Why are people in documentaries always so serious?

[Elmo Dukat]

I'm watching a documentary on the History Channel, and the historical characters being depicted are always so --- serious. Never a joke, never even a depiction of regular every-day humor. You never see a the focal historical character, like Ben Franklin for instance, taking digs at his employees at his printing office.

Unless humor is part of the story ("such-and-such was a jovial fellow," PAN TO HIM GRASPING STOMACH IN LAUGHTER), everyday, random humor is missing. For once I'd like to see a street scene where in the background, a dude trips over his own feet and a few people laugh at him.

Has anyone else ever noticed the lack of basic humor in documentaries?

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Ha...really! That's why I prefer some of the historical fiction-type movies made about historical figures to documentaries.

One that kind of surprised me was The Nativity Story--while not over the top at all, you have some nice cases of dry humor, even to include a few from Joseph himself. (Oh, and of course you also get Alexander Siddig in the movie, though without any humor in his role.)

 

[An Officer]

Probably only because a good sense of humour is a rare thing, and many tend to dismiss it as frivolous.

 

[John Picard]

History is serious business.

 

[trekkiedane]

Film was expensive so everybody tried to get the most value out of the few feet being made of them at any one time -I think that's, at least part of, the reason.

 

[Hermiod]

People in NASA's Greatest Missions, as with most science documentaries, weren't all that serious. Gene Krantz (who is a legend, by the way) told most of his stories with a smile on his face.

Things changed when they got to Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia though.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, people being interviewed often show humor-- or at least happiness, since they are discussing their passion. There's one Asian guy who is frequently interviewed on space and physics shows who always seems delighted with everything; and one particular archaeologist on the dinosaur shows that always seems ready to jump up and down with joy.

But in the historical recreations, such as in the Revolution series, everyone is always very serious. I suppose that's because the scenes that they choose to recreate are always historically pivotal, which means that there is deadly peril afoot. There was a three-hour documentary about the Mayflower that I didn't get to see; perhaps with that much time to play with, they got to portray some happier scenes. It would be nice to have a series that recreated everyday life in particular time periods, so that we could see how people acted in normal moments.

 

[SPOCKED]

There's one Asian guy who is frequently interviewed on space and physics shows who always seems delighted with everything...

Dr. Michio Kaku He's good television!!

...and one particular archaeologist on the dinosaur shows that always seems ready to jump up and down with joy.

George Blasing? Brings some nice entheusiasm to Jurassic Fight Club

 

[Neroon]

It's quite possible that the humorous reactions, jokes, etc. would be distracting to the man focus of the presentation. You see someone chuckling or lauging, and you begin to wonder more about WHY they're laughing, instead of concentrating upon the charater or incident from history.

 

[Mr. B]

I don;t know if Hermoid and I are thinking of the same thing, but I'm currently watching Discovery's When We Left Earth and those guys (including a lot of time with Krantz) and those guys don't mind getting a few quips in.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Heck, I saw a documnetary once with Hitler doing a little jig and laughing.

 

[Hermiod]

I don;t know if Hermoid and I are thinking of the same thing, but I'm currently watching Discovery's When We Left Earth and those guys (including a lot of time with Krantz) and those guys don't mind getting a few quips in.

I believe it is indeed the same show and our UK Discovery Channel just renamed it.

 

[melancholymecha]

there's lots of unintentional humor in the "dramatic reenactments" featured on Monster Quest.

 

[RJDiogenes]

There's one Asian guy who is frequently interviewed on space and physics shows who always seems delighted with everything...

Dr. Michio Kaku He's good television!!

That's him. I love that guy.

...and one particular archaeologist on the dinosaur shows that always seems ready to jump up and down with joy.

George Blasing? Brings some nice entheusiasm to Jurassic Fight Club

That's not the guy I was thinking of, but he's good, too; I think the guy I'm thinking of is named Brown, but I'm not sure.

There's also an Egyptian scientist on most of the shows about ancient Egypt who's really good. And I saw one cool Egyptian documentary that was hosted by the guy who played Galen on Crusade; he seemed to be having the time of his life.

 

[Ben Sisko3]

Bill Maher is not serious about anything in his "documentary" Religioulus, and that's one of the film's many, many grave errors.