You'll mostly find Peter Cook and Dudley Moore there, as they're my all-time favorites and the main inspiration for the current incarnations of Basil and Dustin in Londinium. Lately, though, there's another double act in my life that's swiftly running a close second to those two, one that really couldn't be more different in style.
I'm talking about these two.
Watching Stan and Ollie's characters trying to navigate the world is something I realized I understand a lot more than I thought I would. Their characters are children in the world of adults, and it's essentially how I feel about myself - the rules of the adult world are strange and foreign, and they don't always make sense to me. I'm turning 24 in April and I'm quite content to enjoy the same things that made me happy as a little kid - going to the toy store, building model kits, setting up toy train layouts, and, of course, reading. I never grew out of cartoons - I even started drawing them (and occasionally am even paid to do so). And I just find it really hard to understand why people can be so mean and not enjoy life.
It's a world view I understand - it's so easy to get lost in a world of adults when you see things so simply and without malice or ulterior motives, and you have to wonder a lot of the time if people are going to try to take advantage of you because you're gentle and child-like. On the flip side, you become a friend to all children, someone who bridges the gap between their world and that adult world that they'll someday enter, and your own existence and survival there - no matter how accident-prone you may be - gives them hope and reassures them that they'll be able to make it someday too.
Lately I've been watching these two quite a bit. There's something about them that just makes me feel really happy inside. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I can identify with them in a way. The world's confusing for people like us, but we survive due to our kindness towards other people.
Thanks for giving me that hope again, you two.
Very interesting post. I've been described as a perpetual 14 year old, albeit a v clever one. That was thirty years ago, more recent encounters have probably put some 'maturity' on me re interaction with other adults / occasional work type encounters. My enthusiasm/s keep me afloat, I have to know the situations (or people) to avoid, we develop 'radar'. Clever in my own right, not held back by having to make inane conversation (which i never could do) and focus on 'moving ahead' getting things done, but lately as I get older confusion and something similar to depression can be crippling. People have no idea what it takes nowadays to get things done. lately i've found taking one of the dogs 'Tramadol' gives me a five hour window of calmed mind and focus on work or reading. A problem of mine is the three cups and a ball type syndrome whereby once a decision lands in my mind (often connected in 'what to do' type things/ where to go) ... a contradictory decision immediately replaces the first. I suppose you know all this already. Just reading a bio on the last few years of Dudley Moore, cannot help but feel he was aspi.
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