What makes you laugh? Do you have a favorite comedian? Maybe a bit or TV show? What kinds of comedy are Iowans tuned in to? Share your thoughts or jokes.
I just dowloaded one of Bob Newhart's old "Buttoned-Down Mind" recordings, courtesy of Tars Tarkus. This guy was hilarious in his prime. He has a kind of low-key approach that I've only run across a few times. Even in his later years, he still employs the same technique, as you know if you've seen him on Saturday Night Live.
Go to Youtube and listen to some of it. Newhart was hilarious during an era when scripted one-liners prevailed (e.g. Bob Hope, Jack Benny, etc.).
Bob Newhart is good, but the funniest all-around comedian of all time is Dan Ackroyd. Even his movies were funny. Why didn't Bob Newhart ever make any movies that I remember?
Sounds a lot like Steven Wright - one of the all-time greats. I saw him live once, and the audience started laughing so hard that he actually started laughing, too.
Whatever happened to Norm MacDonald? I still remember his comments about Michael Jackson's marriage to Lisa Marie Presley - he didn't think it would work. Why?
"I'm just skeptical. You see, Lisa Marie is more of a 'sit at home' type, while Michael is more of a homosexual pedophile."
On Ackroyd- The class of 1979 had Tom Davis and Matt Lane doing the "Blues Brothers". Matt was hyper and hilarious, Matt was soft spoken and the best straight men I've known personally. Brilliant, simply brilliant.
"Newhart" in the Vermont inn had the worst 1st season of a great show ever. It had grainy film, a seedy soap opera type background, and an unlikable jerk as Stephanie's love interest. They put Michael, the alliterative loser in and it soared. The episode with Stephanie giving birth with a drunk Michael filming the delivery was great. This was my favorite bunch of quirky, odd ball characters. Written by Barry Kemp who graduated from Perry High.
Seinfeld's ratings for at least the 1st season were atrocious. Patience is a virtue.
I thoroughly enjoy Damon Wayans' "My Wife and Kids". They get into issues that could easily get risque, walk up to the edge, never going too far, something old time radio did masterfully working around the censors. The brainiac 5 year old is the funniest kid actor I've ever seen.
I really liked Kauffman's pre-"Taxi" Latka type character he did in his stand up routine. The wide eyed innocence played better in small doses, standing alone. I much preferred it to him on Taxi. Bcz of his outrageous characters and his love of maddening his audience he died at 35, no one believing he was even sick. That's an Andy Kauffman send-off.
Lindsey Lohan's suing for $100,000,000 for being "used" in the Lindsey-milkaholic commercial. She deserves every penny, those slimy scum suckers! Shows the importance of observing stuff to make a buck. Another in a succession of good career moves.
When Geoerge Carlin died in 2008 I flew the flag at half mast. What other comedian won four grammy awards for comedy albums? Some of his bits like his fake news or seven words you can't say on TV are timeless.
Another favorite is Jonathan Winters, who I think is still living. He started out as a great stand-up comic. You can catch some of his old routines on Youtube.
Newhart's Vermont-based comedy was good, but his older "The Bob Newhart Show", which centered around a Chicago-based psychologist and his nutty patients was the best. He played straight man to all of those characters, and performed all of his professional tasks by speaking in cliches. Bob Daly as neighbor Howard Borden was hysterical.
My favorite TV name is Howard Borden's brother, Warden Gordon Borden. Van and Bonnie on WHO radio have a name "Hall of Fame." Any names come to mind?
It amazes me how most comedies of the last 30 years have someone from Saturday Night Live. They've made a huge impact. I miss John Candy. I liked "Uncle Buck" and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." When Joe Montana led the drive that beat Cincinnati in the last minute, he was in the huddle, and said, "Look, over there's John Candy." Talk about relaxed.
My favorite SNL skit was Chris Farley doing the down on his luck, motivational speaker who lived in "a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!" I saw it 1st from my brother-in-law. Hilarious.
You need to listen to some of the old classic bits done by guys we never talk about, but are still funny today. Tim Conway comes to mind. When fe joined the cast of "The Carol Burnett Show" it suddenly became hilarious. Most of those old Conway bits are on Youtube.
