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I had such high hopes. Everyone told me how hillarious he was and I'll admit, I thought it was funny in places. But I just finished up Carry On, Jeeves, which as I understand it is the first collection of Jeeves and Wooster stories and I wasn't blown away. Kind of amusing, but not so much so that I'm going to go out of my way to read another.
Does his type of humor just not work for me (I wasn't overwhelmed by The Importance of Being Earnest either) or does it get better with the later stories?
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I couldn't get into Wodehouse either, though I think my first attempt was on a collection of short stories about golf. There wasn't enough there for me to find funny, largely because I didn't understand half of the collequialisms used.
I thought Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat was hilarious, though.
Both came to me through published high praise from author Connie Willis.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I enjoyed the Masterpiece Theatre versions of Jeeves and Wooster, starring Hugh Laurie (of House fame) as Wooster. It was pretty funny, I thought. Came out in 92, I think. I purchased it from a PBS catalog.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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The mores of that Woodhouse past don't carry forward into our present memories/knowlege, so a lot of the "scandal"ousness of various situations doesn't either. For similar reasons, neither do the nuances and connotations within the language. Using a more recent author as an example... Never having lived in such a time, most people here will miss a larger portion of the Pratchett's satire within EqualRites because they won't have any memory of the social context in which the idea of a girl attending a top-ranked University / etc was intrinsicly recognized as wrong.
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I don't see where the Wooster humour really depends on the social mores. It's always rather clear why Bertie is trying to break his engagement without being the one to say the word; and Jeeves's schemes are surely timeless. Still, if it doesn't suit, then it doesn't. Not everybody is civilised enough to catch on to proper British humour.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote: I'm flabbergasted by the idea that people exist who don't find Wodehouse funny.
Me too.
If you really want to find it amusing, I'd try reading it out loud, getting an audio book or trying to get hold of the Stephen Fry/Hugh Laurie adaptations (I'd definitely try to get hold of those, it's one of the funniest series that's ever been on TV). There's just something about hearing it out loud (and in the right snooty accent) that makes Wodehouse even better.
But then, I grew up with parents who taught me to say 'toodle pip, old sock' and refer to them as 'the aged P.s' before I even knew where the reference came from or why it was funny. I'm culturally conditioned, I tell you. Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Count me as a fan. I do tend to slip pretty easily into that "world" and that language, though.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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I think I like Wodehouse, though I've got a horrible memory for titles and authors. Was he the guy that wrote The [Adjective] Wooing of Archibald or Alfred or something? If so, that was a magnificent tale.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I wouldn't use that as some sort of litmus test though.
Some of the comments here had me thinking of an exhibition of Far Side cartoons that was installed at the Natural History Museum in NYC. The guard there was completely baffled by them and actually asked me (a random patron) what was so funny. It wasn't like she was stupid or didn't understand the oddity of them, she just didnt' find them funny.
In her case, it was kind of cultural thing (she didn't grow up in the US so maybe some of them required too much of an American-style upbringing), but that wasn't true for everything. It just didn't tickle her funny bone.
No big deal.
If I may suggest reading a non-Jeeves story sometime. Most public libraries worth their salt will have at least some Wodehouse so you shouldn't even have to pay for it. Cocktail Time is one that I found to be pretty funny and is not a Wooster/Jeeves tale if I recall correctly (forgive me if I'm wrong on this...
At any rate, it's still sort of a British social farce but slightly different in approach.
But realistically, you may just not like Wodehouse. That'd be too bad, from my perspective, because he has given me many hours of low calorie pleasure over the years.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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