Only the great humorous Robert Benchley could take such an offbeat topic as "The Courtship of the Newt" and make it excruciatingly funny. His low-key style comic delivery has been copied many times but seldom, if ever, equaled. The more satirical but less farcical comedy of radio and television greats Bob and Ray owed much to Robert Benchley's brand of hilarity. Benchley's influence can even be seen and heard in the later marvels of British buffoonery Monty Python and in the far-out antics of Firesign Theatre. Benchley down played both his humor and his acting, but was a master of both--and a gifted writer to boot.
While "The Courthsip of the Newt" isn't quite on a par with his Oscar winning "How to Sleep," it is still a joy to behold, especially for those comedy lovers who haven't been exposed to Benchley's shorts of the 30's and 40's.
At only eight minutes in length, "The Courtship of the Newt" is almost like an introduction to Benchley's brand of mirth. He attempts to show a live newt to the audience by reaching into a tank of murky water filled with seaweed but to no avail. Utimately he calls on his bored and annoyed assistant sitting by his side to scoop up the newt for view on the big screen. Though no newt is visible, a big splash is heard when Benchley drops the newt back into the tank. Diagrams are utilized as with most "educational" talks, but Benchley's drawings are very different from what one might expect from such a lecture, with an out-of-place drawing always popping up to befuddle and confuse both the speaker and the audience.