Looking for laughs

Sunday night was the first of the major entertainment awards shows, and I’m not interested in commenting on something as subjective as winners and losers. I do want to reflect on one category of the Golden Globe-nominated films, however.

Did anything seem unusual to you about the choices for best comedy or musical?

Let’s see, there was “American Hustle,” whose leading characters were valueless cons with no integrity. There was “Her,” the touching profile of a man so desperately lonely that his only meaningful relationship was with a machine. Another kind of isolation was the subject of “Inside Lllewyn Davis.” The main character was a performer living with rejection in the early days of the folk music boom. And there were laughs in “Nebraska,” but there was also the lingering shadows of senility, dementia and greed.

Now that’s a trio of giggle makers, isn’t it? And the final nominee in the category of comedy or musical, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which was three hours of doing it, snorting it and stealing it. There was music in all of them, but that’s also true of “12 Years A Slave.” Perhaps it’s time to re-examine what we think is funny anymore.

I’m Pat McMahon.

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