Heading into March 2026 and noting that this year continues emphatically and painfully resembling the following. . .
Asking if anything can get one's mind off the dumpster fire even momentarily, the answer to that question remains an emphatic NO, although the next best thing is to celebrate NATIONAL FLAPJACK DAY!
That means it's flapjack time, starting with Mickey Mouse pancakes.
Even better and enthusiastically in the National Flapjack Day spirit: Cuphead!
Do we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog love pancakes too much? Could this blogger's long-suffering partner be featured in the Women Who Love Men Who Love Pancakes Too Much book?
Yes, guilty as charged.
Would $5 for all you can eat pancakes appeal to the gang here? Absolutely!
Not surprisingly, tons of expert advice on how to make flapjacks, from Bon Appétit to America's Test Kitchens to Michelin to NYT is available. We'll get it down to two: the ever-wisecracking Binging With Babish and Alton Brown's Good Eats.
Now we flip to flapjacks served by great movie comedians and animated cartoon characters. First and foremost, silent movie comedy queen Alice Howell, flipping pancakes at 2:11 in the very funny 1920 opus Cinderella Cinders.
Next up: Los Tres Stupidos!
National Flapjack Day in Cartoonland commences with post-World War II Popeye serving green pancakes to his obnoxious nephews in Spinach Vs. Hamburgers. I personally would go to both Spinach Heaven and Wimpy's Hamburger Haven, with the sincere hope that Chef Popeye makes a spinach Spanish omelet to go with the green flapjacks!
The New Rochelle studio of Paul Terry produced several flapjack flippin' endeavors. Found the following two pancake-packed 1930's Terrytoons and it’s highly likely there are more.
While I like that in the following Terrytoon, the eatery Nick’s Coffee Pot is literally a coffee pot, it’s just a bit odd, even in the Cartoon Universe, that the clientele are insects.
Meanwhile, Chuck Jones, who, unlike Joe Barbera, would scoff at Terrytoons, starred one of his second-tier headliners, the ever-nonplussed Conrad Cat (from The Bird Came C.O.D. and Conrad The Sailor), as cheerful pancake-flipper in Porky’s Cafe. This black & white Looney Tune is from 1942, the year when Chuck and crew produced such hilarious classic cartoons as My Favorite Duck and The Dover Boys. Pardon the 1937 theme music.
Closing this National Flapjack Day post, we shall beckon back to the 1950's. It's astounding that not all that long ago there actually was an Aunt Jemima Pancake Restaurant at Disneyland and a national fast food chain named Sambo's. Some of us boomers who are still here (and eating) in 2026 actually dined at those restaurants! Some were better than others and some were downright lousy.
As grotesque as these product logos remain and as cringe-worthy as the chain resturants could be, they remind us who invented American cuisine and developed, among cookery in many U.S. cities, the amazing food of New Orleans, where no doubt spicy flapjacks can be enjoyed.
Today we pay homage to one of the great comic actors and Broadway legends, Zero Mostel, the gifted, versatile character actor, comedian and star of stage and screen, born on this day in 1915. Just in case one has not seen the larger-than-life actor in awhile, here's a reminder. . .
Zero is still celebrated for his musical comedy mojo on Broadway in Fiddler On The Roof.
As well as his stage and screen heroics in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.
And his role as the wonderfully conniving Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' 1967 film of The Producers.
Zero's co-star Gene Wilder elaborates:
Found a couple of clips of Zero on TV from the late 1940's (on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town) to the early 1960's.
Yes, it's true - Zero recorded an album. Like the review of it by The Comedy on Vinyl Podcast.
The comedy-crazed gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has watched Ten From Your Show Of Shows, an amazing document of early 1950's sketch comedy, numerous times.
The THIS IS YOUR STORY sketch from 10 From Your Show Of Shows, spoofing This Is Your Life, featuring Howard Morris as the affectionate Uncle Goopy, destroys me every time I see it.
Nobody, not even Victor Borge and P.D.Q. Bach, has taken on classical music quite like the ridiculously talented casts of Your Show Of Shows and Caesar's Hour.
The Caesar's Hour episode with guest star Benny Goodman (which aired on 11-1-1954) is particularly memorable.
After powering through an unrelenting decade-long torrent of comedy, Sid Caesar would be less visible in showbiz for a few years. Post Caesar's Hour, he appeared in this BBC Broadcast which aired on September 9, 1958.
Sid co-starred with 1000 other comedians in Stanley Kramer's It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and appeared a slew of commercials, then dropped out of sight through the latter 1960's and the 1970's. He re-emerged in the early 1980's and was interviewed by David Letterman.
While Sid dropped out of sight, his writers, especially Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks would bring the world The Dick Van Dyke Show, Alan Brady and the 2000 year old man.
When it became apparent to comedy geeks just how truly exceptional and extraordinary such performer/writers as Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs were, numerous events and interviews followed.
In particular, a 2014 tribute to Sid by Carl and Mel is very enjoyable.
The Writers Guild Foundation interview with Carl Reiner is a must-listen.
Larry Gelbart recalls his stretch working with Sid.
