From: boron_elgar@hotmail.com   
      
   On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 18:17:31 +0000 (UTC), Howard   
    wrote:   
      
   >I saw a bit of a clip of the latest Saturday Night Live Trump bit, and   
   >as always it wasn't funny, and I got to wondering why impressions are   
   >such a big part of comedy at all.   
      
   They have always been a huge part of SNL, so much so that impressions   
   are part of their lengthy audition process.   
   >   
   >Kicking around the idea with a couple of people who also don't get them,   
   >a couple of ideas came up, but not in a very satisfying way.   
   >   
   >There's a transgressive quality, where you see a serious person doing   
   >something ridiculous. But the problem is that the more out of character   
   >they go, the less believable the impression, and it just becomes a   
   >slapstick bit. Except the attempt to make a believable impression always   
   >seems to dampen the ridiculousness to the point where it's not even good   
   >slapstick.   
      
   Impressions are pretty much of two types- satire, in which the   
   impressionist exaggerates, either for slapstick, or for more   
   sophisticated comedy effect, or accurately imitative, in which as much   
   as possible about the person who is being conjured is copied as   
   closely as possible.   
      
      
   >   
   >There's a certain appeal to insider identity, where having the moderator   
   >of a debate on screen triggers a sense of being smart or whatever. But   
   >while I can see how that might work for a Star Wars movie or a literary   
   >bioflick, I don't get the connection to humor.   
      
   I have never been much of an impersonation fan of the old Frank   
   Gorshin or Rich Little variety, which truly leave me cringing and   
   bored,  but do enjoy some of the SNL takes that I have seen over the   
   years, with Darrell Hammond or Kate McKinnon as favorites, with these   
   latter two taking it to a very different place altogether, wholly   
   comedic pieces on their own, with no old-fashioned impressionism   
   entering into in- at least to my thinking.   
   >   
   >Sometimes I can see some meta-humor coming through, where comedians are   
   >mostly just mocking the idea of impressions at all. I know The Simpsons   
   >has done this sometimes, for example. But that's just a tiny bit of how   
   >they're used, as far as I know, and most of the comedy is just around a   
   >fairly conventional impression.   
   >   
   >What am I missing? Why are impressions so popular?   
      
   They are ubiquitous and seem to exist all over the place. I just   
   assume people enjoy them, from drag to politics to literary and   
   cultural archetypes.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)