In the oddest of odd coincidences, our comedy-centric beat recently has been focused on late night TV - and behold, big time changes are underway in that world.
The latest and not greatest is that Stephen Colbert has been canned by the pathetic craven cowards and greedy bastards at CBS and Paramount. CBS' not so grand poobahs, very likely smarting over Colbert's criticism of the pending merger of Paramount Media and Skydance Global, will pull the plug on the show when the Late Show host's contract expires next May.
That said, as we stifle no small degree of anger, disgust, contempt and revulsion towards CBS, Paramount, Shari Redstone and the Ellisons (Larry and David), we continue our series Saluting The Heroes Of Late Night TV.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was the biggest thing in showbiz, so big that The Beach Boys devoted a song to him. This ditty is as catchy as can be and even the nasal vocals of Mike Love are enjoyable! We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog agree wholeheartedly with Brian Wilson's assessment, as Johnny was the coolest guy ever, especially in his 1960's and 1970's heydey as The King Of Late Night. Reportedly, Johnny HATED the song, but what the heck, it's our blog, so here it is.
There are innumerable extremely funny Carson clips, even with so many of the 1960's shows still missing - WAY too many Tonight Shows were taped over.
Herrrrrrrrre's Johnny, first with vocalist and actor (then on the Daniel Boone TV series), Ed Ames.
Can't believe I forgot all about Johnny's hilarious routine with Jack "Joe Friday" Webb from a 1968 Tonight Show. As Webb's radio shows (Pat Novak For Hire and Dragnet) and his guest star appearance on an episode of All Star Revue starring the wacky Ritz Brothers indicate, he possessed a wry sense of humor.
Do we miss the ridiculously talented Betty White, always flat-out hilarious on The Tonight Show with Johnny and other hosts? Yes. Did Betty ever get the opportunity to be a Tonight Show guest host? I don't know, but that would have been great.
Today we pay tribute to the many terrific stand-up comedians seen frequently on Carson and Letterman (note with the exception of Groucho, there weren't tons of comics on Dick Cavett's show, at least in his 1960's and early 1970's incarnation which aired between 10:00 p.m. and late night).
Johnny Carson's Tonight evolved into a showcase for stand-up comedians.
George Carlin, with Richard Pryor the best of the monologists, actually guest hosted The Tonight Show, as did Groucho Marx, Mort Sahl and Bob Newhart.
Johnny often featured his contemporaries in the standup world: Jackie Mason, Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters, Bob Newhart and, especially, Rodney Dangerfield.
Richard Pryor, most trenchant of all stand-up philosophers, was a frequent guest on both the Carson and Letterman shows.
As was Stephen Wright.
One of the outstanding albeit lesser-known stand-up philosophers was the excellent Native American comedian and actor Charlie Hill, featured along with Robin Williams on The Richard Pryor Show.
Among the satirists seen on Late Night With David Letterman: Bill Hicks (1962-1994).
Sam Kinison, friend and cohort of Bill Hicks, brought his incendiary Pentecostal preacher persona and severe fallout from multiple bad marriages to the stand-up world.
In another galaxy of the stand-up comedy universe: Mitch Hedberg (1968-2005).
And then there was Norm, like Mitch Hedberg an original thinker with a singular view of the world.
Here, David Letterman pays tribute to his friend (and friend of all late-night TV shows) Robin Williams.
Robin cracked up Johnny and David and thus got dozens of appearances on their shows.
Here's the monologue that got Stephen Colbert, here sporting a mustache reminiscent of the octogenarian version of Groucho Marx, fired. Colbert is correct in his assessment that CBS' craven 16 million settlement of a frivolous lawsuit by Off-Brand Orbán was, indeed, a BIG FAT BRIBE.
Desperately hoping the merger will get FCC approval, CBS announced that the decision to cancel Late Night With Stephen Colbert is for "financial reasons." Even given that high-rated late night TV shows don't bring in anywhere near the dough-re-me they did in the past, ESPECIALLY during the 1960's heydey of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, to suggest that this decision is not at all politically motivated remains laughable.
