It Was To Laugh
By Mitch Berg
Yesterday, King wrote (in re the death of George Carlin):
…for those of us who were early teens around 1972, George Carlin was the guy that gave you the “seven words you can never say on television”, which when played on your crappy stereo in your bedroom caused howls of laughter and a furtive look out the door to see if Mom had heard those words…Gone now, a reminder of how time marches past as much as my teen now being in his twenties, and my Littlest starting high school in a few months. What humor will she hear that makes her giggle as much as Al Sleet?
I was (and, actually, am) a tad younger than King – but it got me thinking; what comedy did my little crowd listen to, back then?
Here’s what I remember:
- Cheech and Chong, Los Cochinos: I can still recite large swathes of “Pedro and Man at the Drive-In”, “Sergeant Stadenko”, and “Basketball Jones”. As gloriously puerile as it got.
- Robin Williams, Throbbing Python of Love: Recorded somewhere between “Mork and Mindy” and Williams’ ascent to superstardom, I remember furtively listening to it at one of my friends’ houses; I think Elizabeth Edwards owned it, which would have totally scandalized her father. (I could be wrong about that. The ownership, I mean; Mr. Edwards would have been mortified). I can still recite most of “Elmer Fudd sings Bruce Springsteen” (“I’m dwiving in yoah caah/I turn on the wadio…and when we kiss…oooh…Fiiiwe”).
- Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album: Most of us of the “we love Monty Python” set didn’t know, yet, that the album was a toss-off – literally, as the title said, to punch a contractual ticket. I doubt we would have cared. I and my geek friends still can recite “Traffic Lights”, “Never Be Rude To An Arab”, “Finland”, “John Denver Being Strangled” and most of the rest of the record by heart.
- Steven Wright, I Have A Pony: This was in college, obviously – my senior year, if memory serves (and it serves less and less these days). And the album itself was almost as anticlimactic as one of Wright’s jokes; most of us, weaning ourselves on his regular Letterman appearances, knew most of his material (“sometimes I like to fill the bathtub up, and turn on the shower, and pretend I’m in a submarine that’s been hit”) by heart before the album made it to North Dakota.
- And of course, Class Clown by George Carlin: This one filtered down to us only via a few of our cooler classmates who had much cooler older brothers and sisters.
OK – your turn…
June 24th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Steve Martin’s Let’s Get Small, and Wild and Crazy Guys. — freshman year of college.
but Los Cochinos was the most memorable.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
The Eddie Murphy album with the Barbecue bit on it is a classic. People still quote this album, sometimes without realizing it. It took me a few years to figure out that when he pokes fun at “The Busboys” he was talking about his opening act, not the people cleaning up after the audience.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I forgot about the Steve Martin stuff! Wild & crazy guy is just a classic. I still use the line he shouts at his heckler, “Yes, I remember my first beer too!”
June 24th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Python’s “Matching Tie & Handkerchief.” Only three-sided album I ever owned.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
In our day-to-day life, Cheech & Chong references come up at least once a month. “Up his nose” was trotted out recently when our grand-daughter stuck a piece of orange (with the peel) up her nose…
Whenever we’re looking for a parking spot and we spot a good one, we say ooh, right by “the snack bar”.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Some of my most formative comedic pleasures:
Eddie Murphy: Raw.
Stephen Banks: Home Entertainment Center.
Monty Python: Any Movie.
Kentucky Fried Movie.
Steve Martin: The Jerk (never much got his stand-up, but that movie is freakin’ awesome).
June 24th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I had “Class Clown” on 8-track; the seven words were sure to get attention, but I also liked saying “bilabial fricative”. Carlin was too sophisticated for most of my friends, though, who were into Cheech & Chong, which also had an affect on me. I think I can still do most of “Basketball Jones” from memory and “Dave’s not here” still pops up occasionally in my references. I also saw Steve Martin in concert (arrow-through-the-head days) and had a couple of his albums. Nothing ever cracked me up, however, as much as the Pythons!
June 24th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Sam Kinison. No one can shout through there a bit like he did.
There’s a setup to it, but ends up by him saying he changed his girlfriend’s name to “LYING STINKING B**ch”.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I listened to a friend’s Carlin albums, we listened to someone else’s Python albums, and we listened to my Bill Cosby albums.
A Python (and Chapman) great: “Doctor’s Love Song”. Disgustingly, clinically hillarious.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
My earliest memories of comedy were Steve Martin in the King Tut era, and Cheech and Chong’s Dave and Kamikaze routines.
To this day, “Are you out of your #$^@ mind?” never fails to bring a smile.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
You can’t be a good Catholic boy like me and not love C&C’s “Sister Mary Elephant.”
My dad had a copy of the Best of Bill Cosby, which may not have been that hip, but was comedy gold. The Noah bit (“Riiiiiiiight”) is still one of the funniest things ever.
The Steven Wright line that I remember best, and still use: “It’s a small world. . . but I wouldn’t want to paint it.”
June 24th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I was wondering what might piss off Carlin… someone blogging about him going to Heaven or the Afterlife.
So I did. I hope he’s at least a little bit annoyed… because I love that guy.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Bill Cosby’s dentist bit is a classic.
I saw Dave Allen (from Dave Allen At Large) in concert way back when. He had the audience in stitches for 3, (yes, three!) hours.
And of course, anything by Monty Python
June 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Dave Allen! Rarely does anyone know who I’m talking about when I mention Dave Allen!
That guy was hillarious.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Dave Allen was a true gem.
In re Mitch’s question:
1. Class Clown
2. That *&#$^&’s Crazy — Richard Pryor
3. The Button-Down Mind — Bob Newhart
4. Big Bambu — Cheech & Chong
5. A Wild and Crazy Guy — Steve Martin
6. Straight Trippin’ — Franklin Ajaye (because everyone forgets him)
Plus anything Python.
Honorable mention: I am the President — David Frye (best Nixon impersonator EVER; recently re-released by Rhino)
Only when I had my first child did Bill Cosby’s skit on taking his wife to the hospital get really funny. Robin Williams came too late for me; I was already in grad school and lost my funny bone for years.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Around the same time (1974), George Carlin was a staple on the Tonight Show and I thought he was hilarious. For my birthday the next year, my parents bought me the “Class Clown” album for my birthday. We listened to it on our Zenith Entertainment Center (AM-FM, eight track and record player and nearly as big as a Smart Car for you youngsters out there). When we got to the 7 words, the look on my Mom’s face was as they say now a days – priceless. She made my older brother take it to college with him.
My dad must have liked comedy albums in the 60’s as we had lots of them, but there was a Bill Cosby album (“Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow. Right!”) that got a lot of play and we had the Alan Sherman album with the Camp Grenada song that we wore out.
To come full circle – Transporting the kids to soccer recently my ten year old and her friend told me about the funniest thing they have ever heard. It involved a substitute teacher nun named Sr. Mary Elephant and she told the class to SHUT UP!! Shut up of course was screamed at full ear splitting volume.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Mr. D: I had forgotten about Bill Cosby’s “Noah”! Wasn’t there a bit in there about the snake…biting him on the foot and snake just wants to say “hello”…?
June 24th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I wore out this Carlin album in my teens: Take Offs & Put Ons
My favorite track: Wonderful WINO
RIP, George.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Snakes giving Bill’s big toe a little “snaky lick”… and Bill ordering them not to put none of their juice in it.
Damn funny!
Of course, smearing all that Jell-o all over the floor helps.