Springing into action could mean to suddenly begin moving or doing something. It also connotes with jumping or heading in a particular direction, quickly and with a lot of energy.
I have just enjoyed my third comedy play this week, thanks to my children’s enthusiastic participation. While I was watching I noticed that we all pretty much laughed at the same time. We certainly all laughed when my teenage son appeared in a Dolly Parton wig and a floral dress.
On another occasion I watched a TV comedy with a group of friends from different countries and we all laughed but oddly, sometimes it was at different times.
A great deal of comedy does not age well, some becomes and some actually grates and becomes offense. Sometimes I have watched things that made me laugh once and watched it later struggling to recall what was funny before.
My grandmother said that she laughed hysterically when the music for Laurel and Hardy began and she laughed so much that she missed a lot of the comedy itself. Whilst I love to watch them two and I do laugh, I nevertheless remain fairly lucid. Most likely this is due to cultural changes that have occurred rapidly over the last hundred years.
Given the amount of change that has occurred, it is probably surprising, we still find much common ground. The old British Music Hall spawned many of the great comedy stars that were to entertain the whole world once cinema could take them everywhere at once.
The Music Hall itself originated in the other great British institution, the Pub (short for Public House) but by the 1850’s the acts had outgrown the humble bar. Stars honed their acts to perfection against crowds drawn from the ordinary working population in ornate theatres that belied much of the double-entendre and slapstick style of humour. The audience lapped up the glamour that must have been missing from their everyday lives. You might hear the wonderful singing of Gracie Fields, you might see juggling or acrobats or if you were very lucky you might have caught the young Chaplin brothers, Will Hay, or George Formby or even Stan Laurel.
