Back when Woody Allen first decided that it was worthier to make audiences miserable than to entertain them, he gave an interview to Newsweek in which he declared that when you're doing comedy, you're not sitting at the grown-ups' table.
It was easy enough to think of names that disproved him: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Swift. Far too easy. Trotting out a list of giants was playing the same game as Allen, assuming that "high" culture is automatically superior to anything else.
To take the true contrary position would mean insisting that it was ridiculous to imply that Chaplin, Keaton, the Marx Brothers, George S. Kaufman, Samson Raphaelson, Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, Chuck Jones and so many others were engaged in something an adult should be ashamed of.
But the notion persists that comedy is a mug's game and perhaps nowhere is this idea more prevalent than among people who make comedy for a living.
If the initial reports of his upcoming film, Funny People, are accurate, Judd Apatow is the latest comic craftsman to be overcome by the belief that he needs to get serious. In the film, Adam Sandler plays a hugely successful stand-up comic who, after discovering he has terminal cancer, takes a struggling young comedian (the Apatow regular Seth Rogen) under his wing.
How successful this move is remains to be seen, but one cannot make the argument that Apatow has never ventured into "serious" territory before. The scenes between Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann in Knocked Up are piercingly accurate depictions of marital discord. But cancer is a much more tricky subject, especially when it comes to humour. Go gentle and you risk sentimentality; go dark and you risk making the ravages of the disease so potent that no one feels like laughing.
The perils of the comic artist who yearns to be taken seriously have been the subject of movies at least since King Vidor's 1928 Show People in which the actress Marion Davies stars as a young country girl named Peggy Pepper who first delights audiences then, when she switches to weepy tragedies under the name Patricia Pepoire, bores them silly. The movie's happy ending was not replicated in Davies' own career. William Randolph Hearst, with whom Davies enjoyed a relationship, thought comedy undignified and financed a series of lavish historical epics which showed none of her comic gifts and which audiences shunned.
And in 1941's Sullivan's Travels, Joel McCrea plays a successful comic director who poses as a hobo during the Great Depression as research for an epic movie entitled O Brother, Where Art Thou? (a title the Coen brothers restored to comedy). The movie doesn't work, primarily because the climax, in which McCrea sees how comedy soothes the cares of a downtrodden audience, wallows in the kind of Capraesque sentimentality that was anathema to Sturges, its director.
However, comic actors who have taken serious roles have traditionally fared far better than directors who specialise in comedy - perhaps because switching your mode of acting is less radical a move than altering your vision. Even then, though, it is risky. Audiences ignored Steve Martin's stunning performance in Pennies From Heaven - one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever - and the reaction to Adam Sandler's amazing depiction of a man trying to overcome his own knotted inarticulateness in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love was summed up by a headline from the satirical newspaper The Onion: "Adam Sandler Fans Disappointed by Intelligent, Nuanced Performance."
And when audiences have paid attention, as they did to Jerry Lewis's performance in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy, the praise was sometimes used to denigrate the (sometimes exhausting) brilliance of his comic work.
Apatow risks a lot with Funny People because he is the dominant figure in American movie comedy at this moment. Since the success of Knocked Up in 2007, Apatow has been prolific.
Since Knocked Up, he has been involved as producer or writer in eight movies, including Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. The Internet Movie Database lists him as having seven projects currently in development. And it's impossible to imagine recent comedies like I Love You, Man (starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, both of whom have worked for Apatow) or the current hit The Hangover, which apes Apatow's sweet and raunchy style, without him.
It is significant that both of Apatow's films as writer-director to date are about grown men trying to, finally, act as if they are grown men. Apatow has come along at a time when the juvenile rules in Hollywood. And while, in comedy, the impulse towards the juvenile has produced some blissfully liberating comedy - the best of the Farrelly brothers and South Park, some of wilder moments of Sandler's pictures and the Austin Powers franchise - it has also often left nothing so much as the conviction that you're watching infants trying to be funny.
Apatow, with his male characters who are still into action figures and fantasy baseball leagues, who love the women in their lives but have to lay childish things aside to be worthy of them, is trying to address both the pleasures and limitations of a culture pleased to remain in a state of arrested development.
The films which have appeared under Apatow's aegis have sometimes fallen into just that juvenility. The two films he has written and directed, though, have, for all their obvious commerciality, felt personal, the work of someone who has spent time asking himself the question of how the male of the species graduates into adulthood without sinking into the deadly dullness of respectability.
This is just one of the reasons why the assumption that comedy and substance have always been strangers feels so simplistic. Not that purely silly comedy is somehow indefensible. Pleasure shouldn't have to be defended.
We are not yet past the point of assuming that which gives us pleasure cannot be enriching or worthy or any of the other schoolmarmish adjectives that still affect our response to art. And it is why the prospect of Funny People feels both a natural progression and worrisome.
At some point, no matter how Funny People is, Apatow is going to have to branch out, to move beyond the subject of male maturity, give us male characters who are already equal to the women they love. That is the only way in which he may produce a romantic comedy, a genre which, despite all the cutesy poison wreaked on it by Kate Hudson and Sandra Bullock movies, requires lovers who stand toe to toe, slugging it out before making up.
The remarkable final shot of Knocked Up, the new couple and their baby, driving in the passing lane along the freeway to their new home in the gang-infested neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, was extraordinarily unresolved for a big-budget crowd-pleaser. That's the kind of uncertainty that needs to re-emerge in American comedy, the sense that, in the absence of guarantees about the future, the characters are mature enough to meet what lies ahead. It would be wonderful if Apatow proved he was the guy capable of bringing those grown-up laughs back.
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour Calendar 2018/19
July 29: OTA Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan
Sep 22-23: LA Convention Centre in Los Angeles, US
Nov 16-18: Carioca Arena Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Feb 7-9: Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mar 9-10: Copper Box Arena in London, UK
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 18' pen)
Juventus 2 (Dybala 4', Higuain 80')
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
UAE Falcons
Carly Lewis (captain), Emily Fensome, Kelly Loy, Isabel Affley, Jessica Cronin, Jemma Eley, Jenna Guy, Kate Lewis, Megan Polley, Charlie Preston, Becki Quigley and Sophie Siffre. Deb Jones and Lucia Sdao – coach and assistant coach.
The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
Pathaan
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More from UAE Human Development Report:
The biog
Age: 19
Profession: medical student at UAE university
Favourite book: The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
Role model: Parents, followed by Fazza (Shiekh Hamdan bin Mohammed)
Favourite poet: Edger Allen Poe
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
IF YOU GO
The flights: FlyDubai offers direct flights to Catania Airport from Dubai International Terminal 2 daily with return fares starting from Dh1,895.
The details: Access to the 2,900-metre elevation point at Mount Etna by cable car and 4x4 transport vehicle cost around €57.50 (Dh248) per adult. Entry into Teatro Greco costs €10 (Dh43). For more go to www.visitsicily.info
Where to stay: Hilton Giardini Naxos offers beachfront access and accessible to Taormina and Mount Etna. Rooms start from around €130 (Dh561) per night, including taxes.
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Founder: Ayman Badawi
Date started: Test product September 2016, paid launch January 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software
Size: Seven employees
Funding: $170,000 in angel investment
Funders: friends
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The biog
Favourite book: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Favourite holiday destination: Spain
Favourite film: Bohemian Rhapsody
Favourite place to visit in the UAE: The beach or Satwa
Children: Stepdaughter Tyler 27, daughter Quito 22 and son Dali 19
