When I tell people I went through a "comedy phase," their reaction is usually a mixture of curiosity and something approaching respect.
Likewise, The Three Amigos sent Chevy Chase into exile in sequel-land and Steve Martin into his insufferable "serious comedy" phase (Planes, Trains, & Automobiles was already in post-production).
Old Comedy, initial phase of ancient Greek comedy (c. 5th century bc), known through the works of Aristophanes.
The fourth stage is usually reserved for novelas that are in the pre-production phase, comedy and variety programs or for somewhat shorter versions of novelas called "mini-series" that can run as many as 100 episodes, and there are also buildings on the premises set aside for editing and special effects.
But, for most Americans, the real democratic event is "American Idol," which tonight moves past the audition comedy into the elimination phase.
With the cycle done and "Radio Golf" into its opening run, Wilson told interviewers last spring that he was already cooking up the first play of his next phase: a comedy, he told the New York Times, that would involve "a war between coffin makers and undertakers, Death taking a holiday, Queen Victoria and the Platters, Benny Goodman and a magic radio".
We're a decade in to the age of online comedy, or at least the phase that saw it recognised by the industry as a major medium for comedy.
A dandy story with incidental songs does not make a satisfying musical comedy, even in the final phase of this less-than-exhilarating Broadway season.
Azhar and Shoaib Malik had previously fallen in quick succession, the former to a calamitous comedy run out with more phases than an All Black attack, and the latter first ball to Anderson's reverse-swung in-dipper which no one in their right mind would think of reviewing.
That was a phase in my life where comedy was everything.
With films like "Don Jon" and, earlier this summer, the caustic apocalyptic pop of "This Is the End," perhaps R-rated comedy is moving past its mindless "Hangover" phase.