Or how about Bob and Ray? Listen to their bit about the "Slow Talkers Convention". You can't get through it without laughing.
Don Knotts was a great comedian. Forget about the Andy Griffith Show. He was playing a role there. Go back to his old comedy routines. He's got a great one where he plays a bomb squad member whose job is to defuse bombs. The guy just shakes all over the place.
I'm just joining in long enough to vote for Looney Tunes. Foghorn Leghorn, the Roadrunner, and Daffy Duck are where the real humor is. That kind of entertainment is timeless.
Don Knotts left a gaping hole when he left Andy Griffth. I liked Floyd the Barber. My favorite of Don Knotts and Tim Conway was "The Private Eyes" a comedy murder mystery where they get clues in rhyme with the last word of the poem being a synonym to the word you are expecting. I've never seen it on cable.
Andy Griffith did Gomer Pyle a lot funnier in "No Time for Sergeants".
For physical comedy I liked Jimmy Stewart as a sheriff w/o a gun in "Destry" and "Destry Rides Again." The Trinity films w/Terence Hill & Bud Spencer had good fight scenes that aren't quite up to Jackie Chan standards.
American Film Institute had the cross-dressing classics "Tootsie" and "Some Like it Hot" as the greast film comedies of all time. They're good, but I don't think they're great.
That deal with Tom Davis and Matt Lane acting like the Blues Brothers was kind of creepy. It would have made a great skit (it did, actually, for Ackroyd and Belushi), but those two took it a little too far. Tars Tarkus remembers them going around town all weekend long, in character. You couldn't even talk to them - they wouldn't get out of character.
Another classic Steven Wrightism - "I came home last night and found that everything in my apartment had been stolen ... and replaced with exact duplicates." (long pause) I asked my roommate, "What happened?" He said, "Who are you?"
as a kid in school i saw the matt lane and tom davis blues brother thing, it didnt really do much for me i did however thought davis resembled dan ackroyd alot but as for this lane dude oh man his hair was bright orange!! not exactly jake blues, he needed a dye job and 40 lbs to pull it off
Glad to see someone bring up the late Mitch Hedberg. "They say Mr. Pibb is a replica of Dr. Pepper, but it's a bullshit replica because dude doesn't have his degree."
The person that Chris Farley named his character for the "living in a van down by the river" is an interesting story. Chris went to school and played rugby with a student that later became a priest. That priest served in a large Chicogo parish when he left to become an Army Chaplain for the 82nd Airborne. His name, Matt Foley. He was the priest that did Chris' funeral.
Norm MacDonald did the news on SNL better than anyone else ever did. It's just that lots of people didn't have as dry a sense of humor as he did. Here's how he opened the news one time, for example:
"In Washington state, elementary school teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau pleaded guilty to having sex with a sixth grade student. LeTourneau has been branded a sex offender, or, as the kids refer to her, the greatest teacher of all time."
He also delivered this classic joke on th SNL news:
"Who are safer drivers, men or women? Well, according to a new survey, 55% of adults feel that women are responsible for most minor fender benders, and 78% feel that men are most responsible for fatal accidents. Please note that the percentages in these pie graphs do not add up to 100% because the math was done by a woman. (crowd groans) For those of you hissing at that joke, it should be noted that that joke was written by a woman. So now you don't know what the hell to do, do you? (laughter) Nah, I'm just kidding, we don't hire women."
What's so funny? Jefferson Iowa News' latest installment of local celebrity look-alikes. Check it out at the bottom of the main web page. It's the fourth part of the series. Earlier installments can be accessed also.
john rowland was a great 8th grade football coach, i mean the guy didnt have a mean bone in his body, every guy couldnt wait to play for this guy, this guy didnt try and intimidate any lil kid at all , he was a joy to play for
"Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. 'Damn it, Otto, you're an alcoholic.' 'Damn it, Otto, you have lupus.' One of those two doesn't sound right."
"I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too."
"The number one cause of alcoholic relapse in winged insects is being trapped in a pint glass with an ashtray."
