Kids Aren't Funny

by Kurt

Posted: 14 years ago 17 replies

OFF TOPIC

There have been a lot of kids on TV over the years, but so few of them are actually funny.

Here's my list of funny kid TV characters:
Leave it to Beaver - The Beav and Eddie Haskell were funny
Gary Coleman was funny
All the boys on Malcolm in the Middle were funny
Jake on 2 1/2 Men is funny.
Bud on Father Knows Best was pretty funny

And that's about all the funny TV kids I can honestly think of that could consistently make me laugh...

Looking at it, TV makes kid characters either way too "sugary" or makes them into short adults, or they are really actors in their 20's playing kids in their teens.

The characters I listed above all seem to be "real" kids and it's the "real kid stuff" they do and say that's funny, although Gary Coleman was just a unique talent.

Is it just me or do you agree that there really haven't been that many funny kids on TV over the years?

JaiJay 14 years ago

Actually, yes I agree with you. I'd totally forgotten about Malcolm in the Middle, it hardly ever gets shown over here anymore
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Michael Motley 14 years ago

The only kids i've ever thought were funny in movies/tv
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- MissTerraK 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Michael Motley
  
  The only kids i've ever thought were funny in movies/tv
  
  OMGosh! I haven't seen them for years! I loved Spanky, but froggy creeped me out! And how could you not love Buckwheat? O-tay!:p
  
  MissTerraK
  
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Emily Meeks 14 years ago

Disney Channel was pretty funny before 2004. After that, I think it jumped the shark.
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valerieSONORA 14 years ago

I love Malcom in the Middle, it still comes on on FX and Nick at Nite Poor Lois only had boys
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- kwality 14 years ago
  
  Raven on the Cosby show was funny. Sometimes she pulled a laugh on Disney too.
  
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  Kay King 14 years ago
  
  I like the kid in the ABC comedy "The Middle" - he's a hoot with his whispering and his expression.
  
  Cutesy kids never made me laugh - I like the odd ones.
  
  I like Big Bang Theory - how weird is that?
  
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  Steven Wagenheim 14 years ago
  
  Well, to be honest, I never watched many "kid" shows. The ones I did
  watch, most were just not funny at all.
  
  I'd say Jake from 2 1/2 men is one of the funniest kid characters in history
  but a lot of that has to do with the writing.
  
  Truth is, kids don't have the comedic range of adults because they just
  haven't had the training. Gary Coleman was a good actor and a rare talent
  but I didn't particularly find him funny...just a good actor.
  
  Now, I have seen kids who could really act. That doesn't seem to be as
  rare a thing.
  
  They say that comedy is one of the hardest things to do, even harder
  than straight serious acting.
  
  In fact, if you look at some of the most successful and funny comedies
  in history, you will notice that the majority, with a few exceptions, had
  serious actors playing the comedic roles.
  
  Newhart would be an exception, as was Cosby. And yet Bill Cosby (watch
  I Spy) was a good actor too.
  
  But look at shows like The Odd Couple, All In The Family, etc. All In The
  Family especially. Carol O' Connor was a serious actor who was funny as
  hell in that show. It takes a good actor to be that funny in a sitcom,
  unlike somebody who's doing standup.
  
  I know I've kind of gone OT on this one, but this has always been a
  fascinating subject for me.
  
  Kid actors - plenty of good ones, relatively speaking
  Kid comics - not so many. The timing requires much more training
  
  At least that's the way I see it.
  
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  Steven Wagenheim 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Kay King
  
  I like Big Bang Theory - how weird is that?
  
  Except those are not kids. I don't know how old they are but I'd venture
  to guess that they're all at least in their mid 20s.
  
  Oh, by the way, Big Bang Theory, IMO, the funniest show ever to hit TV.
  
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- Kurt 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by valerieSONORA
  
  I love Malcom in the Middle, it still comes on on FX and Nick at Nite Poor Lois only had boys
  
  Hey Val,
  
  I'm with you...This show actually was the one that got me thinking about this...Why is every kid in Malcolm funny, but funny kids are so rare on TV? Even the supporting characters are funny, like the nerdy girl that has a crush on Malcolm.
  
  I really love both Dewey and Reese, two totally different characters. And Louis is at the top of my favorite TV moms...She isn't that funny, but the tension she creates makes everyone else funnier. You can't get over on Louis.
  
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drwhogoesthere 14 years ago

The best way to ruin a good movie is to put a child in it that can save the day.

Jurasic Park
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Star Wars The Phantom Menace

I will never understand while a child in the movies can live through an event that in any other movie would have an adult killed. The electric fence in JP is a good enough example.

Kids can be great, but it depends on the show. If its a family show, great, but if its supposed to be for adults and they dumb it down with kids, then they suck.

Plus it is very hard to find a great child actor. Dakota Fanning is great, Jake Lloyd is not.
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scattermouse

14 years ago

I never thought kids could be funny, until I watched Outnumbered. Those in the UK will probably already know what I mean, but for everyone else:

YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.

They get the kids to ad lib most of their lines, so it comes out sounding natural.

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Kurt

14 years ago

Originally Posted by scattermouse

I never thought kids could be funny, until I watched Outnumbered. Those in the UK will probably already know what I mean, but for everyone else:

YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.

They get the kids to ad lib most of their lines, so it comes out sounding natural.

Here's Dewey with some comments on religion and smiting ants:

YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.

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edictben1 14 years ago

One that came to my mind was the sarcastic daughter on Roseanne. She had pretty good comic timing. Disney has had some great ones over the years, but they're right. You have to go back to the early film days to get really funny. Spanky and our gang, etc.
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edictben1

14 years ago

Whoops. I forgot Macauley Cullkin (sp)..He was a great little brat.

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Kurt

14 years ago

Originally Posted by edictben1

One that came to my mind was the sarcastic daughter on Roseanne. She had pretty good comic timing. Disney has had some great ones over the years, but they're right. You have to go back to the early film days to get really funny. Spanky and our gang, etc.

Originally Posted by edictben1

Whoops. I forgot Macauley Cullkin (sp)..He was a great little brat.

I left out Our Gang and Mac, even though I think both are funny, because they are movie characters, not TV characters, which was the point of my conversation. There's a scene with Mac and John Candy in "Uncle Buck" that's a classic.

I probably should include Our Gang because they were before TV and serials in that age were "TV", in that they had reoccuring characters.

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bravo75 14 years ago

Don't know about the funniest kid on TV, but this has to be the funniest kid on Youtube

YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.

. 105,129,799 views and counting
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Kids Aren't Funny

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