A little while ago, a colleague of mine was doing a presentation to us and make a really dumb and funny mistake. He was cool about it, he put his hand over his face, then took it down and, with a really goofy facial expression said, “Give to the college of your choice. Because a mind…is a terrible thing!”
Funny thing was, I remembered that line from a comedy sketch somewhere, somewhen. (I think it was a parody of a pro football player, but can’t remember anything else)
I asked him about it after the meeting, but he didn’t even remember that much. Just that he’d heard it somewhere, too.
It began as an Television ad for the United Negro Collage Fund. The line was,
“Give to the collage of your choice, Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Ads, if I remember correctly, were in the late 60’s-70’s.
I remember this! It was an HBO comedy special back in the 80’s. The guy did a bunch of different stereotypes of college football players, and one was a really dumb one who thought his number was 72, but when he looked down, realized it was 27. I was only about 12 when it aired, so forgive me for not knowing who the comedian was. I’ll try to google around and see what I come up with.
In this bit he would put on a big sweater as a football jersey, balloons at the shoulders for pads, and a silly football helmet.
“Let’s meet the college all-stars!”
Then he’d repeatedly run up to the mic and introduce himself as various players. One of them was a dumb lineman who gives an extended speech including the line in question.
He was introduced on the Rodney Dangefield special “It’s Not Easy Being Me”. A show that also featured Sam Kinison, Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr, and Robert Townsend.
Entire college semesters, gone from waking memory forever; yet snippets of improv comedy routines viewed at 1 AM on cable somehow linger.
Come to think of it, there may be a cause-and-effect relationship there somewhere. If I could only recall what else I was doing at 1 AM during that period of my life…
I believe the actual quotation, which he introduced as being the slogan for the United Negro College Fund, is something to the effect of “What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or, having no mind can be very wasteful. How true that is.”
Is this the same routine where he goes on to say that one time he had his head ripped clean off but the doctors sewed it back on and the doctors said he had “dain bramage”?
Yep. He also did one guy who had his helmet on sideways. When he walked up to the mike, he just grunted his name and walked off with the mike stuck in his helmet.
Funny… I was actually thinking yesterday, while cleaning the house (it was a heck of a New Year’s party) that waste was a terrible thing to mind. That is all.
I remember that special, it also featured Jeff Altman. Kind of funny that of all those comedians, Altman was the only one who already had a starring TV role under his belt: Pink Lady and Jeff.
