Mad films - finding the funny in life

Extremely tired, I watched He Died with a Felafel in His Hand last night. Some good laughs. Very good laughs!

From a story structure, it's pretty episodic, but that randomness kind of builds nicely. The humour was in some cases classic (cliched?), but it worked because of the good actors...

Like two completely unrelated conversations interweaving, and the resultant double-entendres.
Like somebody giving a big announcement ("I'm gay") and everyone else being underwhelmed ("Do we have any lollies?").
Like recurring gags - main character Danny (the talentedly droopy Noah Taylor, who I recognised but didn't know it from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) being in the bath when the doorbell rings, swearing, and going underwater. Or being at his Underwood typewriter when the doorbell rings, swearing, and smacking his head on said typewriter.

Matter of fact, there was a lot of swearing. Sometimes it was funny, but - and maybe this is just because I haven't lived in a flat like the ones portrayed here - it did seem a bit overkill sometimes.

So the student-y anarchist pretentious artist part of me loved this movie, absolutely loved the pop culture and art culture references. The part of me that is aware that I am over 30 thought it was a bit childish and pretentious. But that didn't stop me from enjoying it.

From an amateur sociologist's point of view, I found it an interesting and searching view of my generation. It reminds me of the book Urban Tribes, in that there's a generation delaying marriage until their mid-30s, and therefore lacking the traditional "ties that bind" of family and marriage, and therefore seeking other bonds. That may explain the cryptical references that start halfway through the film, where everyone - everyone - who meets Danny, says "Your Mum says hi, you really should call her." Weird.

It reminded me of I Heart Huckabees, which I don't know if I've reviewed yet. I absolutely loved Huckabees, and it had more of a storyline that Felafel didn't have.

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I nearly forgot about the "finding the funny" part. I heard a podcast recently about finding the funny in life, and realised that - thank God - I do that regularly. I laugh out loud easily, about stupid things.

Latest thing, just as I started writing this post, was a phrase from the Economist podcast, saying Rudy Giuliani used to live with "three gay men and a chihuahua". A chihuahua? That's outrageous!!

Ah, whatever gets you laughing. Ha.