The behavior of CBS/Paramount over the potential merger with Sundance (producers of dumb, lousy action flicks) and the pusillanimous actions of the cowards at Columbia University and the Paul Weiss law firm, alas, is par for the course these days.
And, yes, Your Correspondent makes this observation even after having listened to Keith Olbermann's extended excoriation of Colbert, the guy who followed David Letterman at the CBS Late Show franchise. It would be an understatement to suggest that Mr. Olbermann, both the most erudite and scathing of commentators, vehemently dislikes Mr. Colbert.
At CBS, 60 Minutes, the show the "don't you mess with me" likes of Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley and Harry Reasoner worked on, will be next to go.
That's because in 2025, plummeting television viewership and the related popularity of streaming with young viewers has dramatically reduced the potential for TV shows, including news-related programs which in the past were loss leaders for the networks, to make not just the big bucks but ANY bucks.
As far as the Paramount/CBS 16 million bribe by brazen, lily-livered and yellow-bellied appeasers of fascists is concerned, no doubt those pocket-lining Teapot Dome boys of 100+ years ago would say "geeeeees, Louise, can you guys tone down the sleazy corruption, graft and grift just a smidge?"
Rant over! In closing, thanks, readers, for your patience. After realizing that it appears to be the end of the road for the format which began with Steve Allen and hit its high water mark with Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and David Letterman - while admitting that his own viewing of Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live over the past decade has invariably been via YouTube, NOT at time of broadcast - we shall return next weekend with the fourth installment of Saluting The Heroes Of Late Night TV.
On December 1, 2024, the addled mind that writes this blog wanders to the question of who would be considered unequivocally the Godfathers of the Psychotronix Film Festival (which we hope just might MAYBE return to Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA sometime in early spring 2025).
One answer would be the highly original standup comedian and actor Dick Shawn, born on this day in 1923.
Many of us way back in the halcyon days of the 20th century first saw Dick Shawn dancing with the nimble and graceful Barrie Chase in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
Shawn's character of Sylvester Marcus in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is the son of. . . an even more over-the-top character, played beyond the hilt by Ethel Merman.
And then there's Dick Shawn's performance as Lorenzo St. DuBois in Mel Brooks' 1968 movie The Producers.
Mark Evanier delves into the career and standup comedy of Dick Shawn, as well as the role of Lorenzo St. DuBois, in an outstanding post on his News From Me website. Unlike most of us writer/historian types, Mr. Evanier has the advantage of actually having seen Dick Shawn's standup act multiple times.
The earliest Dick Shawn appearances we've seen are from 1954-1955 on The Steve Allen Show.
It's true - Dick Shawn was a guest on The Judy Garland Show. These were two performers who went for broke; to use a hackneyed sports expression, they left it all on the playing field, only every time.
Didn't know there was still a Colgate Comedy Hour in 1967, but, instead of Bob Hope, Martin & Lewis, Eddie Cantor or Abbott & Costello as seen in its 1950's incarnation, here's Dick Shawn, introduced by another long-gone but not forgotten comedy great, Allan Sherman.
We especially love Mr. Shawn's role as Bing Bell the singing cowboy in the unique, inventive and comedian-packed 1972 western spoof Evil Roy Slade.
Dick Shawn appeared twice on the shows of Bill Boggs.
It is not lost upon us here that at the end of the following show, Dick Shawn shares the scene with a highly original and inventive standup comedian after his own heart, the indescribably hilarious Dana Gould.
Dick Shawn's last TV appearance would be on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on November 11, 1986.
In closing, we note that Madame Blogmeister saw Dick Shawn do a standup comedy set three months after this Tonight Show appearance, and noted that he was having difficulties just maintaining a basic level of coherence, so the heart condition that took him out just a few weeks later was not the only severe health issue he was suffering from. This brings to mind what happened to another highly unorthodox, creative and brilliant standup comedian, the great Jonathan Winters, who officially retired nine years before his passing in 2013.
Noting that Father Time, as always, is undefeated, we'll close this post with kudos, bravos and huzzahs to Dick Shawn and a clip of him demonstrating the latest and greatest dance craze, "The Cockamamie," on The Edie Adams Show.
What's the topic for today? How do we end a truly lousy week, notable for unending horrible news? National Fried Chicken Day! Whoopee!
