I just set the playback speed to 0.25 and muted the sound.
It looks like he says three syllables, the first of which is clearly “hump.” The subsequent two seem to be “pee-ar”.
Doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s what I got.
I too slowed the video to 25%. It looks like Red’s mouthing “humpmobile” (a car to have sex in). It’s not as clever as “snowmobile” referencing cocaine, but it doesn’t look like he’s mouthing “snow” and that joke would have taken longer to get and react to. And, in those days, “hump” probably would get bleeped.
Humpmobile is similar to Hupmobile, a real car company. Problem is they went out of business decades before that show was broadcast.
From what I’ve read, the deLorean apparently had a prominent hump in the back seat that was associated with its drive shaft. I wonder if the joke has something to do with this.
Funny, I don’t see reference to “humpmobile” meaning “car to have sex in” with Google search, but I recall it being part of teenage vernacular in the 70s. The origins may have derived from the ‘09 – ‘39 “hupmobile.”
Pretty much every car back then had that backseat hump.
“Snowmobile” makes the most sense to me, but Red’s mouth doesn’t seem to be forming that word.
“Humpmobile” - I’ve never heard that term myself, and that’s really not much of a joke at all within the context of a DeLorean. Why would a DeLorean, specifically, be called a humpmobile?
mmm
There was also a rumor that Carson had made a sex tape with his wife Joanne so “hump” something something could have elicited that reaction.
The Humvee entered service in 1983. I wonder if this has any connection to the joke.
But vaudeville went out of business decades before that show was broadcast. The joke had to be immediate, and hump was more daring and funny back then than it was today. I’m a bit younger than most of that audience, but I’ve heard of Hupmobile, so they probably would have enough to laugh.
I was in college at the time, and there were many DeLorean jokes involving cocaine. I remember one live college show in which the words of a song were altered to refer to DeLorean’s nose as a cocaine reference. I think this makes the snowmobile line the most probable.
A parody radio ad for the DeLorean Snowmobile - “A Colombian import that blows the competition away!”
If you slow the clip and switch off the distracting dub, it’s clear the first thing out of Red’s mouth is “hump” and not “snow.” It’s the second part I can’t pin down.
Both Red and Johnny were old enough to remember Hupmobiles. The reference might have gone over the heads of the audience, but they could still react to the smutty insinuation. (Johnny is apparently a little slow to get the joke himself.)
I’m probably being whooshed but DeLoreans don’t have back seats.
What is the joke in this case? A play on the Hupmobile name? How does it relate to Delorean? Just that it was in the news at the time? Like he might have made the same joke about Ford if there had been a recent scandal?
I can accept that Skelton could still be rehashing a joke about a car from the 30’s. A lot of his jokes in that segment we’re dated.
It just seems so little forced to be funny (unless I’m being dense).
" I offered to be the one who would always sit on the narrow hump in the backseat when we all traveled together (and not complain about it)."
I don’t interpret his reaction as he didn’t get the joke, more like I can’t believe you said that
(or, oh no you din’t!)
mmm
Damned if I know what the joke was without the second half of what Red said. All I know is that the first half is “hump.”
When the rest becomes becomes clear we’ll all understand.
Either way, he’s clearly flummoxed.
Oh thanks. Hump is an understatement – it’s a four-seater with an arm rest.
I was thinking of the hump in the floor for the drivetrain. As the youngest in my family, I’m all too familiar with sitting there.
In other posted clips of this episode of the Tonight Show, the joke about the Delorean is completely edited out. The scene goes from the joke about the wife seeing the blonde hair but not seeing the garage directly to Johnny asking him about the cigar. It must have been bad enough that it was completely edited out of other showings.