Search - Funniest Moments of the Century (Reader's Digest Classic Collection) (6disc) on DVD

Time warp, time capsule, time bomb

J. C Clark | Overland Park, KS United States | 11/07/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This qualifies as a genuine ripoff. Each of these approximately 50 minute discs contains some laughs, but much more filler, and a frightening amount of repetition. For 100 years, do I really need to see Sid and Imogene get splashed twice? Or Red Skelton praise Guzzler's Gin twice? So though there are 6 discs here, it could have comfortably fit on 2. Especially if they dropped the inane narrator, who repeatedly succumbs to the lamest of cliches and says things like "And that's what makes Milton Berle a [long pause] Legend of Comedy!." Skip it fella.

I'm assuming these were originally shown on TV, which explains the length and the format. But on DVD, without commercials, oh boy, do they drag. And disappoint. Now,I haven't seen Flip Wilson's show since it originally aired, but I remember it as clever and edgy. I can't believe the moment with Bing Crosby qualifies as one of the funniest moments of the show, let alone the century. Let's get some perspective here, please.

One of the things that is interesting is how some tastes change and some do not. There is a lot of humor derived from drinking, and it does not wear quite as well. Watching a drunk Lucy or Red Skelton just isn't all that funny.

A mishmash of formats and material heaped together, artificially and goofily labeled "Slapstick" or "The unexpected" or whatever, with way too much "funniest home video" stuff that produces a laugh or two, some bloopers that are amusing but certainly not worth owning, some ruinously chopped up sequences from various films and TV shows, and a few delights that would be worth re-watching if you could find them again, this collection leaves much to be desired. Gems are in there, and even a few gems I had never seen before. But those gems require a lot of digging. And at this price, I'd be hopping mad. Not a disaster, but I was hoping to be in pain from laughter, not from annoyance."