Indeed, National Fried Chicken Day, giving cooks a ready-made excuse to fry or sauté whatever fowl happens to be in the freezer, is this Saturday, July 6.
Sorry, that's the best we have at the moment.
What got this scribe through the too-many months of COVID related lockdown in 2020-2021 and the unending years of pure awfulness that followed? Standup comedy and our pets (a.k.a. official mascots)! One standup comic we like a lot is Patton Oswalt, who links to National Fried Chicken Day as follows.
When it comes to the topics of fried chicken and fast food in general, can't think of anyone funnier than Jim Gaffigan.
Jim is in frequent rotation here, as is Mr. Oswalt.
Just realized that fried chicken is just about the only food that's NOT in the Saturday Night Live Taco Town sketch, which features Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader and Andy Samberg.
Shifting from comedy to food, the skilled and frequently very funny chefs at Babish Culinary Universe have tried to replicate the epic Taco Town mega-taco-gordita-crepe-pizza, etc.
Tops in the category of the funniest, most informative and most scientific of cooking show hosts? Hands and measuring devices down, that would be Alton Brown of "Good Eats."
How to we top Alton? Chicken-centric tunes from long, long ago.
The British blues band Chicken Shack didn't play Chicken Strut or ChIcken Scratch as part of their repertoire, but there is a familiar face here - singer/songwriter/keyboardist Christine McVie, a year or so prior to her joining Fleetwood Mac to counter the departure of guitarist Peter Green and a few years before the band's pop juggernaut years in the latter 1970's.
So, the official post for National Fried Chicken Day 2024 ends as many Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog posts do, with cartoons from long long ago.
RE: Sudden Fried Chicken (1946), a Famous Studios cartoon directed by the great Bill Tytla, the animation by such talented Fleischer veterans as Orestes Calpini is invariably quite good and the voice work by Sid Raymond, Jack Mercer, Arnold Stang and others is also terrific.
On one hand, the premise of marital abuse as yuk-yuk comedy falls as flat as a poorly cooked pancake. On the other hand, the cartoon becomes quite funny about 4 minutes in, starting with Herman the Mouse smoking cigarettes.
How storymen Jack Mercer and Carl Meyer missed the opportunity for a hilarious topper gag in which horrific Henrietta Hen, after seeing Henry as an hard drinking ultra-macho tough guy, instantaneously becomes a sex-crazed love machine a la horny hot-to-trot hillbilly Possum Pearl (the star of a very enjoyable Noveltoon cartoon Jack Mercer wrote the story for a decade later), we'll never know. Blame the Hays Office!
Viewing the Noveltoons' Herman & Henry series makes one wonder if someone on the Famous Studios staff in the mid-1940's was stuck in a hideously awful hell on earth marriage. Readers, if you find yourself in a similar situation, GET OUT IMMEDIATELY AND RUN! RUN FAST AND FAR! DON'T TURN BACK!
Closing this National Fried Chicken Day tribute: the Jay Ward Studio's Super Chicken.
March 2024 is not rabbit season or duck season, but, continuing a pattern which was painfully evident throughout 2022, open season on those who, like Bugs, Daffy and Chuck Jones, made us laugh out loud. The latest is the brilliant Richard Lewis.
Richard Lewis was, bar none, the fastest standup philosopher in the East - the fastest in the West was the late great Robin Williams - and an excellent actor to boot.
Used to love seeing him on Letterman and Carson back in the day!
The late night host I REALLY REALLY wanted to see as the host of The Tonight Show was Craig Ferguson. He didn't get that gig, unfortunately, but did have Richard as a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Richard also appeared on Conan O' Brien's late night show, which is also much missed.
There have been podcasts by several who were friends of Richard Lewis, since his passing on Wednesday, with the most eloquent tribute thus far posted by Keith Olbermann.
Today, we pay tribute, three years short of his 100th birthday, to the highly original, groundbreaking and brilliant standup comedian Jonathan Winters.
The improvisational standup comedian and comic actor (in such movies as It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and The Loved One) was born on this day in 1925.
First became familiar with him via comedy records.
