Indeed, laughs are getting harder and harder to find these days - and that brings us to Billy Crystal.
Billy, born on this day in 1948, was one of the last cuts from those scheduled to perform in the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975 and would be on the short list, along with Michael McKean, of those who hosted SNL before becoming a cast member.
Not that surprisingly, present-day comments regarding Mr. Crystal's stand-up act way back in the 1970's and 1980's demonstrate that many young people have no idea who Sammy Davis Jr and Muhammad Ali were. The superstardom of both Mr. Davis, the seriously driven entertainer/Rat Pack cornerstone and the heavyweight champ back in those days is downright difficult to explain to those 25 and under in 2026.
Suffice to say that while Billy Crystal has done a gazillion things in showbiz over the past five decades, the favorite of this blog remains his eulogy at Muhammad Ali's memorial service.
Billy started his career, way back before he started appearing in the Susan Harris Productions show Soap, with a very funny impression of Muhammad Ali. The pugilist/social activist saw it and the two became lifelong friends.
Before Billy hosted SNL in 1983, there was his prime-time Billy Crystal Comedy Hour, co-starring SCTV stalwarts John Candy, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas.
We like Saturday Night Live season 10 a great deal, even given its reliance on pre-taped segments and the downright astonishing fact that producers Dick Ebersol and Bob Tischler opted NOT to have Geena Davis or Andrea Martin in the cast.
Guaranteed to leave young'uns completely, utterly baffled: the following spoof of the hit 1980's TV series that teamed formidable comic character actress and former SNL cast member Jane Curtin with Susan St. James, co-star of McMillan & Wife (who was married to SNL's second producer, Dick Ebersol). Here's hopin' Kate Hepburn and Muhammad Ali got the joke and at least found it somewhat funny.
Fernando may be my singular favorite Billy Crystal persona.
Another standout from SNL season 10: the masochistic night watchmen played by Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest.
Still find it amazing to see Crystal, Guest, Eddie Murphy, Martin Short and Rich Hall - yes, all of them - together in the Broadway Gumby Rose sketch.
We respectfully tip the Jimmie Hatlo hat and wish a Happy Birthday to Billy, with additional hat tips, kudos, bravos and huzzahs going to Muhammad Ali, Johnny Winter - and the YouTube channel Saturday Night Network for terrific summaries of each season of the show, plus interviews with cast members.
Staggering through March 2026 and noting that this year continues painfully and unrelentingly 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 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 at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog? Absolutely!
Not surprisingly, tons of expert advice on how to make flapjacks, from Epicurious to Bon Appétit to America's Test Kitchens to Michelin to New York Times can be found. We'll get it down to two videos: 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, cavalierly 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. Noting the presence of an excerpt from the staggeringly racist Pop-Pie A La Mode in Spinach Vs Hamburgers, it remains flabbergasting that this cartoon was run constantly on TV in the 1960's. As far as National Flapjack Day goes, 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. Note to readers: enjoy the following cartoon and pardon the inexplicable 1937 opening theme music.
Closing this National Flapjack Day post, we shall beckon back to the 1950's. It's astounding, especally to young people, that not all that long ago there actually was an Aunt Jemima's Kitchen restaurant at Disneyland and a national fast food chain named Sambo's. Yes, boomers who are still here (and eating) in 2026 actually dined at those restaurants. Some eateries were better than others and some were downright lousy! In particular, yellow pancakes were a bad sign of bad food to come.
As grotesque as these companies' product logos remain and as cringe-worthy as the chain resturants could be, they remind us who invented American cuisine and developed, among highly creative cookery in many U.S. cities, the amazing food of New Orleans, where no doubt spicy flapjacks can still be enjoyed.
