Jonathan Winters Tells Drinking Stories
An evening pause: Seems appropriate to usher in the weekend. From the Johnny Carson Show, 1976.
Hat tip Gene Shipp.
Tag: comedy
Robin Williams first appearance on the Johnny Carson Show
Manualist John Twomey on The Tonight Show, New Year’s eve, 1986
A evening pause: This silliness is perfect as we head into the New Year’s eve weekend.
Note: He was anticipating a Michigan victory in the Rose Bowl, which wouldn’t happen until the next day. Unfortunately, Michigan lost.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
The Jack Benny Show – November 4, 1951
An evening pause: This was the first episode in Benny’s second season on television, following nineteen years doing a regular radio show. The first singer is Bob Crosby, brother of Bing. The taxi driver is Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny and almost all of the characters in Warner Brothers best cartoons.
Almost everything in this episode works, but make sure especially you stay with it to see the Benny’s performance as lead fiddler of a hillbilly band.
How to use a laser light to switch off a room’s lights
Groucho Marx & Marilyn Monroe – Love Happy
An evening pause: This short clip starts with audio from a Groucho Marx interview where he describes the audition for the part of a girl in a short scene from the 1949 film Love Happy, and concludes by showing the scene as filmed, with Marilyn Monroe playing the part. Entertaining, and a fascinating bit of film trivia.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
An evening pause: This short clip starts with audio from a Groucho Marx interview where he describes the audition for the part of a girl in a short scene from the 1949 film Love Happy, and concludes by showing the scene as filmed, with Marilyn Monroe playing the part. Entertaining, and a fascinating bit of film trivia.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
Benny Hill – Wife-Swap
Funny concert moments
Woody Allen & William Buckley do comedy together
An evening pause: This isn’t sixties pop music, but it is definitely the 1960s, especially if you look at the clothes. It also takes us back to a time when Woody Allen was actually funny. It is a clip from a 1967 Woody Allen television special.
Hat tip Charlie Tutino.
Rob Paravonian – Pachelbel Rant
An evening pause: Pachelbel’s Canon in D is one of the most beautiful short pieces of music ever written, which of course is why it has been an evening pause a half dozen times before. I’ve posted a version of musicians jamming it at 3 am when they have nothing better to do, singing it a capella in a stairway, spectacularly on a guitar, as heavy metal, by a chicken (you have to watch it to understand), and played as a tango, bluegrass, gypsy, and practically any musical style you can imagine.
The rant below gives us the perspective of someone who has played the piece, and it is a perspective that might surprise you. After watching it enjoy all the other versions above, but above all make sure you watch the last one. You will then understand best what the cello player is thinking.
Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda – Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?
An evening pause: Bob & Ray, performing live in 1979 with the three very talented ladies from the original Saturday Night Live crew.
Hat tip Charlie Tutino.
The Jack Benny Show – Casting For Television Special
An evening pause: Originally aired January 1, 1961. For those too young to know, Benny had two running gags that help explain some of the humor. First, he was ridiculously cheap, and second, he never admitted he was older than 39. Above all, you must recognize the intended silliness of everything said or done.
Note also that the telegram delivery man is Mel Blanc, who provided the voices for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and almost all Warner Brothers cartoons from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Yes Prime Minister – The MPs Pay Rise
An evening pause: A nice sequence from the British series that brutally but with great humor described the reality of what goes on in high political circles. This clip comes from the follow-up to the original series, Yes, Minister.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Sorry for the late arrival of this evening’s pause. It didn’t post when it should, and I only just realized it.
Stupid Pet Tricks – Playing Dead
An evening pause: This is so silly, which is why it is funny and worth watching. Silliness is good. The world needs more of it.
Hat tip Charlie Tutino.
At Last the 1948 Show – Policewomen Sketch
An evening pause: This aired in 1967. That’s John Cleese, Marty Feldman, and Graham Chapman, with Tim Brooke-Taylor supervising.
Hat tip Cotour.
Igudesman & Joo – Rachmaninov had big Hands
Jack Webb & Johnny Carson – Dragnet Clapper Caper
An evening pause: Another sketch from the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This routine, as funny as it is on its own, is even funnier if you ever watched the TV show Dragnet with Jack Webb. It plays on that show’s very very dry delivery style.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Rodney Dangerfield on the Tonight Show
An evening pause: From 1974. His humor is funny because it is entirely silly. If for one second you try to take anything he says with any seriousness at all, you will have no fun.
A Millennial Job Interview
Jerome Robbins – Mistake Waltz
Taxi -Jim Spikes Louie’s Coffee
An evening pause: From one of television’s best comedy shows. Note the number of people from this show who became very big movie stars.
Hat tip Cotour.
Dad vs Daughter
An evening pause: It seems there is a fourth story plot available to writers (see yesterday’s evening pause).
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Kurt Vonnegut – the Shapes of Stories
An evening pause: There is an old saying that all story plots can be summed into one of the following three categories: Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, and Man vs Himself.
Vonnegut gives us a far better summary.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Mattias Lindström (Swebounce) – Robot chair
June Foray & Bill Scott – Rocky & Bullwinkle
An evening pause: For those who grew up in the 1960s. Everyone else is sadly deprived.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Mark Rober – Glitterbomb Trap Catches Phone Scammer
An evening pause: This is a little longer than most evening pauses, but trust me you will enjoy deeply every single second, so much so you might even want to watch it twice.
This earlier video by Rober shows how he developed this glitterbomb to catch doorstep package thieves. He has now taken that relatively minor engineering prank to a much higher and righteous level.