This has got to be one of the funniest skits ever, by a genius comedian. I love how he plays with all the props. No CGI , no special gymnastics....Just PURE COMIC GENIUS!
I like how he rotated the cue ball while setting up, in order to....??? Up to now I overlooked that bit of nonsense. However, I still don't know how he got the name: Honest John
I didn't even notice this bit,because I was laughing so much, and I've seen it so many times, but the bit where he puts the chalk in his mouth and applies his cigar to the cue tip, is absolute genius!!
When I was 11 years old, my Father and I were visiting his parents in Pennsylvania. WPIX channel 11 was running a WC Fields marathon that started at 10pm and my Father let me stay up to watch a few movies. At 3:00am, my Grandfather came out and said to us, "Would you two please shut up - I'm trying to sleep!" He turned and went back to bed; my Father looked at me and started to laugh. I use to get in trouble when I laughed at my Father, but watching him laugh at his Father was just glorious. It was a perfect Father & Son moment. The movies were great and I've been watching WC ever since. He is by far, the funniest actor ever in a movie. Can you imagine how he'd be if he smoked marijuana? Yo.
I remember being up at a friends family cottage in Maine back in the 70's. We went out to have a few beers and then enjoyed a joint before heading back to the cottage. When we got back his mother was watching Saturday Night Live (it was a great show back then) and she was watching the bit about the instant tea machine, She watched it and said it made no sense to her, her son and I were rolling on the floor when his dad came in. His comment was I think they have been doing more than drinking beer,
The Marx brothers smoked weed, probably with musicians in their early days. I wouldn't doubt Fields had tried it, but he drank like Willie Nelson smokes. They don't often get along if you've spent a few years drunk then puff down a jazz cigarette some trumpet player gave you at a bar one night and you trip out til dawn still drinking but terrifyingly paranoid. I bet a lot of demonization back around 1900 had to do with well meaning black jazz musicians giving crazy drunk white men the odd spliff so they could give their liver a break. History is a wild ride when you start to get to know people by their action and art...
The funniest scene ever made. Incredible how the guy kept a straight face as WC Fields went through his brilliant routine, he was a genius, we'll never see his like again mores the pity.
How do you keep repeating the same stupid schtick, trying to catch the waving pool cue .. over and over .. and it STILL makes you laugh out loud each time like the first?? THAT's comic genius!
W.C. Feilds had that remarkable talent of making any person watching him comply with his time,and space. Fields may seem like a bafoon, but he is always in control from start to finish...... One of the best
I grew up (I’m 62 now) loving WC Fields, but You Tube finally allowed me to truly appreciate what a comic genius he was. Here I am watching clips I’ve seen many times before and still enjoying every minute of them.
Such great visual humour, I am crying at how well he did this. He was an amazing jugler, there is film of him doing an amazing routine, such great hands.
Absolutely brilliant clip!! Superb timing; and how the other guy keeps a straight face I'll never know. Every time i watch this it has me in stitches - fantastic!!!
There are so many layers of comedy in this clip, you need to watch it several times. I miss so much with my eyes closed in laughter. Today's comedians are children compated to this genius.
You have discovered "irony," the use of words different from their literal intent. Congratulations. You've done it. The joke, you've found it. Scotland Yard will surely promote you for Detective Inspector for cracking this case, you're a credit to the Noticing Unit of the Look! Brigade. Brilliant work.
The guy who turned me on to WC Fields was an alcoholic Mormon who would probably have been happier to have lived in the 1930's. I am forever indebted to him.
Today there was an actual news headline about a guy bringing up someone's prosthetic leg in a fishing net in the Gulf of Mexico, and then FINDING ITS OWNER!! First thing that pops into my head is..."DAMN! A real-life Honest John!!!" THANK YOU for posting this classic bit, Mr. Dunkenfield!
I don't think he thought past sunrise the next day, and that he didn't give a damn about modern people laughing at him or anyone else. He was earning a paycheck to live high, and the higher the better.
THE genius. Forget Chaplin, forget Keaton, forget all of them--I mean, don't FORGET them, just realize Fields was the true genius of the screen comedians then or now.
@@bobtaylor170 No one can give it like Groucho or take it like Fields. It's always so satisfying when Fields wins once in a while. Both masters of their craft. Watch WC Fields juggling way back then, they said he was the world's best and I must say, he's pretty amazing. Cheers
WC Fields movies were usually played late at night on some obscure TV channel, probably UHF (I bet most don't even know what that is), before that days of cable TV. I watched while in bed, and had to contain my laughter so as not to wake up the wife and kids. That was impossible. The whole bed shook and so did the rest of the house, and I woke up everyone anyway. I've been watching a lot of his movie scenes on RU-vid this weekend and my gut hurts from all the laughing. What a genius!
The man was a genius at improvision with props. Red Skelton took his ques from WC Fields. WC Fields, the greatest comedian who ever lived. Died in 1946.
Fields died the same day that Great Grandfather did. I grew watching W.C. Fields movies on Saturday afternoon “tea time” movies and have been a huge fan of his ever since. If you ever get the chance check a movie called “W.C. Fields and Me” with Rod Steiger (as Fields) and Valerie Perine (as Carlotta Monti, his longtime mistress). It’s based on a book of the same title written by Monti.
Do yourself a favor and find the Fields clip that features a General store that Fields owns and this blind guy, Mr. Muckle comes in. One thing I can never do is say this is my favorite clip. There are at least 20 of my "favorite clip" out there and the other 22,000 are "incredibly funny clips."
I'm a 76 year old man.I have never seen this particular skit before,I have watched many of his other one's though. Today was the hardest I have laughed in many,many years. The man was the best at improv. I've saved it for future "pick-me-ups". Many thanks.
Not a second of that was improv, nor were any of his film performances. Almost all of his sight gags are recaps of his silent film antics, or vaudeville stage hijinks. His banter is 100% vaudeville. Fields was a well seasoned pro, every nuance scripted, choreographed, and rehearsed to perfection. Spontaneous generation of gags is a hallmark of stand-up, a genre of humor Fields never engaged in.
@@ludditeneaderthal spot on. Just ask what's the glass eye about. And quickly realize the poor thing was only returned after being knocked around the pool table into the wee hours.
I'm back on a binge again! I really love the way he sets up these situations. So much build up, knowing the audience is desperate to see the expected result to the point of frustration, and never quite finding satisfaction! Purest comedy at its finest!
Yes, it's really the comedy of frustration and slow burn. And it helps that it's so silent, which builds the tension (of course it's meant to be watched with a live audience, so there would be constant laughter).
That other guy gets just as much respect for being the perfect straight man for this bit. I would've been in tears from laughter after he flipped the cue ball.
That's Tammany Young, who played straight man in several of Field's movies. He died aged 49, in 1936, his death devastated Fields. Very interesting character in real life too.
One mark of great comedy is knowing what's coming and still laughing because the timing of the line is perfection. WC was the best in delivering lines and physical comedy. He refused to follow the Marx Bros on the stage, but he feared no one else. Thanks for posting footage of this American Classic