What was this pop culture vulture's favorite part of The Dean Martin Show? No, not the comely and undulating Gold Diggers, but the very funny guest star comedians, among them Jonathan Winters, Paul Lynde, Dom DeLuise, Bob Newhart, Foster Brooks, Jackie Vernon, Allan Sherman and Guy Marks.
The Tonight Show, especially the incarnations hosted by Jack Parr and Johnny Carson, provided a showcase for standup comedians. Winters was a favorite of both Tonight Show hosts.
Parr's Tonight offered free rein to comedians, including Jonathan Winters.
Jonathan Winters would continue making frequent appearances on The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson hosted.
Favorite Winters appearances on Carson? Those featuring both Jonathan Winters & Robin Williams!
He also periodically could be seen on Late Night With David Letterman - sometimes with Robin!
Winters was also responsible for gazillion cartoon voices. Author Jerry Beck wrote at length about Jonathan Winters' many contributions to animation in The Animated Jonathan Winters 1925-2013. These voices included a continuing role as Papa Smurf and key characters in the I GO POGO special.
In closing, here are, from Archive.org, some of the earliest Jonathan Winters TV appearances.
A roomful of varied hats off to the great Jonathan Winters!
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog are still having a lot of difficulty dealing with Gilbert Gottfried's passing earlier this week.
Why people who bring the world laughs, fun and joy are being taken out in rapid succession while the worst of the worst are still here, this writer cannot fathom.
Here's Stephen Colbert's tribute to Gilbert. . . It is HILARIOUS!
The best way to remember Gilbert is with clips of his standup comedy. Gilbert dubbing Dick Cavett on this episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien is unbelievably and indescribably funny.
This meeting of two comedy greats, Gilbert and Norm, is both side-splittingly funny and very very NSFW.
Cannot begin to express how much I will miss listening to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.
Thanks a million to the producers and creators of the pod, Gilbert's wife Dara and co-host Frank Santopadre.
The comedy and 20th century pop culture lovin' gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog are deeply saddened by this awful news. Posted a tribute to Gilbert a couple of years back and have been avid fans of his podcast from its inception.
Goodbye, Gilbert - and thanks a million for the laughs. Say hello to Louie, Bob, Norm and "old Groucho" when you get a chance.
One of our all-time favorite standup comedians, the brilliant Norm Macdonald, has passed of cancer at 61.
photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank
Norm will be much missed.
We'll defer to Norm's contemporaries and colleagues in comedy now.
Jim Carrey My dear friend Norm MacDonald passed after a brave 10 year battle. He was one of our most precious gems. An honest and courageous comedy genius. I love him.
Jim Gaffigan Oh my God. We lost a legend. Norm was punishingly funny. A unique special point of view and completely organic. RIPNormMacDonald
Gilbert Gottfried This photo was taken after I was a guest on Norm's show. At dinner the laughs just continued nonstop. He will be missed. RIP Norm Macdonald
David Letterman
I was always delighted by his bizarre mind and earnest gaze. (I’m trying to avoid using the phrase, “twinkle in his eyes”).
He was a lifetime Cy Young winner in comedy. Gone, but impossible to forget.
Seth MacFarlane To so many people in comedy, me included, there was nobody funnier than Norm MacDonald. You always hoped he would hang around after the work was done, just so you could hear his stories and get a laugh. So hilarious and so generous with his personality. I’m gonna miss him.
Steve Martin We loved Norm MacDonald. One of a kind.
Lorne Michaels "Today is a sad day. All of us here at SNL mourn the loss of Norm Macdonald, one of the most impactful comedic voices of his or any other generation. There are so many things that we'll miss about Norm -- from his unflinching integrity to his generosity to his consistent ability to surprise. But most of all he was just plain funny. No one was funny like Norm."
Conan O'Brien I am absolutely devastated about Norm Macdonald.
Norm had the most unique comedic voice I have ever encountered and he was so relentlessly and uncompromisingly funny. I will never laugh that hard again. I'm so sad for all of us today.
Patton Oswalt Good bye, Norm. You were never not 100% hilarious.
Adam Sandler Every one of us loved Norm. Some of the hardest laughs of my life with this man. Most fearless funny original guy we knew. An incredible dad. A great friend. A legend. Love u pal.
