Laugh-in, December 24, 1968

Laugh-in, December 24, 1968

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I'm posting this one not because I find it particularly funny, but because I find the existence of the strip interesting. It was based on the hugely popular TV show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in, which started in 1967. The strip started only a year afterwards in 1968, and ended in 1972, a year before the show did. The show was very Vaudevillian, with a lot of quick-fire gags and jokes, and a number of different sketches. The strip clearly tries to emulate that style, by packing a number of characters into each strip and having them each do their own joke.The art style is very fluid and dynamic, and certainly fits the feel of the show, and of the era. It doesn't seem to succeed at being funny, though, because the popularity of the show seemed to come from the audience's enjoyment of the delivery of the jokes and not necessarily the jokes themselves. The cartoonist, Roy Doty, was also told he was not allowed to use the likenesses of any of the cast members from the show, for whatever reason. This really meant that the strip was relying on the show's name recognition alone. It really is a wonder it lasted as long as it did.