In Memoriam: Harold Ramis (1944–2014)
Writer, director and actor Harold Ramis has died at the age of 69. As fate would have it, I watched Groundhog Day last night with my son Luke. There is a 47 year age differences between the two of us, yet we both were laughing at the same jokes and quiet during the movie’s numerous surprisingly reflective moments. It speaks to the creative talent of co-screenwriters Danny Rubin and Ramis, and Ramis’ directing skill. Groundhog Day is a brilliant movie and a wonderful way to remember Ramis. But he contributed to the world of comedy entertainment is so many more ways. Click More and join me as we remember Harold Ramis.
When I was in graduate school at Yale, NBC started to air a crazy Canadian sketch comedy show after Saturday Night Live. Called Second City Television (SCTV), it starred an amazing cast of comedic talent, most of whom would go on to make quite a mark in the film and TV business including John Candy, Robin Duke, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, and Harold Ramis. Here are just a few examples of Ramis in action:
When Ramis transitioned into Hollywood movies, he did so in a big way. Here is a list of films he was involved with as a writer and/or director:
Animal House (1976)
Meatballs (1979)
Caddyshack (1980)
Stripes (1981)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Back to School (1986)
Armed and Dangerous (1986)
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Multiplicity (1996)
Analyze This (1999)
Bedazzled (2000)
Analyze That (2001)
The Ice Harvest (2005)
Year One (2009)
For me, you could just stop with Animal House which I think is one of the greatest comedies of all time, but for generations of people, Ramis will best be known by the character Dr. Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters:
I look at that list of films above and what strikes me is the sheer quality of writing. So it’s not a surprise that I featured Ramis’ observations in this Screenwriting 101 post:
“For me, a screenplay starts with something I can tell other people in five minutes. If you’re pitching a movie and it takes longer than five minutes, there’s something wrong. That economy seems to have really worked for me. The more detail I include in my pitch, the more other people’s and my own eyes start to glaze over.”
As any writer who has worked with comedy knows, timing and economy are critical to one’s success — from one-liners to scenes to bits to entire storylines.
Circling back to Groundhog Day, here is a clip from an interview with Ramis from 2009 in which he talks about the meaning of the movie.
Here are several interview excerpts with Ramis via AFI:
One can’t help but come away from these interviews with at least two impressions. First, Ramis was incredibly smart, obviously a well-read individual. Second, he always seemed to have a smile on his face.
Here are several news articles about Ramis from today:
Here are some quotes I found from Ramis:
“My characters aren’t losers. They’re rebels. They win by their refusal to play by everyone else’s rules.”
“Nothing reinforces a professional relationship more than enjoying success with someone.”
“I never work just to work. It’s some combination of laziness and self-respect.”
“I always claim that the writer has done 90 percent of the director’s work.”
A 2011 interview with Ramis:
That’s something you’ve been tagged with: being the godfather of gross-out comedy.
I’ve always thought that the generation of movies that followed Animal House sort of mistook the style for the content. Like I think the Farrelly brothers are more Porky’s than Animal House. [Animal House co-writer] Doug Kenney used to say this great thing: “Broad comedy doesn’t have to be dumb comedy.”
Doing a Baby-Ruth-in-the-pool gag doesn’t undermine that?
Not at all. That was based on something that really happened at a country club that Doug Kenney or Brian Doyle-Murray heard about. I thought it was really original. Being intelligent doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily quoting Shakespeare all the time. I mean, Carl Spackler, the groundskeeper: He’s clearly damaged in some way, but he’s not dumb. His dialogue is as clever and inventive as any in the movie, really. To write even dumb or crude characters in a smart way, that’s the goal.
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But it’s a serious question: Do you need to be fucked-up to be funny?
I read an article many years ago about kids who, for whatever reason, see the world as crazy — they could have crazy parents, an abusive priest, some other awful circumstance. Some kids will blame themselves. They’ll say, “I know the priest is good. He’s a man of God. So what he’s doing is good, and I must be wrong.” But the other child, the Absurd Child, will say, “No, I’m not crazy. The world is fucking nuts. My parents are insane. That priest is crazy.” And that’s the beginning of the comic perspective.
Was there ever a point where you had dysfunction envy? Ever worry that you weren’t screwed up enough?
I’m not sure. I worked so much with Rodney Dangerfield, I really got to know a lot about his life and how true his comic posture was — the miserable childhood and all that. And I thought, Maybe my life was too good to have that kind of comic persona. What could my act be? “I get too much respect”? And then I’d say all these good things that happened to me? Who wants to hear that?
It is an incredible gift to have the talent to make people laugh. Ramis had that talent. In spades. He will be missed. Fortunately there is a legacy of wonderful movies we may continue to enjoy, helping to keep Ramis alive in our imaginations.
Godspeed, Harold Ramis.
Please share any memories or thoughts you have about the lost of this giant comedic talent.
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