Like 'chicken,' for instance.
I never understood that joke. Is it just Woody's throwaway joke? He has no bad habits but a few eccentricities, like he won't eat any food beginning with the letter "F," like chicken for instance. Help a guy out in 2015.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley
Yeah, I'd say it's a throwaway. Perhaps, when trying to make his own case, he inadvertently reveals that he can't spell?
I think it works because the eccentricity of not eating foods that begin with "F" is funny enough on its own. He then compounds it by giving chicken as an example.
It's the hazard of making a film like Love and Death, which probably is more dense with gags than any other Allen film -- namely, they're not all going to be screamers.
That aside, I do think it's his funniest film.
Maybe... fowl?
share...and when there was no meat, we ate fowl and when there was no fowl, we ate crawdad and when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley
It's one of many bullets in a joke tommy gun, and I always laugh.
Fowl?
copycat.
shareNo doubt it is pure silliness and a non-sequitur, but perhaps it is also a nod to so called comedy principles - especially in a film referencing comedy greats of the past such as Bob Hope and the Marx Brothers.
Chicken is often seen as a funny word because of the hard "plosive" sound of the 'k' in the middle of the word, and the fact that saying the word, especially the opening 'chi' sound, automatically forces the mouth into a smile.
I was also reminded of the bit from Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys", a play written in 1972 just before "Love and Death" was filmed, which features two vaudevillian comedians in which one tells a nephew about comedy principles:
"Fifty-seven years in this business, you learn a few things. You know what words are funny and which words are not funny. Alka Seltzer is funny. You say "Alka Seltzer" you get a laugh . . . Words with "k" in them are funny. Casey Stengel, that's a funny name. Robert Taylor is not funny. Cupcake is funny. Tomato is not funny. Cookie is funny. Cucumber is funny. Car keys. Cleveland . . . Cleveland is funny. Maryland is not funny. Then, there's chicken. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny."
The play was filmed in 1975 and Allen himself appeared in the 1996 remake.
Cockroach is funny. Only if you say 'em, not if you get 'em.
The remake stunk. I think Allen should have taken the Walter Matthau role instead of Peter Falk. Switch them.
Falk is funny, Allen is not funny. No "K" sound there.
"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer SimpsonZsxZsxZsxZsx--" - Frank Grimes