Used to watch Laurel & Hardy with my grandad before he passed. We used to shake laughing and half of the fun was laughing at each other. The film with the donkey on the rope with the piano is bloody genius. I don't think I've watched laurel and Hardy since we lost my grandad.
Fantastic duo, with a very engaging and sometimes complicated past history. The thing that marks our their comedy for me is the sheer humanity of it. Stan, with his hapless ways, able to find bother from the most innocent of situations. And Ollie, with that appealing look to the camera, as if to say "why is this happening to me". In Ollie's case it's a classic study of what happens to controlling types when their world order is challenged. You can see direct parallels in Dad's Army, where Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) takes on the Ollie role in dealing with a world where he can't understand why people don't see things in his way and respond accordingly, while Wilson (the brilliant John Le Meisurier) bumbles along in his own style, unaware of what all the fuss is about. Wonderful and deeply human comedy!
