Being There

Last night we watched Being There – my favorite movie with Peter Sellers. I hadn’t seen it until it went on Swedish television a year or so ago (I’m glad we taped it). I seldom laugh at movies although I find them funny, but this movie is so perfect in its very subtle humor, so I laugh a lot.

Comedy – whether it’s in movies, books, stand-up, etc. – is seldom subtle. Most often it’s very “in your face”. In yesterday’s Dagens Nyheter there was an article about The Onion, where the writer, Mattias Göransson, wrote that the magazine has something that is very rare in Sweden: “Swedish humor seems to be for ever trapped in a space where nothing really matters”.

Being There clearly wants something, and I wish that this would become more popular again: movies, books, etc., that dare to both say something important, and to do it in a humorous way – and if it would err on the side of subtlety, no-one would be happier than me.