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funny not cruel Years ago late at night I saw a performance of Waiting for Godot for the very first time on my local PBS station. Back then the only thing that I really knew about the play was its name and absolutely none of the plot. Despite my limited knowledge, I did know that it was important in some way because so many critics and scholars had commented on it. So in the interest in adding to my knowledge of the theater and fine art in general, I sat and watched the action or what there is of it in the play unfold before me. What I remember the most from the play is that these two shabbily dressed men were talking to another on this abandoned road when they were joined by two other men. Now if I saw the first pair as off putting, the second pair would have to be utterly repulsive in my eyes. The verbal violence of the first two gave way to physical violence between the second two. I clearly remember the third man beating the fourth man with a whip and was very disturbed by it. What was the point of it? What had he done to deserve this kind of treatment? Was one of them a prisoner and the other a jailer? None of these questions were answered. The second pair of men just simply walked away without any explanation. Now years later, I have been told and or read that the play is meant to be seen as non-sensical or absurd. It is meant to be seen as funny. We the audience should take pleasure in what they are doing. Well, I'm still missing the joke. It isn't as though I were opposed to dark humor, because I think that Terry Gilliam's film Brazil is quite funny despite its violence. Waiting for Godot on the other hand doesn't make me laugh. It generates other emotions in me, but cheer isn't one of them. I've even read that some people say that the Marx Brothers may have influenced the characters in the play and here is their reasoning as I understand it. In both groups, there are four men who spar with one another through verbal jabs and mock against societal norms. Personally I see that as a stretch and would counter that none of the Marx Brothers ever beat another brother on a regular basis. It was the Three Stooges who used violence to express themselves. |