HUMOR

The real trouble with today’s humor industry is simply that they don’t make ‘em like they used to. Shallow writers with no cultural memory congratulate themselves for “inventing” hip shtick that Steve Allen and his stock company were performing adroitly nearly 40 years ago. The pantomimic genius of a Jackie Gleason can find no worthy successor, because today’s hot comics either spew obscenities or provide inept social commentary on a world they don’t understand.

Surely the only levity engendered by this bunch is to be found on Olympus, where, no doubt, Benchley, Thurber, Perelman and their ilk gather regularly to look down and laugh at us, not with us.

JOSEPH F. LAREDO

San Diego