Blimey, what a lot of people there are out there slapping their thighs at

Shakespeare’s jokes. Plainly it’s not him, it’s me. All of the following

is from a reader:

* Petruchio’s wedding

* The two Dromios

* The rustics’ play for Theseus and Hyppolyta

* Bottom, pretty much everything he says

* Lavinia carrying Titus’ hand offstage in her mouth

* Hotspur’s rage

* Falstaff, everything he says or does in Henry IV pt. 1

* Hamlet’s “Good night, mother” as he drags Polonius’ bleeding body from

Gertrude’s bedroom

* Malvolio’s “madness”

* Polonius. pretty much everything he says

* Barnardine’s refusal to be executed

* Lear and Poor Tom in Poor Tom’s hovel

There’s lots of other funny stuff in Shakespeare that requires a good

company to pull off; the “comedies” in particular require some skill to make

them work. But a company that can’t get a laugh out of any of the above is

completely incompetent.