COLUMN: For Harold Ramis, the high priest of counterculture comedy
My family speaks to each other in movie quotes.
On any given day, my father and I would try to top one another, memorizing longer, funnier quotes more succinctly than the last batch. The more vulgar the better – that was the name of the game.
Among our favorite lines were those by '80s superstars Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and other classic "Saturday Night Live" greats. Movies like "Caddyshack," "Stripes," the "Ghostbusters" films and the mother of all college comedies, "National Lampoon’s Animal House," were fertile ground for such a raunchy, family hobby.
If you trace the standard curve of these movies, the trend displays the not-so-obvious comedic genius bestowed unto the world by the great Harold Ramis, who you may know as the intrepid and geeky Ghostbuster, Dr. Egon Spengler.
Ramis died Monday at age 69 from complications brought about by his long battle with an autoimmune disease. With his death, the world lost one of the brightest and boldest names in comedic acting, writing and directing.
Ramis was undoubtedly the 20th century's heavyweight champion for smart and nuanced dialogue, effortlessly stuffing his movies to the brim with well-placed facial expressions and impeccably cool delivery instead of the goofball cheap shots of slapstick.
Arguably, some of the best Murray one-liners came from the mind of Ramis. Many of the more poignant gags in "Animal House," such as shooting a horse with blanks or the hi-jinks found at an out-of-control rush party, were all examples of Ramis' heady affinity for taking complicated gags and making them easy to laugh at.
Like George Carlin before him, Ramis was a scion to a counterculture of late-stage Baby Boomers ready to look at the world as a funnier place – especially considering many of them grew up exposed to the generally unfunny events of Vietnam, Watergate and both Kennedy assassinations.
Unlike Carlin, Ramis never let you think too seriously about the world and its problems. Thinking about the heavy stuff was a drag, man. It was a real let down, and there's nothing funny about being a bummer.
Ramis pointed out the absurdity of it all with a monotone voice and a mocking smile. His movies poked at every major institution of society, whether that was the military or higher education.
Although "National Lampoon's Vacation" might not be the shining example of traditional family bonding, Ramis' films helped my family bond in a way that I'm sure no family counselor ever thought possible.
I suffered two strokes in my lifetime, the last of which occurred in 2012.
When I was in the infantile phase of recovery, not moving or speaking for days on end, my father, in desperation for a healing laugh, uttered the first half of a classic John Belushi line from the end of "Animal House." You know the one, the rant about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor.
Without missing a beat, eyes closed, I answered with the other half of the line, a connection that could have never existed without Ramis' comedies. At that moment, my father knew everything was going to be OK. Somewhere deep inside this shell of a person, his son was rolling on the floor in hysteria.
From my family and fellow Ramis fans everywhere, thank you, Harold. Everything seems a little less funny without you.