Sarah Silverman
Norm was in a comedy genre of his own. No one like him on this planet. Please do yourself a favor and watch his stuff. He was one of a kind of all time.
Jon Stewart No one could make you break like Norm Macdonald. Hilarious and unique. Fuck cancer.
First and foremost, a few notes about this sputtering “all of the above” blog, which covers screenings/events, silent movies, animation, film noir, psychotronic Z-movies, sometimes music (mostly modern jazz, swing, blues, r&b and rock - am not knowledgeable enough to post about other genres). We're sputtering but, remarkably, still going at 1183 posts.
Once we started singing that ditty Along Came Coronavirus, invariably off-key, the masterminds behind this blog pretty much posted exclusively about online events, but almost never about psychotronic cinema (with the exception of KFJC Psychotronix Film Fest offshoots at the Orinda Theatre). There have been more silent movie events on Zoom that we can cover, but not much on the 1950's sci-fi and low-budget flicks we love.
That is due to the fact that, of all the celluloid genres mentioned here, the wonders of Del Tenney, Edward D. Wood, Jr. and Irv Berwick MUST be seen in a theatrical setting with an audience. Zoom events simply will not suffice.
Only like watching Z-flicks on TV or MacBook as part of a Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax and Cinema Insomnia binge. These well-intentioned kernels of entertainment, which are not bad movies, just misunderstood, demand not just an audience but an enthusiastic and preferably loud one. All of these shows have YouTube channels.
Speaking of Dana Gould and Plan 9 from Outer Space . . .
Have posted numerous times about film noir and the Noir City film festival, so, while we miss a night watching hard-boiled noir thrillers on the big screen tremendously, it has been great to watch the Noir City SF YouTube channel through 2020-2021 lockdown.
Every Thursday, Eddie Muller a.k.a. The Czar Of Noir and the Film Noir Foundation's Anne Hockens talk noir and neo-noir movies, as well as noir fiction and answer viewer questions. Here’s the July 15, 2021 edition of Ask Eddie - enjoy.
We strongly recommend following this with a trip to the Ask Eddie Broadcast Archives for past episodes. Eddie, Anne and their cats make it a fun watch.
Fortunately, commentaries by Looney Tunes Critic and Anthony’s Animation Talk guest Trevor Thompson a.k.a. Ferris Wheelhouse remain. Trevor promotes his YouTube channel as “not your grandfather’s commentaries”, and, as this animation buff is at least 30 years older than both Anthony and Trevor, the at times in your face attitude of the latter’s videos can rub this cartoon nut the wrong way. Don't recall specifically WHICH posts bugged me, in all honesty. Since I enjoy the no-holds-barred satire of Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor, George Carlin and other standup philosophers, this reaction remains a bit mystifying.
So disregard the tone, say “dag nab it” and “you kids get off my lawn” three times, then check the Looney Tunes Critic's informative and entertaining commentaries out. You may agree with the analysis, you may disagree. Who cares? Watch and enjoy!
As card-carrying guitar geeks at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we talk guitarists frequently and note that today, July 18, is the birthday of Gibson Flying V virtuoso Lonnie Mack (1941-2016), one of the key links between Delta blues and rock n'roll.
Lonnie is one of the answers to the question of who is on the short list of American guitarists who, like Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, were not just listened to but studied note-for-note by British rockers.
Electric bass ace, Parliament-Funkadelic/Bootsy's Rubber Band stalwart and funkateer Bootsy Collins elaborates on the sound, songs and records of Lonnie Mack.
Closing today's post: a very entertaining analysis of a 1986 performance by guitar slingers Stevie Ray Vaughn & Lonnie Mack by Fil from Wings Of Pegasus. The ever-cheerful, knowledgeable and insightful British rock guitarist ranks near the top of the list of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's favorite YouTube posters; his commentaries covering far-flung musicians in varied genres - and not just guitar players - are a pleasure to watch. Watching Lonnie and Stevie tear it up, Fil is fantastic as usual. We wish him much success in his musical endeavors.
All this blues-influenced music is making me hungry! Time for a KFC bowl. Luckily, a cardiologist is free with each order.
