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Post by llanwydd on Jul 31, 2022 1:58:45 GMT
I have been trying to decide who was the funniest woman on television and I cannot choose between these two. It has to be one of them. Who would you pick?
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Post by movielover on Jul 31, 2022 2:06:47 GMT
Lucille Ball
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Post by amyghost on Jul 31, 2022 13:44:16 GMT
Gracie Allen, who's known to far too few younger viewers today. The Burns and Allen Show is a hoot, and is surprisingly fresh even now. I will admit to some bias in that I've always found Lucille Ball to be pretty over-rated as a comedienne, but even so I still find Gracie to be the funnier of the two.
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Post by marianne48 on Jul 31, 2022 16:07:47 GMT
Not a Carol Burnett fan? I thought she was funnier than these two put together.
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Post by movielover on Jul 31, 2022 16:12:40 GMT
Not a Carol Burnett fan? I thought she was funnier than these two put together. Same here.
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bess1971s
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@bess1971s
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Post by bess1971s on Aug 3, 2022 16:50:59 GMT
Lucy does it for me but only in I Love Lucy and her classic films. Her later tv shows were never that funny to me, esp after Vivian Vance left The Lucy Show.
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Post by divtal on Aug 14, 2022 22:03:27 GMT
Gracie Allen.
I find the juxtaposition and misunderstanding of thoughts, and language, to be much funnier than physical action/slapstick.
Following Gracie's "logic," was more entertaining to me, than Lucy's "antics." It also gave the other actors, in the scenes, a chance to react to trying to make sense of what Gracie had just said.
It isn't that I wasn't a fan of Lucille Ball. I enjoyed much of her film work. Stage Door is a favorite of mine. But, for entertainment in classic TV comedy, it's hard to beat Gracie Allen.
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Post by tommyrockarolla on Aug 17, 2022 15:18:49 GMT
I like them both. Different styles. Gracie came from a far more verbal comedy era, the 20’s and 30’s. Lucy is more of an influence on Television history.
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Post by amyghost on Aug 17, 2022 16:16:26 GMT
Not a Carol Burnett fan? I thought she was funnier than these two put together. It crossed my mind to throw in a wild vote for her. She was by far funnier than the seriously overpraised Ball. (Whom, oddly enough, was mentored and tutored in comedy by the immortal Buster Keaton; but she never achieved Keaton's comic spontaneity or humanity, imo. There was always something mechanical and even grating about her whole persona. Burnett's comedy was always strikingly human in its wit and seemingly unrehearsed ease.)
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Post by novastar6 on Aug 18, 2022 1:30:15 GMT
I love them both. You can't really pick, Gracie's humor was in her simple minded almost St. Olafian view of the world around her, Lucy on the other hand did physical comedy, she could do funny faces and voices, a hard trait to come by, she could hold her own with the best, Harpo Marx himself, and get that mirror routine down to a T. If the two of them had ever met, that would've been a very interesting conversation.
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Post by tommyrockarolla on Aug 18, 2022 2:20:14 GMT
Going through this thread, I’m guessing most of us are 50 or better. Gracie’s ‘web imprint’ pales to Lucies. As has been mentioned many times, Gracie was a pure Comedienne. Lucy was a nActress, a goddamned good one. But not a comedienne. Funny thing about acting, particularly situation comedy. You ‘mostly’ have to play it straight, like ‘drama’. Lucy made you believe she was that conniving, etc, which set up the physical bits, etc. Gracie and George, and ESPECIALLY Bea Benaderet? We’re basically doing ‘stand up comedy’ which happened in ‘situations’. Lucy was doing ‘situations’ that presented opportunities to be funny. A couple of other lesser known comedy ladies from that era would be Eve Arden, Ethel Waters, and Gale Storm. I think Gracie was like the Marx Brothers all rolled into one. She had Groucho’s gall and verbosity, but Chico/Harpos confusion and reactions all at the same time. A shame that her major venue, vaudeville and radio? Are forgotten. I understand Fanny Brice suffered to the changing times even worse, but? There you go. Carol Burnett brilliantly took from all those women and made 20th century women comedy whole. Brilliant OP. Thanks.
