I came across this Tonight Show clip from 1983 where Red Skelton is Johnny Carson’s guest. Skelton tells a Delorean joke that seems to have been censored.
The audio stumbles at the punchline, but, by the look on Johnny’s face, it was something pretty inappropriate.
Anyone have any guesses?
The joke in question comes in at the 11:00 point of the video.
mmm
It certainly looks like it. “Garage” certainly doesn’t fit his lip movement (although that could be a result of the age of the video) and Carson’s reaction is immediate as well as the audience’s “Ooooooooh!” For the life of me, I can’t imagine what he said. Some pun related to Delorean?
Carson pled no contest to a DUI when driving his DeLorean, so I wonder if it was related to that?
Carson also invested in DeLorean. Possibly related?
John DeLorean was arrested for conspiracy to distribute cocaine in 1982, so it may have been related to that as well.
Cocaine, huh? How about, “Is that a good snow car?”
To me it sounded like he said, “Is that a garage car?”
Not sure what a garage car is, but maybe a car you don’t drive? If so, then maybe a reference to Carson’s DUI, which likely resulted in a temporary suspension of his license.
We don’t know when the episode aired by Skelton referred to it as a new car. By the time DeLorean was arrested, it wasn’t really new. He was trying to raise money because the company was struggling so badly.
The tag under the video says it originally aired December 6, 1983.
The DeLorean Motor Company folded on October 26, 1982.
I think @anny_m’s explanation makes sense.
mmm
ETA: Although all the other guesses also seem plausible.
“Is it a garage car?”
I think it’s about Delorean doors. If you park your car in the garage, how will you open the doors without banging them against the walls and ceiling?
Nothing offensive about that.
Really? You think Carson would shoot him that look and the audience would “ooooooo” for a line about the doors?
mmm
It sounded very much to me like they took the word garage, which he said in the previous joke, and superimposed that over whatever the heck he said in the next joke, which looked to have more syllables….
I’m no lip reader (do we have any around here?), it looks like he said something like “hoppity.” I have no idea what it would have been from that.
I don’t know what he’s saying but both “garage” and “car” are overdubbed. Probably a joke about Johnny being a pussy hound or something.
Missed the edit window:
This aired in the middle of his divorce and his wife was a friend of DeLorean’s wife. The DeLorean investor lawsuit happened around the same time, but I can’t fathom why a joke about that would get censored. Similarly his DUI was over a year prior and in the grand scheme of things wasn’t that scandalous for the time.
or “Is that a snowmobile?” Someone actually told me that joke back in the day. I wonder if they picked it up from The Tonight Show.
ETA: In fact I’m sure of it. Skelton prefaces the joke with "Have you heard about the new Delorian, which was the same setup I remember for snowmobile.
That seems to match his lips pretty well.
I found this same interview in a couple of other videos on YouTube and the entire exchange is cut.
Nevermind. Missed the cocaine connection.
I wonder if it was standards and practices that nixed it or NBC lawyers afraid of a lawsuit from Delorian who was acquitted of the cocaine charges after this episode aired (But likely before it was released on video.)