On a lighter note

I was fiddling around Youtube the other day, and I ran into a few of my favourite old comedians: Wayne & Shuster. No one could tell a bad joke like these two. They were an unapologetically Canadian duo whom my family and I used to enjoy watching years ago. And that's the key: The family watched, because this was comedy the family could watch.

I read about the two in later years, and found out what classy gentlemen they were. Their fights were legendary, mostly Wayne yelling at Shuster, but Shuster just brushed it off as Wayne blowing off some steam. After Wayne died, Shuster gave him all the credit for their best jokes, and refused to ever say a bad word about the man he called his best friend. It is also said that in rehearsal the two would tell ever blue joke they could, but once the cameras rolled they kept it straight for the family audiences, knowing two of the families watching would be their own.

It's hard for some people to believe, in an era of Howard Stern and other shock jocks and comedians, that it is possible to be funny without swearing or talking about sex.

I have below two of their classic routines. The first is their spoof of Julius Shakespeare, called Rinse the Blood off my Toga. Unfortunately, I could only find the colour version. The black and white was funnier. Below is their Shakespearean baseball game, another classic. They're not for everyone, but try and see.

part i




Part ii




Part iii





Here's Baseball in the language of Shakespeare.