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Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: Beyond The Fringe: The Full 1961 Fortune Theatre Show Plus
• Label: EMI
• Year of Release: 1996
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2005-10-20

Modern humor tends to fall into two broad categories: vulgar and absurd, with topical humor squeezing in there on occasion. All of it has been influenced by carnage of the 20th century, which left either cynicism or irony as defense. Beyond the Fringe anticipated all that has come after them in comedy. The absurd humor of Monty Python, Kid In The Hall, Stella, Frank Zappa, all began with one British comic, Spike Milligan, whose 1950's Goon Show set the tone for a humor that was based on being as silly and non-sensical as the world that inspired it. From his influence came Beyond the Fringe, the Rosetta Stone of modern humor. It is no exaggeration to say that everything that came after them has been influenced by them.
Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and, most of all, Peter Cook, must have blown a lot of minds back in 1961: bits like "Man Bites God", "Aftermyth of War", "Frank Speaking" and "Porno Shop" would still make news on The Daily Show. Their timing, absurdity and the pointed wisdom of their sketches resonate today as both history and vital to the present. We need them more today than ever.

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