"I love my fed-ex guy cause he's a drug dealer and he doesn't even know it...and he's always on time."
Some people think I'm high on stage; I would never get high before a show, because, when I'm high, I don't wanna stand in front of a bunch of people I don't know. That does not sound comfortable. Like, when you're high, and a joke doesn't work, it's extra scary. It's like,"Whoa, what the hell happened there? I am retreating within myself. Why have all these people gathered? And why am I elevated? Why am I not facing the same way as everyone else? And what is this electric stick in my hand?"
My manager saw me drinking backstage and he said "Mitch, don't use liquor as a crutch." I can't use liquor as a crutch, because a crutch helps me walk. Liquor severely fucks up the way I walk. It ain't like a crutch, it's like a step I didn't see.
George Carlin had an album called Class Clown. Who was your class clown? I remember Tars Tarkus busting me up laughing so hard during Physics class that we were both usually sitting in Mr. Schmidt's office.
The funniest movie scene ever was in "It's a Beautiful Life". The eternal optimist interprets the "orientation" instructions a prison guard gives the cell block members of the concentration camp for his very innocent 6 year old son.
42 comments:
I just dowloaded one of Bob Newhart's old "Buttoned-Down Mind" recordings, courtesy of Tars Tarkus. This guy was hilarious in his prime. He has a kind of low-key approach that I've only run across a few times. Even in his later years, he still employs the same technique, as you know if you've seen him on Saturday Night Live.
Go to Youtube and listen to some of it. Newhart was hilarious during an era when scripted one-liners prevailed (e.g. Bob Hope, Jack Benny, etc.).
Bob Newhart is good, but the funniest all-around comedian of all time is Dan Ackroyd. Even his movies were funny. Why didn't Bob Newhart ever make any movies that I remember?
I took a course in speed waiting. Now I can wait an hour in only 10 minutes.
Yesterday I told a chicken to cross the road. It said, "What for?"
Talk about dry and low-key. Name the comedian - It's easy.
You know who's funny? Dean Martin is funny. He once said, "I once shook hands with Pat Boone and my whole right side sobered up."
He also said, "If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt." I've got a million of them.
Marty -
Sounds a lot like Steven Wright - one of the all-time greats. I saw him live once, and the audience started laughing so hard that he actually started laughing, too.
Someone who was NOT funny - Andy Kauffman. The funniest thing he ever did was die.
Rick Bland on Sarah Palin:
"She thinks that Roe vs. Wade are two ways of crossing the Potomac."
Whatever happened to Norm MacDonald? I still remember his comments about Michael Jackson's marriage to Lisa Marie Presley - he didn't think it would work. Why?
"I'm just skeptical. You see, Lisa Marie is more of a 'sit at home' type, while Michael is more of a homosexual pedophile."
On Ackroyd- The class of 1979 had Tom Davis and Matt Lane doing the "Blues Brothers". Matt was hyper and hilarious, Matt was soft spoken and the best straight men I've known personally. Brilliant, simply brilliant.
"Newhart" in the Vermont inn had the worst 1st season of a great show ever. It had grainy film, a seedy soap opera type background, and an unlikable jerk as Stephanie's love interest. They put Michael, the alliterative loser in and it soared. The episode with Stephanie giving birth with a drunk Michael filming the delivery was great. This was my favorite bunch of quirky, odd ball characters. Written by Barry Kemp who graduated from Perry High.
Seinfeld's ratings for at least the 1st season were atrocious. Patience is a virtue.
I thoroughly enjoy Damon Wayans' "My Wife and Kids". They get into issues that could easily get risque, walk up to the edge, never going too far, something old time radio did masterfully working around the censors. The brainiac 5 year old is the funniest kid actor I've ever seen.
I really liked Kauffman's pre-"Taxi" Latka type character he did in his stand up routine. The wide eyed innocence played better in small doses, standing alone. I much preferred it to him on Taxi. Bcz of his outrageous characters and his love of maddening his audience he died at 35, no one believing he was even sick. That's an Andy Kauffman send-off.
Tombstones
Les Moore- No Les, no Moore.
I told you I was sick.
