jonathan winters had that "way" about him where, no matter the subject, his wit was so sharp he took over the show.
there are only a few people like that that we are lucky to see. robin williams was one.
speaking of comedy, anyone remember ernie kovacs? he did a bit that still makes me laugh.
this is the only clip i could find on yt. there is a longer version where ernie is "selling" the vehicle and it is hilarious.
Yes, Ernie Kovacs was unique as the master of the visually surreal from The Nairobi Trio to Percy Dovetonsils, and also unique in the use of props such as the bottomless bathtub, which was shamelessly stolen by the writers of Laugh-In. He liked to surprise the audience with the visually quirky that was unexpected and stayed with you. Kovacs must have had some fascinating dreams. Sad he died so young in a traffic accident
Many years ago I read an article by Chevy Chase who said Kovacs and his style was his inspiration. I can sort of see that.
By the way, Al, your comment about the sharpness of Winters' wit taking over the show is spot on. One time he was so in character as Maude Frickert sitting on a motorcycle that they nearly had to drag him off the stage.
Some have written that his characters inhabited him every bit as much as he embodied them, and I believe it. I own a book of his remarkably surreal paintings, some humorous, some disturbing. He was a man of many talents, a genius in my opinion.
Thanks very much for all of the nice new posts. With all of the Holiday stuff happening I forgot about this thread somehow.
A cute quote from Dorothy Fuldheim: " Youth is a disease from which we all recover. "
A cute quote from Dorothy Fuldheim: " Youth is a disease from which we all recover. "
hmm...there are some parts of that "disease" i'd like back.
Regarding funny folks I liked Benny Hill a lot. Also Jack Benny, Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Youngman etc etc.
I guess I must like classic American funnymen because I agree with you Ralph, though I'd put Benny Hill, a Brit, last among those you mentioned.
Nowadays to be a successful comic the trick is to turn a silk purse into a sow's ear and not the other way around. In other words, it's child's play, so to speak, because that's who you are appealing to in emotional maturity.
You know you're in trouble when most TV series with their insipid one-liners holding the plot together are written for (or by ... I can't tell which) 10 to 11 year olds.
It must be their remedial writing assignment!
Interesting quote from Jean Sibelius: " For the first time, I have lately become aware of the fact that the period of our earthly existence is limited. During the whole of my life, this idea has never actually come into my mind. It occurred to me very distinctly when I was looking at an old tree there in the garden. When we came, it was very small, and I looked at it from above. Now, it waves high above my head and seems to say, " You will soon depart, but I shall stay here for hundreds more years. "
Perhaps this is why I love Sibelius's works from his symphonies to his remarkable violin concerto. His compositions embody a certain frigid lyricism, sort of like his quote on the inexorable passing of time.
You are getting older if you can remember a time when you had to go to the Bank on Friday if you wanted cash for the weekend.
Or go to the bank, period - ha ha. I remember rushing to a bank across town on Friday to deposit my pay check; that was in the mid 1970s.
Remember how annoyed we'd get at old people - like our grandparents - going on and on about the good ole days? And how we just knew there was No way we'd end up like them, for cripe's sake? Pretty funny when we look back on that now, isn't it? Seriously -- i actually start chuckling when I think about my youthful self, with all her mis-placed sense of certainty about so many things. If I saw her now, I'd listen and smile indulgently, and think oh, how much you have to learn. I'd maybe drop a few hints, along the lines of life being a bit more complex than she might imagine, but mostly I'd just wish her well.
This subject always reminds me of a 1986 movie written and directed by Charlie Sheen's brother Emilio Estevez. I never saw the movie, but I smile whenever I think about it. Estevez wrote it when he was 24. He titled it Wisdom.
We were wiser then....
Excellent post, Mil, and all too true; universally so for the most part. I was a bit different in believing that to discover earth-shattering insights you had to be humble and realize others, at least the sensitive and introspective, may well have been down this road before you. Perhaps that's the beginning of wisdom, or at least discovering that knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Confidence is paramount, but arrogance is deadly to discovering something truly unique.
My grandparents seemed and acted ancient at my current age, even though I act much younger. Is this just because there is a different cultural style of being old, or is it related to the fact that people are living longer and thus aging more slowly? But why are even people who don't go to the doctor or take any medicine also living longer? Is it more preservatives in the food? I heard that because of the accumulation of food preservatives in the human body, corpses are now decaying more slowly than they used to, so this same phenomenon may be keeping us more youthful.
Love all the old comics from the visual Chaplin and Keaton to cynics like W.C. Fields (watch this Diner sequence) to the anarchistic Marx Brothers, and onto those three blind mice, The Stooges. My father preferred the comics that became popular in the 1950s and early 1960s like Jackie Gleason and Alan King, but his favorite was Jonathan Winters.
Anyway, Duck Soup is great, Ralph, as is A Night at the Opera and Horse Feathers. Here is a clip of my favorite Groucho song, The Rules of My Administration, though Lydia the Tattooed Lady is a close second.