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strawdawg
New Member
@deborahann
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Post by strawdawg on Aug 19, 2022 21:52:41 GMT
I like Gracie best.
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Post by llanwydd on Aug 19, 2022 23:45:31 GMT
Carol Burnett has been mentioned several times. I like her. I used to watch her show every Saturday night. I would have put her on a list if I had made one but I think that Lucy and Gracie were the two best, by a small margin, perhaps, and I wanted to find out what other people thought. I would probably put the two of them tied at number one and Phyllis Diller a very close second. Carol would have to be in the top five somewhere.
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Post by novastar6 on Aug 19, 2022 23:52:12 GMT
Going through this thread, I’m guessing most of us are 50 or better. Gracie’s ‘web imprint’ pales to Lucies. As has been mentioned many times, Gracie was a pure Comedienne. Lucy was a nActress, a goddamned good one. But not a comedienne. Funny thing about acting, particularly situation comedy. You ‘mostly’ have to play it straight, like ‘drama’. Lucy made you believe she was that conniving, etc, which set up the physical bits, etc. Gracie and George, and ESPECIALLY Bea Benaderet? We’re basically doing ‘stand up comedy’ which happened in ‘situations’. Lucy was doing ‘situations’ that presented opportunities to be funny. A couple of other lesser known comedy ladies from that era would be Eve Arden, Ethel Waters, and Gale Storm. I think Gracie was like the Marx Brothers all rolled into one. She had Groucho’s gall and verbosity, but Chico/Harpos confusion and reactions all at the same time. A shame that her major venue, vaudeville and radio? Are forgotten. I understand Fanny Brice suffered to the changing times even worse, but? There you go. Carol Burnett brilliantly took from all those women and made 20th century women comedy whole. Brilliant OP. Thanks.
I remember reading Lucy's biography and in it she said she wasn't funny and I was like 'What?' How do you make people laugh for 50+ years and you're not funny? Admittedly that is DAMNED good acting to make people think you're funny, but I think she was funny, just not in the traditional sense.
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Post by tommyrockarolla on Aug 19, 2022 23:59:10 GMT
Going through this thread, I’m guessing most of us are 50 or better. Gracie’s ‘web imprint’ pales to Lucies. As has been mentioned many times, Gracie was a pure Comedienne. Lucy was a nActress, a goddamned good one. But not a comedienne. Funny thing about acting, particularly situation comedy. You ‘mostly’ have to play it straight, like ‘drama’. Lucy made you believe she was that conniving, etc, which set up the physical bits, etc. Gracie and George, and ESPECIALLY Bea Benaderet? We’re basically doing ‘stand up comedy’ which happened in ‘situations’. Lucy was doing ‘situations’ that presented opportunities to be funny. A couple of other lesser known comedy ladies from that era would be Eve Arden, Ethel Waters, and Gale Storm. I think Gracie was like the Marx Brothers all rolled into one. She had Groucho’s gall and verbosity, but Chico/Harpos confusion and reactions all at the same time. A shame that her major venue, vaudeville and radio? Are forgotten. I understand Fanny Brice suffered to the changing times even worse, but? There you go. Carol Burnett brilliantly took from all those women and made 20th century women comedy whole. Brilliant OP. Thanks.
I remember reading Lucy's biography and in it she said she wasn't funny and I was like 'What?' How do you make people laugh for 50+ years and you're not funny? Admittedly that is DAMNED good acting to make people think you're funny, but I think she was funny, just not in the traditional sense.
Yea, I’d heard her say that at times, maybe Duck Cavett, Johnnie Carson, etc. I think I know what she meant. She didn’t feel like she was ‘a barrel of laughs’, lighting up the room with her wit. But, she understood what funny was, and could execute it. Lucy always gave serious credit to their writers. Good stuff. |
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