Lindsey Lohan's suing for $100,000,000 for being "used" in the Lindsey-milkaholic commercial. She deserves every penny, those slimy scum suckers! Shows the importance of observing stuff to make a buck. Another in a succession of good career moves.
When Geoerge Carlin died in 2008 I flew the flag at half mast. What other comedian won four grammy awards for comedy albums? Some of his bits like his fake news or seven words you can't say on TV are timeless.
Another favorite is Jonathan Winters, who I think is still living. He started out as a great stand-up comic. You can catch some of his old routines on Youtube.
Newhart's Vermont-based comedy was good, but his older "The Bob Newhart Show", which centered around a Chicago-based psychologist and his nutty patients was the best. He played straight man to all of those characters, and performed all of his professional tasks by speaking in cliches. Bob Daly as neighbor Howard Borden was hysterical.
My favorite TV name is Howard Borden's brother, Warden Gordon Borden. Van and Bonnie on WHO radio have a name "Hall of Fame." Any names come to mind?
It amazes me how most comedies of the last 30 years have someone from Saturday Night Live. They've made a huge impact. I miss John Candy. I liked "Uncle Buck" and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." When Joe Montana led the drive that beat Cincinnati in the last minute, he was in the huddle, and said, "Look, over there's John Candy." Talk about relaxed.
My favorite SNL skit was Chris Farley doing the down on his luck, motivational speaker who lived in "a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!" I saw it 1st from my brother-in-law. Hilarious.
You need to listen to some of the old classic bits done by guys we never talk about, but are still funny today. Tim Conway comes to mind. When fe joined the cast of "The Carol Burnett Show" it suddenly became hilarious. Most of those old Conway bits are on Youtube.
Or how about Bob and Ray? Listen to their bit about the "Slow Talkers Convention". You can't get through it without laughing.
Don Knotts was a great comedian. Forget about the Andy Griffith Show. He was playing a role there. Go back to his old comedy routines. He's got a great one where he plays a bomb squad member whose job is to defuse bombs. The guy just shakes all over the place.
I'm just joining in long enough to vote for Looney Tunes. Foghorn Leghorn, the Roadrunner, and Daffy Duck are where the real humor is. That kind of entertainment is timeless.
Oh yes, Wiley Coyote, super-genius! ACME manufacturing's best mail-order customer. You don't find cartoons like that anymore.
Don Knotts left a gaping hole when he left Andy Griffth. I liked Floyd the Barber. My favorite of Don Knotts and Tim Conway was "The Private Eyes" a comedy murder mystery where they get clues in rhyme with the last word of the poem being a synonym to the word you are expecting. I've never seen it on cable.
Andy Griffith did Gomer Pyle a lot funnier in "No Time for Sergeants".
For physical comedy I liked Jimmy Stewart as a sheriff w/o a gun in "Destry" and "Destry Rides Again." The Trinity films w/Terence Hill & Bud Spencer had good fight scenes that aren't quite up to Jackie Chan standards.
American Film Institute had the cross-dressing classics "Tootsie" and "Some Like it Hot" as the greast film comedies of all time.
They're good, but I don't think they're great.
That deal with Tom Davis and Matt Lane acting like the Blues Brothers was kind of creepy. It would have made a great skit (it did, actually, for Ackroyd and Belushi), but those two took it a little too far. Tars Tarkus remembers them going around town all weekend long, in character. You couldn't even talk to them - they wouldn't get out of character.
I'm very surprised this crowd hasn't mentioned Cheech and Chong. Two words: good shit.
I liked Richard Pryor, too.
Dangerfield's "no respect".
Steven Wright..."if you're traveling at the speed of light and you turn your lights on, what happens?"
Another classic Steven Wrightism - "I came home last night and found that everything in my apartment had been stolen ... and replaced with exact duplicates." (long pause) I asked my roommate, "What happened?" He said, "Who are you?"
as a kid in school i saw the matt lane and tom davis blues brother thing, it didnt really do much for me i did however thought davis resembled dan ackroyd alot but as for this lane dude oh man his hair was bright orange!! not exactly jake blues, he needed a dye job and 40 lbs to pull it off
My wife is such a bad cook she has a stove that flushes! - Rodney Dangerfield
I wondered how long it would take some cokehead to bring up Cheech and Chong.
