# Buddy Hackett Dead at 79 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516 "2003-07-01T05:38:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/1 "2003-07-01T05:38:58Z")
[Here’s the AP story about it.](http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0100&id=030701004319163631) ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/2 "2003-07-01T06:53:42Z")
No more “Tuesdays with Buddy.” In his one season TV show “Stanley,” his girlfriend was the first time most people would see Carol Burnett. He had a wonderful career, and he really did it his way. ---
**Author:** ![musicguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@musicguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/musicguy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/3 "2003-07-01T07:01:35Z")
Nobody could ever tell a joke as well as Buddy could. I have two VHS tapes of his material and they always crack me up. He did have a wonderful career and will be missed. Thanks for the laughs, Buddy. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/4 "2003-07-01T07:27:32Z")
Damn! I’ll never forget, when my parents first got cable, my dad got all excited because there was a Buddy Hackett special on HBO, and he _insisted_ I watch it. Heh, heh, heh, dad got awfully uncomfortable as the show progressed. (Guess he’d forgotten how dirty Buddy Hackett was!) ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/5 "2003-07-01T09:38:13Z")
I was just telling my girlfriend about **It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World** today. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/6 "2003-07-01T09:42:24Z")
His wax job joke always gets a major laugh when I tell it. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/7 "2003-07-01T10:17:34Z")
Yeah, I was thinking about Mad, Mad World today. Another one gone from that wonderful cast! Well, we still have Jonathan Winters and Dorothy Provine… I’m sure there’re others, too. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/8 "2003-07-01T11:27:26Z")
My favorite memory of Buddy is where he played Pluto Swint in “God’s Little Acre” with Robert Ryan, Jack Lord, Tina Louise, Aldo Ray, Fay Spain, and (believe it or not) one of Michael Landon’s first pre-Bonanza roles. Landon was an albino who was supposed (by everybody but Landon) to be able to douse gold. Ty Ty (Ryan) was digging up his yard searching for gold (shades of The Long Hot Summer) and had to keep moving the little cross that signified the section of ground he had dedicated to God. Pluto was in love (more like in heat) with/for Ty Ty’s daughter Dahlin’ Jill (Spain) and his performance was a high point of the movie. Pluto was the sheriff IIRC (anyway a lawperson). I can’t rmember the whole line, nor even for sure which character uttered it (thinking Ryan’s) but it was something like, “Pluto, how in the pluperfect hell are you going to…” (whatever it was). “Pluperfect hell” has made its way into my vocabulary by way of that film. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/9 "2003-07-01T11:42:04Z")
I remember once getting upset by the slow service at a hotel restaurant and getting my desert to go because I wanted to get back to my room in time to watch one of his HBO specials. I didn’t have cable at home, so this was my only chance to catch it. IIRC, that was the first time I’d heard him tell the wax job joke. Whenever he was on the Tonight Show he would tell Johnny and the audience jokes during the commercial breaks that he couldn’t tell on the air. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/10 "2003-07-01T11:55:15Z")
Jema jai yong, Tennessee. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/11 "2003-07-01T12:27:56Z")
I had to Google a bit to locate “Jema jai yong” as meaning “goodbye” so the Tennessee part suggests one may be leaving TN. How is this connected with Mr. Hackett? ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/12 "2003-07-01T12:52:33Z")
I last saw him about 2 or 3 weeks ago as a juror on _Last Comic Standing_ and remember thinking how glad I was that he looked so healthy. What a bummer. “I’m 75 years old; I got one lung! One gonad! One kidney! I take Viagra just not to wet my shoes!” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/13 "2003-07-01T13:15:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zeldar \* > \*\*I had to Google a bit to locate “Jema jai yong” as meaning “goodbye” so the Tennessee part suggests one may be leaving TN. > > How is this connected with Mr. Hackett? \*\* In _The Love Bug_, he played welding mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz, a character who had spent time in Tibet teaching English to monks. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/14 "2003-07-01T13:27:13Z")
Thanks, Jeff Olsen. Since I missed a high percentage of Hackett’s movies (including The Love Bug) I just had your location in mind and figured you were headed home after a bad experience in the Volunteer State. Now that I know its origin, I may have to add yours to the “pluperfect hell” thing. Z ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/15 "2003-07-01T13:29:57Z")
So long, Macelus Washburn, thanks for all the laughs. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/16 "2003-07-01T13:33:09Z")
:smack: Ma **r** cellus. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/17 "2003-07-01T13:38:05Z")
OK I’ll bite, what’s the wax job joke? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/18 "2003-07-01T13:39:06Z")
Always liked him, I have a soft spot for borscht-belt comics. First and last time he ever shared billing with Katharine Hepburn! ---
**Author:** ![\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/7cd45c/32.png) [@\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Deep_F_ied)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/19 "2003-07-01T15:25:48Z")
Has anyone been able to find out about the circumstances surrounding his death? Heart-attack? Stroke? Had he been battling an affliction? He will be sorely missed… RIP Buddy. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516/20 "2003-07-01T15:44:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Yeah, I was thinking about Mad, Mad World today. Another one gone from that wonderful cast! Well, we still have Jonathan Winters and Dorothy Provine… I’m sure there’re others, too. \*\* Like Sid Caesar and Mickey Rooney? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-hackett-dead-at-79/185516.md?page=2)