I've been revisiting my DVDs of the fabulously underrated early 1990s series "The Critic," and for a show based on timely satire and parodies, it's held up pretty damn well. I don't care what happens in the world. Marlon Brando hula dancing to get eggrolls out of his pants as a chorus of impaled heads on spikes sings in the background -- all part of the movie musical "Apocalypse: Wow!" -- will always be funny. Some of the other jokes remain funny probably only to me, like Faye Dunaway getting whacked with an Oscar when she tries to sing.
A few gags, however, really date the show, particularly whenever Bill Clinton shows up. His appearance usually centered around him stuffing hamburgers down his throat or some other fat joke. Insert your own joke here about how the comedy ended up being about him stuffing things down other people's throats.
I had a similar observation when revisiting the musical "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" the other night (I'm not going to post a full review but will just say that it largely has held up well). The woman next to me got extremely flustered after one throwaway joke aimed at Bush, when a character sings "The Bushes of Tex were nervous wrecks because their son was dim, and look what happened to him." I didn't understand why she was so upset. Not only was it a tiny part of the show, but it's just as dated as a Clinton at McDonalds crack. Nobody, with the possible exception of Jay Leno, is making trite "Bush is a dim bulb" jokes at this point. Jokes that he is a stubborn, volatile, megalomaniacal, ill-read, crooked cowboy, perhaps. But only hacks are making the broad "dumb" jokes.
On the other hand, if "The Critic" is any indication, Hillary/battle-ax jokes haven't changed much over the last decade. Maybe it will take her presidential run to finally pull the comedy world into the 21st Century.
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