Althouse: I don't think you could do this today... but here's a fantastic episode on "Candid Camera" (with Woody Allen).

October 19, 2019

I don't think you could do this today... but here's a fantastic episode on "Candid Camera" (with Woody Allen).

The "victim" is so good, I had to wonder if we were not being tricked, and she was a brilliant comic actress in on the whole thing:

Anyway... I don't think I trick like that would be done for a mainstream audience today, because of our sensitivity about sexual harassment.

21 comments:

William said...: Her reactions are extraordinarily good, just how an inspired comic actor would play it. Still, after all these years no one has come forward to say that the stunts on Candid Camera were posed. So, it's either a very successful conspiracy or something genuine.....If it turns out it was posed, it would be the end of Woody's career. Let's hope it was legit.; 10/19/19, 1:01 PM
n.n said...: She's right. She's cute. She's a good sport. That said, it's a letter expressing an intimate sentiment, which should be written, typed, voiced by your own hand, by your own voice, not a proxy.; 10/19/19, 1:11 PM
gilbar said...: IF you were Not going to handwrite a love letter; it should be sent as a telegram
I'm (more than) a little disappointed that the steno lady didn't suggest that

DEAR BELOVED PROFESSOR ALTHOUSE [STOP]
I REALLY ENJOY READING YOUR BLOG! [STOP]
MEADE DOESN'T KNOW *HOW*LUCKY*HE*IS !! [STOP]
THINKING OF YOU, OFTEN !!![STOP]
I REMAIN, YOUR ADMIRING READER[STOP]
GILBAR [FULLSTOP]; 10/19/19, 1:25 PM
n.n said...: Training film on sexual harassment; 10/19/19, 1:39 PM
mikee said...: I, for one, think the 1982 Saturday Night Live short film, Babies in Makeup, was the low point of exploitative vile comedy by network television. Your opinion may differ, but vile is vile.; 10/19/19, 1:43 PM
Molly said...: (eaglebeak)

If we wouldn't put it on TV today, we should.

Also, where's the harassment and which sex/gender/pronoun is being harassed?; 10/19/19, 2:20 PM
rcocean said...: Funny but Fake.; 10/19/19, 2:25 PM
John henry said...: You couldn't do it today because no one would understand the concept of a stenographer.

Or dictating a letter.

John Henry; 10/19/19, 2:26 PM
Paul said...: Yea... 'sexual harassment'. Can't anyone take a joke now days?; 10/19/19, 2:49 PM
rhhardin said...: It wouldn't be done because the style of humor is dated, not because of sexual harassment. Even though the usual offended would be offended, a plus.

Modern humor offends the offended better.

I was in a bar last night, saw this beautiful woman. Like a supermodel. I walked up, I was like, "Hey, where are you from? What do you do?" And she goes, "Oh, me? I live here in San Fransico. I'm a brain surgeon." And I don't know if this makes me sexist, but I was like really impressed. You know? I mean, most women can't pull off sarcasm.

- Anthony Jeselnik; 10/19/19, 3:10 PM
Wince said...: She viewed him as a bungling romantic nerd not a lech.; 10/19/19, 3:12 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Charming! Wouldn't work in the Leftwing era of " That's Not Funny!" and #MeToo and feminist nonsense.; 10/19/19, 3:21 PM
Kansas City said...: Commenters, why so serious? Harmless, funny bit. Then, and now.; 10/19/19, 3:25 PM
stonethrower said...: Most fun I have ever had watching anything involving Woody Allen.; 10/19/19, 4:06 PM
daskol said...: Too good to be fake. Expressive and funny lady, precisely not an actress.; 10/19/19, 4:07 PM
h said...: I'm inclined to take this at face value, and the stenographer was a real stenographer and her reactions were her honest actual reactions. If Alan Funt wanted to fake up the candid camera skits, the way to do it (and no doubt he did) is to run the scenario x times and pick out the one that where the honest reaction was the best TV. I mean, there have to have been candid camera set-ups where the mark sussed it out early on, and those simply don't make good candid camera TV, or at least not very often. The reason that people think it might such a brilliant comic actress (can I say that? "actress") is that it is exactly how a public stenographer might react (and I think, did react).; 10/19/19, 4:37 PM
Amadeus 48 said...: Hmmm...nothing much to offend anyone in this.

She has what I consider to be a pretty much the standard 1950s-1960s Staten Island/Brooklyn secretarial affect--she obviously was brought up right, and she is not intimidated by Woody's emotionally inappropriate dictation. Rather, she attempts to point him in the right direction--he should be hand-writing a letter like this.

Amusing and reassuring at the same time.; 10/19/19, 4:40 PM
Nichevo said...: Or dictating a letter.

John Henry

Sure they would. Siri, take a memo to HR.; 10/19/19, 4:59 PM
Narr said...: [Tap tap.] Is this thing on? Can you hear me in the back?

OK.

If she wasn't acting, what a fine example of a modern American woman! She wasn't the client's handmaiden, she was cool, calm, and collected even though baffled.

Forget whether or not the show could be made today, how many temporary hires now would have handled such a situation as well?

Narr
If she was acting, where's the Emmy?; 10/19/19, 5:27 PM
h said...: Replying (with the pause) to Narr: " If she wasn't acting, what a fine example of a modern American woman! " This is my opinion, as noted in an earlier comment with -- she wasn't acting (as I think Narr agrees).; 10/19/19, 6:42 PM
wildswan said...: I think she wasn't acting because you can see how she changes when she is thinking that she has just been slanging a man who knows important people. Suddenly she is subdued and too startled to think that maybe this is an episode on Candid Camera.; 10/20/19, 4:32 AM