a week. It will be the funniest thing you've ever seen in your life!
Whenever I get a recipe from my mom for something I LOVED as a child, it almost always disapoints. So I quit asking and choose to remember how awesome I thought everything she made was....even if it wasn't.
We checked out The Gods Must Be Crazy and a Rocky and Bullwinkle series from the library for the same reason - nostalgia. Neither of them seemed very funny anymore which was disappointing. Maybe I'll just stick with the memories ...
I got the first series of Get Smart for Dave for Father's Day last year. He was so excited, and sat the kids down to watch it with him. I couldn't bring myself to watch with them, as I didn't enjoy it the first time around, and when I observed Dave with the kids... well, Dave was cracking up... yes, true story. Amanda tried to crack up with him, and well, the rest of them... hmmmm... actually, come to think of it, I don't think there were any kids left in the room.... besides Amanda. Such a dutiful daughter...
This is a timely post. Not long ago, Amazon had the entire Get Smart collection for dirt cheap for their deal of the day, and I must admit, it tempted me. I had some birthday money to burn and I remembered how much I loved the show as a kid. I'd also just watched movie and had been pleasantly surprised at how much it made me chuckle. I couldn't pull the trigger on the deal, though. Now I'm glad I didn't. I still better try one episode, though, just to make sure I'm not some weirdo who still likes Get Smart. Stranger things have happened.
I'm totally with you on all that. I didn't watch that particular show but there have been a couple with me that same thing has happened. The Disney movie about Nadia (the gymnist)...borrrringg. Punky Brewster? Dumb. Now Little House on the Prarie I still totally dig.
My friend Teresa's insight that she sent me in an email (I love the humor equation!):
"Humor theory is a fascinating topic. If brevity is the soul of wit, 99's skirts should be perennially hilarious. My husband maintains that Humor = Pain x Distance. Thus, as space-time is one big continuum, old slapstick should be funnier than the fresh kind. I think a key element is surprise. Sure, I loved Get Smart's gadgets and the way cool-headed 99 always saved the day. But these days, people on the street have stranger gadgets coming out of their ears. And we have to solve the problems of immature males on a regular basis. The shows just aren't surprising anymore. I felt the same way showing "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to Darrell a few years after watching it with my roommates. "Men in Black" paled after just a few months. I knew what was coming. The best books stay funny, but only if I don't read them too often. I think, though that surprise is a characteristic of mature humor. My 6-year-old still thinks the best thing to do with a joke is to repeat it ad nauseum. My 8-year-old may be making the transition: he finds his brother's repetition annoying, but he still does the same thing himself."
Oh, and SJ, the boys never got around to watching it before I had to take it back to the library. I'm curious if they would have liked it, almost enough to check it out again, but not quite.
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