I'm 26. I don't know if anyone else remembers a channel called "Ha!", but I remember when I was little and my dad got me hooked on L+H movies and shorts.
"I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!" Carl, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
I'm 30, so Stan died 10 years before I was born. Yet when I was a kid the first time I watched these guys I was hooked. I can still watch them now and laugh at them. Way out west always stuck as my favourite.
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I'm 57. I didn't really discover the boys until after they were both dead.
I have a son, 32 now, who grew up watching them and still loves them. We used to swap quotes with eah other. I have another son aged 20, who's just the same.
They are timeless. If I live to have great-great grandchildren, I'm sure we'll all sit there laughing.
It ain't like it used to be. But it'll do.
I'm 48. Here in the UK in the mid 1960's there was a TV show called "Mad Movies" and the presenter Bob Monkhouse would show clips of silent comedy films featuring among others Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Snub Pollard, Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin, The Keystone Kops and of course Laurel and Hardy.
While I enjoyed all the other comics it was Stan and Ollie who really stood out and made me laugh and I fell in love with their comedy also every Saturday morning my local cinema would show a couple of Laurel and Hardy shorts before the main feature.
I still watch the boys' films and love them even more and even though I know what is going to happen next I still laugh, I have 95 of their films on VHS and DVD and I watch and enjoy them even more now than ever.
hr-hundleby is right in saying "They are timeless" and I think their comedy is for everyome no matter what their age.
You dont watch a Laurel and Hardy film, you spend time in their company.
"Badges? We ain't got no badges. I dont have to show you any stinking badges!"
My daughter watches these classics with me, yesterday she asked me if they were still alive, sad moment.
Oh, I just turned 40, but I'm really a kid at heart.
Merry Christmas ya filthy animal.
"My daughter watches these classics with me, yesterday she asked me if they were still alive, sad moment."
My dear hailbear2002, the boys are still alive in our hearts, in our minds and immortalised on our screens. They will forever be.
I am glad your daughter watches Stan and Ollie with you. I wish more children would and perhaps they could learn to love life more and laugh at themselves the same way Laurel and Hardy do in their wonderful films.
"I am only a cabman and a grave robber"
Thank you ygorshump, that was a very kind reply, it really lifted my spirits.
Merry Christmas ya filthy animal.
To ygorshump, I also live in the UK, I remember in the early 80’s that one evening in the week, (can’t remember what day it was) a Laurel & Hardy short and sometimes a double bill would be shown on BBC2. From that moment on I was hooked! My father had one of those early Beta Marks Videos that was about the same size of a small car and he would record all the Boys films which resulted in me watching “Busy Bodies”, “Come Clean”, “Brats”, “The Perfect Day” and many others over and over again! I’m now 34 and I’m still nuts about Laurel & Hardy. I have a large number of their films on Video and DVD and I’ve been a member of The Laurel & Hardy Appreciation Society for almost 20 years now.
They are defiantly timeless and you were spot on when you said, you don’t watch a Laurel and Hardy film, you spend time in their company.
Laurel & Hardy are without a doubt the greatest comedy duo ever!
"You've altered too but you haven't changed a bit..."
I'm 19. I was introduced to the boys at ten (through this very film) and loved them instantly. The combination of wisecracks and slapstick routines, timed too slickly for words and enrichened by the humanity behind all madcap comedy, made me both laugh at the boys till my cheekbones hurt and care about them at the same time. The very sight of them makes me chuckle: Laurel sit down at the glasses of Hardy. Hardy stares at him, exasperatedly patient, doing dead takes into the camera while shaking his head. Laurel's reaction is expressed through disintergrated movements with his hands in the manner of a child, trying to calculate what had just occured in bewildered mystification; and then, the embarrassment of the situation is highlighted with Hardy's sudden attack of violent anger. Okay, so I just made this scene up (although Laurel did sit on Hardy's glasses at one point), but what I tried to do was to formulate the essence of their comedy and that their characters are even more significant to their comedy as the very material they perform. But I guess you already knew that.
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Hi CelticDragonV, It's a pity the Beeb stopped showing the boys' shorts, I cant remember the last time they did but some of the younger generation sure are missing out!
I've still got a lot of my old video cassettes of Laurel and Hardy shorts and features that I too recorded way back in the mists of time. I never play them now as they are poor quality, not as good as my DVDs but how can I just throw them away! I do play some documentaries on tape that I have not yet got on disc.
"Why, you're all NUTS!"
Okay, you beat the cake. The International Sons of the Desert would be perfect for you if you're not a member already.
http://home.earthlink.net/~sons_secretary/
You're old enough to remember...the cartoon? I barely...and I do mean "BARELY" remember their cartoons. I definitely remember Abbott & Costello cartoons...I was about 4-5 years old.
I would pay serious money if these were available on DVD.
I'm 60. When I was a kid in the '50's, my Dad, who was a huge fan of "the boys", sat me in front of the TV whenever they were on and made them required viewing. I did the same with my son, who's now 30. We throw out bits of dialog often enough so that my wife says "Laurel and Hardy" whenever we say something she doesn't understand. Our favorite line is "Wait a minute till I spit on me hands" from this picture. Like a previous poster, any grandchildren are doubtless going to ask, "Grandpa, tell me that again" at some point.
shareTo JMPomfret. That’s great. I have got my 9 year old nephew into watching 'The Boys' and he finds them very funny! Watching him watch Stan & Ollie helps me laugh even more than I normally do. I think all kids should be shown Laurel & Hardy instead of all the rubbish they watch these days! Thank you for sharing that story.
shareI'm 17. I was raised on L&H growing up, and this is one of my favorite films of theirs.
Check out my film reviews: www.paleyfilms.net
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My grandparents were members of the Sons of the Desert.
Never heard of that channel.
I'll be 50 in August.
I was born one week before Stan Laurel died, in February of 1965. My dad and I used to argue about who was better--Laurel & Hardy or the Marx Brothers. My dad preferred L & H but I was partial to the Marxes, although both were great in their own way.
shareI'm 77 and I just bought a collection of L&H DVDs called "The Essential Laurel and Hardy" to refresh my memory.
I first watched The Boys in my native Chile, where they were known as "El Gordo y el Flaco" ("The Fat One and the Skinny One") and were as popular there as they were in the U.S.
Back in the 1940s, American movies shown in South America carried subtitles, so understanding them was not a problem.
My preferred films were the silents and some of the early features, filmed in the early and mid-1930s. My favorite remains "Hijos del Desierto" ("Sons of the Desert.")
As I watch these movies, I realize that they were simplistic and silly but I also realize that they were made in simpler times, for audiences that needed humor and laughter. Bless The Boys.
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At last, someone older than me (though only just; I'm 75).
I first came across L and H in cartoon form in a now long defunct comic called Film Fun.It was good but nothing like the films which I think I first saw at primary school at Christmas. I was immediately hooked even though those, I think, came from their later films where they had lost artistic control.
My favourite? Difficult but I think 'Helpmates' with Stan's classic line, having burned down Ollie's house,"Well I guess there's no more I can do so I think I'll go". Beautiful.
Good Q. I'm 56.
shareThat's a great question - I'm 58.
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