While individuals in my age group generally went ga-ga for Star Trek and Star Wars, as much as I enjoy both sci-fi series, obsession was reserved for the silent era comedy greats (all of them), Your Show Of Shows, the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Hal Roach Studios, Mel Brooks movies, SCTV (Second City Television) and visionary animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett.
Have celebrated Valentine's Day either with cartoons or the classic comedy of Jack Benny (who was born on February 14, 1894). This year, it will be cartoons!
The most wonderfully caustic and cynical Valentine's Day cartoon is PORKY'S ROMANCE (1937), directed by Frank Tashlin. Did Tash have a romance that went terribly wrong while making this? Who knows - here's a detailed review of the Tashlin classic from Anthony's Animation Talk.
In HONEY’S MONEY (1962), the second most caustic and cynical of all Valentine's Day cartoons, ever-unscrupulous Yosemite Sam, only romantic about blowing things up, brazenly marries for riches. It doesn't work out well for Sam.
Pettin' In The Park (1934) is the seventh Warner Brothers cartoon produced by the new Leon Schlesinger studio. Sound engineer supreme Bernard Brown is the credited director. After Warner Brothers parted ways with the Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising studio, which produced Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes as independent contractors from 1930-1933, Leon Schlesinger opted to start an in-house cartoon production house.
This musical tale of Sunday afternoon romance, featuring a few enjoyable sight gags and pre-Code moments, looks good in comparison to Buddy's Day Out and I've Got To Sing A Torch Song, the dreadful debut films by the new Schlesinger crew. The most interesting thing about this goofy musical opus, besides the song from Gold Diggers Of 1933, is the swim race sequence. Bob Clampett, one of the very young guys who worked on this cartoon remembered this and liked it enough to bring it back a few years later in Porky's Naughty Nephew (1938).
What character gets black cats painted with white stripes into the mood for Valentine's Day? That would be what Chuck Jones called "the Charles Boyer skunk," he hopelessly romantic yet seriously delusional Pepe LePew.
High atop the list of reasons we're here writing a blog on a bordering on frigid winter day is . . . comedy. Used to see lots of San Francisco stand-up comedy way back when, many moons ago (1970's and 1980's), in the olden days of the Holy City Zoo on Clement Street and the Other Cafe in the inner Sunset. Got lucky and saw a 1:00 a.m. set by Robin Williams!
Definitely prefer stand-up comedians who are off the beaten path. Two favorites: Gilbert Gottfried and Stephen Wright!
Love stand-up comics who are not just off the beaten path but WAY off the beaten path. Two stand-ups along those lines who used to appear frequently in the San Francisco Bay Area were Bob "The Ol' Rube" Rubin and Bobcat Goldthwait, just two among a slew of talented and way-out comedians back then.
The only comedian I can think of recalling Stephen Wright in exploring the cosmos of the stand-up comedy universe was the late, great Mitch Hedberg (1968-2005).
And that brings us to the main topic of today's post on unorthodox standup comics: Emo Philips, born on this day, February 7, in 1956, a fabulous year for rockabilly, jazz, blues, Frank Sinatra at Capitol Records and outstanding sketch comedy starring Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs.
Emo Philips was hitting the big time during the same era (1980's) as Bobcat Goldthwait and Bob Rubin.
TV's Weird Al Yankovic Show had its share of very funny bits involving Emo Philips.
We extend a big time Max Linder top hat tip to Emo and all the outstanding stand-ups of yore!
On January 30, 2026, an awful day capping yet another hideous week in a horrible year. . .
We got the sad news that Catherine O'Hara, one of our greatest comediennes, has passed at 71.
Loved her work over 50+ years!
Do we like ending this horrendous month saying farewell to comedy genius, improv champion and actress supreme Catherine O'Hara, most recently known for her role as Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek? NO!!!
There have been terrific tributes on the CBC.
First became aware of Ms. O'Hara through her stellar work on SCTV, my all-time favorite sketch comedy show.
It was always a pleasure to see Catherine on Late Night With David Letterman.
She was among the rare SCTV and SNL stars to be a guest star on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.
And Stephen Colbert. . .
While Catherine O' Hara's best known role in movies is her memorable part as the absent-minded mom in John Hughes' Home Alone flicks, we remain absolutely floored by her acting in a bunch of terrific films directed and written by Christopher Guest and SCTV co-star Eugene Levy.
They feature an extremely talented stock company which includes Michael McKean and Harry Shearer (from This Is Spinal Tap and The Folksmen), Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Bob Balaban and John Michael Higgins.
While it is tough to pick just one favorite among these films, the gang here is particularly partial to For Your Consideration.
Hoping the next time we post, it won't be more terrible news.
Until then, enjoy these excerpts from A Mighty Wind.
Today, music lovers around the world celebrate the natal anniversary of guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Django, the Belgian-born Romani jazz musician was born to swing that guitar on January 23, 1910.
Django was inspired by the music of Louis Armstrong.
With violinist Stephane Grappelli, Django co-led Western Europe's supreme source of scintillating swing, the Quintette Of The Hot Club Of France.
We'll kick this off with a few film clips of the guitar genius in action.
Numerous Django concerts, airchecks and radio broadcasts have been posted on YouTube. Thanks to music historisn Heinz Becker, here are superlative playlists featuring The Quintette Of The Hot Club Of France:
