![]() ![]() Thus we laugh with them, appreciating the way they pull it off, and recognizing the gangsta genre limit that's getting parodied, rather than at the bit itself. So the Wayans handle it in a manner that delays the punchline while emphasizing its obviousness. The Wayans are rather stuck - the genres they parody here have very rigid conventions, so much so that there is usually only one or two gags one can use to mock them - e.g., when a young gangsta warns us that many young men in the 'hood don't live to see their 21st birthday, we all know what's coming next. "Don't Be A Menace" is the most obvious collection of predictable gags and bits I have seen in a long time, but it is by far the funniest. ![]() We weren't laughing at the line so much at the performance of it. I was watching an old "Honeymooners" rerun with a friend and we came to Jackie Gleason's Ralph's inevitable "To the moon, Alice!" expression of frustration with his wife, and suddenly I realized that it WAS inevitable, so why were we laughing, having heard it a dozen times before? My friend pointed out that Gleason's timing - the manner in which he held his slow-burn, the widening of his eyes, the sudden "Bang! Zoom" take off into the line - was what always made it funny. ![]()
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