Argument to Beethoven's 5th

January 17, 2008 8:59 PM

Argument to Beethoven's 5th[youtube 5:51], a brilliant sketch by 1950s funnyman Sid Caesar, shows that you don't need words to tell a story.

To explain further: a married couple pantomimes an argument while their dialogue is replaced by Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

posted by Zephyrial (22 comments total)

I love this video. In my opinion, it really puts to shame current live sketch comedy shows that (woefully, too often) aren't rehearsed, aren't clever, and aren't funny.
posted by Zephyrial at 9:03 PM on January 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Pretty cool. Reminds me of the better mid-century cartoons with the action choreographed to the music. For instance...
posted by Rhaomi at 9:09 PM on January 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Fantastic. Further Beethoven-related comedy sketch goodness is here, in the form of Dudley Moore playing a 'Beethoven sonata' on the theme of the Bridge on the River Kwai. Wait for the epic coda.
posted by Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey at 9:12 PM on January 17, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Wow, excellent. The choreography is really well executed.

Rhaomi, thank you so much for posting that link. I had forgotten about that episode.
posted by Memo at 9:20 PM on January 17, 2008

That's a great piece - a really classic piece of pantomime, and cleverly done. I'd never seen this before, but Your Show of Shows had Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, and Carl Reiner as the writing staff. I mean, damn.

Some of the best sketch comedy in the history of TV, which was, at that point, not a very long history.

Sid Caesar is fantastic in this.
posted by MythMaker at 9:45 PM on January 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Outstanding.

Aside, my kids gave me a collection of Red Skelton Show DVDs for Christmas.

I am a rich man.
posted by Clave at 9:49 PM on January 17, 2008

a brilliant sketch by 1950s funnyman Sid Ceasar

Weird that you only see Sid Caesar. I see two people. Nanette Fabray is the more talented in the sketch, imo. Sid's a little too on the nose for the first half. Nice piece nonetheless, though.
posted by dobbs at 9:52 PM on January 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, and Carl Reiner as the writing staff. I mean, damn.

I was just telling my son about this bunch two days ago after we watched Sleeper. An incredibly talented group. Not many people know about Neil Simon's older brother but, as Danny joked, ""There have been more plays written about me than about Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc and Julius Caesar all put together." Most famously, he was the inspiration for The Odd Couple, and also inspired a very young Woody Allen, who joined that writing staff for Caesar's Hour, the show that followed Your Show of Shows.

[off topic] Mel Tolkin's son Michael wrote both the novel and screenplay for The Player.

Anyway, this is a pretty amazing sketch, especially when you consider trying to do all this precise timing to the music on live TV. Thanks for the link, Zephyrial.
posted by LeLiLo at 11:32 PM on January 17, 2008

It's good, but for me the timings aren't perfect, and the way it switches from one person to the other doesn't match the music as I would imagine it.
posted by leibniz at 11:32 PM on January 17, 2008

This reminded of Looney Toons, actually. Probably the classical music and the exaggerated gesticulating. Especially the OH YES, OH NO, OH YES part. RABBIT SEASON DUCK SEASON RABBIT SEASON-esque.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:33 AM on January 18, 2008

Two things...

One: Nanette Fabray was in the skit too. Sid didn't always give much credit to his female costars so I wanted to point her out.

Two: I used to know Howie Morris and through him I got to meet Sid and Imogene Coca a few times in the early 90s. I heard many, many, many stories of what it was like to work with Sid during the heyday of Your Show of Shows. It's really hard for people to fathom just how popular he was... the schedule for the Presidential address to the country was actually changed solely so it wouldn't compete with Sid Ceasar because they wanted viewers. Anyhow, one of my favorite stories that Howie told me was about how it was tough to travel overseas with Sid. Sid had an amazing skill for mimicking languages... but apparently because he was on some drugs (he admits it now), he had a habit of forgetting that he couldn't really speak them. So he would try to order food or talk to people and when they didn't understand him, let's just say he didn't always handle it so well. Slight understatement. (This is the guy who admits he hung Mel Brooks out of an 11th floor window.)

Anyhow, I just love picturing him getting all pissed because he actually thought he was properly communicating with those poor confused people.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:52 AM on January 18, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Oh, Howie also told me that he got the job on Your Show of Shows because Sid could pick him up. He wanted someone he could physically lift.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:56 AM on January 18, 2008

I don't know, it was good but all a bit overdone. I prefer the choreography in the classic Morecambe and Wise breakfast sketch, but horses for courses I guess.
posted by patricio at 3:00 AM on January 18, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I like that you can actually read their lips!

"Oh no. Oh yes! Oh no!! Oh yes!!!"

"Your mother! My MOTHER? YOUR MOTHER!"
posted by JHarris at 3:55 AM on January 18, 2008

Brilliant—thanks much for the post.

And nickyskye, that was a terrific story. Is there a link for it? I'd love to swipe it for LH (the blog).
posted by languagehat at 6:02 AM on January 18, 2008

D'oh, I mean miss lynnster. Mea culpa!
posted by languagehat at 6:02 AM on January 18, 2008

That was excellent. Yet another reason why I read Metafilter.
posted by farishta at 6:19 AM on January 18, 2008

Ha. From miss lynster's "heyday" link:

Recently Mary Tyler Moore appeared at the 80th birthday party for Ms. Fabray at the Pasadena Playhouse and told her, ''Thank you for never accusing me of theft because I learned so much from watching you.''

That was brilliant, thanks. And live, in the middle of a show full of sketches? Amazing.
posted by mediareport at 6:28 AM on January 18, 2008

Oops! Make that Sid Caesar. Of course his name was the one part of that I didn't proofread... sigh. Thanks to dobbs and StrikeTheViol for catching my mistake.
posted by Zephyrial at 6:38 AM on January 18, 2008

This was great! This is what I would imaging a live Chuck Jones WB cartoon would look like!
posted by spec80 at 8:19 AM on January 18, 2008

thanks for this. truly funny shit.
posted by fourcheesemac at 3:58 PM on January 18, 2008

I too was reminded of old Warner Bros. cartoons. Which is a compliment.

Further Beethoven-related comedy sketch goodness is here, in the form of Dudley Moore playing a 'Beethoven sonata' on the theme of the Bridge on the River Kwai. Wait for the epic coda.

It's called "And the Same To You" from an early 1960's revue called Beyond the Fringe. It's available on CD (Broadway | London) or DVD (which I suspect was the source for the YouTube clip).
posted by pmurray63 at 9:50 PM on January 18, 2008