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No offense John, but I do take my humor seriously. ;^)

FWIW, I dislike camp with a passion; I didn't even like scout camp all that much as a kid! :o)

I prefer wit over so-called "high camp", just as I prefer more sophisticated visual jokes over slapstick. For instance, I absolutely despise a movie like Mel Brook's "Spaceballs" which is full of pratfalls, lame mockery and raunchy over-the-top gags cross-referenced with the original Star Wars [Note: Fortunately for Lucas, he successfully topped Brook's in Episode I, so I doubt he'll have to worry about his latest effort being parodied]. OTOH, a TV series like Red Dwarf or Hitchhiker's Guide contains a strong element of wit lacking in lesser parodies that makes them original and quite funny.

Another comparable example would be an obscure made for TV movie, the space parody Captain Zoom, which is so much sharper and funnier than the derivative feature (i.e., I believe it was called Galaxy Quest) starring Tim Allen which was a hit a couple of years back. Captain Zoom relied on numerous visual jokes, witty repartee and a surprisingly accurate knowledge of TV's early history to create it's fish-out-of-water humor. OTOH, Galaxy Quest's one-note Star Trek parody was stretched to the point of slapstick necessity almost before the openning credits disappeared!

Sorry about getting away from the specific topic of StarTrek/Lost in Space, but on the matter of "chuckle-worthiness" we needed to establish contextual references. I'm not questioning what you find funny or deriding you for what may or may not be a less sophisticated sense of humor, but rather providing examples of film and television programming which I find funny as compared with those which I find annoying, disrespectful of the genre or just offensive to my personal tastes.

>>> "And don't be mistaken about Star Trek- it's as campy as any other TV show from the 60's - not as chuckle-wirthy as Batman or Lost in Space, but chuckle-worthy none the less." <<<

It's interesting that you should praise the old "Batman" TV series, as I couldn't stand watching it back in the 1960's any more than now; I prefer superheroes done seriously as opposed to being camped up for the audience hyenas. There is a thin line between a suspension of disbelief and hokiness; sometimes a word or single scene can ruin the overall believability and shatter the screen magic.

You suggested that I may take TV too seriously; well, subjectively speaking, that may be true. OTOH, a true film/television aficionado loves movies/TV with a passion! And passion, notwithstanding an appreciation of humor, must be taken seriously to be of any merit at all.

AuPh


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