"A severed foot is the ultimate stocking-stuffer."
- Mitch Hedberg
More Mitch Hedberg -
"An escalator can never break; it can only become stairs."
Here's one you might like from Bill Hicks. Bill Hicks is one funny dude.
"I'm a heavy smoker. I go through two lighters a day."
Glad to see someone bring up the late Mitch Hedberg. "They say Mr. Pibb is a replica of Dr. Pepper, but it's a bullshit replica because dude doesn't have his degree."
The person that Chris Farley named his character for the "living in a van down by the river" is an interesting story.
Chris went to school and played rugby with a student that later became a priest. That priest served in a large Chicogo parish when he left to become an Army Chaplain for the 82nd Airborne. His name, Matt Foley. He was the priest that did Chris' funeral.
My mom never saw the irony in calling me a "son-of-a-bitch".
Norm MacDonald did the news on SNL better than anyone else ever did. It's just that lots of people didn't have as dry a sense of humor as he did. Here's how he opened the news one time, for example:
"In Washington state, elementary school teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau pleaded guilty to having sex with a sixth grade student. LeTourneau has been branded a sex offender, or, as the kids refer to her, the greatest teacher of all time."
He also delivered this classic joke on th SNL news:
"Who are safer drivers, men or women? Well, according to a new survey, 55% of adults feel that women are responsible for most minor fender benders, and 78% feel that men are most responsible for fatal accidents. Please note that the percentages in these pie graphs do not add up to 100% because the math was done by a woman. (crowd groans) For those of you hissing at that joke, it should be noted that that joke was written by a woman. So now you don't know what the hell to do, do you? (laughter) Nah, I'm just kidding, we don't hire women."
What's so funny? Jefferson Iowa News' latest installment of local celebrity look-alikes. Check it out at the bottom of the main web page. It's the fourth part of the series. Earlier installments can be accessed also.
Steve Martin still rules.
john rowland teaching his class always made me laugh but watching him play golf ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,priceless
Larry D. do you have any whip cream I can use on my apple pie?
John R, you are the man, why are there not more great golfers like you--you should teach golf and maybe there would be more tigers on the links.
john rowland was a great 8th grade football coach, i mean the guy didnt have a mean bone in his body, every guy couldnt wait to play for this guy, this guy didnt try and intimidate any lil kid at all , he was a joy to play for
Mitch Hedberg
"Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. 'Damn it, Otto, you're an alcoholic.' 'Damn it, Otto, you have lupus.' One of those two doesn't sound right."
"I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too."
"The number one cause of alcoholic relapse in winged insects is being trapped in a pint glass with an ashtray."
"I love my fed-ex guy cause he's a drug dealer and he doesn't even know it...and he's always on time."
Some people think I'm high on stage; I would never get high before a show, because, when I'm high, I don't wanna stand in front of a bunch of people I don't know. That does not sound comfortable. Like, when you're high, and a joke doesn't work, it's extra scary. It's like,"Whoa, what the hell happened there? I am retreating within myself. Why have all these people gathered? And why am I elevated? Why am I not facing the same way as everyone else? And what is this electric stick in my hand?"
My manager saw me drinking backstage and he said "Mitch, don't use liquor as a crutch." I can't use liquor as a crutch, because a crutch helps me walk. Liquor severely fucks up the way I walk. It ain't like a crutch, it's like a step I didn't see.
Didn't he die of an overdose. Shocking...
"There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot" - Steven Wright
George Carlin had an album called Class Clown. Who was your class clown? I remember Tars Tarkus busting me up laughing so hard during Physics class that we were both usually sitting in Mr. Schmidt's office.
Class Clown - home of the bilabial fricative.
The funniest movie scene ever was in "It's a Beautiful Life". The eternal optimist interprets the "orientation" instructions a prison guard gives the cell block members of the concentration camp for his very innocent 6 year old son.
Dan Sayre commenting about a class member who married a gal with 3 kids, "Talk about lazy!"
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