"Stay calm and be proactive."
Tell that to Stan and Ollie, as they simultaneously build and destroy a house in "The Finishing Touch" or become roof-top acrobats in "Hog Wild."
As the world shrinks into itself and 'social distancing' becomes a virtue instead of a vice, it wouldn't hurt to spend a few hours with these two fine and generous clowns on YouTube. Their films are posted free, for the most part.
Their films have been picked apart and analyzed, and celebrated, by finer minds and better writers than me. I can only try to convey my visceral enjoyment of them.
In their best work Laurel and Hardy turn muddling through into an art form. As Ollie is constantly reminding Stan, the world is nothing but 'another nice mess.'
This is as profound as they ever get. Thank goodness. They are the comfort food of comedy -- a grilled cheese sandwich, if you will, that asks nothing better than a moment of your time to do a deliriously silly dance in "Way Out West" or turn a sawmill into a glorious donnybrook in "Busy Bodies."
They succeed well in creating a simple world of their own, impervious to outside influences -- existing outside of time itself. A slapstick elegy, where two men muddle on amidst crashing bric-a-brac, unsympathetic cops, and even an occasional tetchy gorilla. It is a reflection of our own world, but writ large and lunatic.
So do yourself a favor -- give their special magic a view soon. You may laugh out loud, or you may just shake your head with a tolerant and amused smile -- but I promise you that you will find their work to be other-worldly and unforgettable.
And then your own muddling through will not seem so tedious or irritating.
After all, as Stan says --"Anyone can build a nest, but it isn't everyone who can lay an egg!"
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