The joke’s on Jerry

It seems that for most of my adult life I’ve read at least one article per year about how “misunderstood” Jerry Lewis is and how we just don’t understand how truly “great” his films are (“In the Kingdom of the Clown,” Jan. 2).

I laughed a lot at “The Bellboy” and the others when I was 8, but I can’t even begin to see any value in them now. Something truly worthwhile retains at least a strong indication of what made it important or even funny when it came out; his simply don’t hold up. Compare his films to any of the early Hope and Crosby or Abbott and Costello films, or any movie made by Preston Sturges, and they simply pale.

I’m sorry he’s been sick but, come on, let the French have him.

Ken Marcus

Los Angeles