In this thread “Who’s On First” by Abbott and Costello was the subject.
I pulled out my copy of “The American Comedy Collection,” where “Who’s On first” is on one of the CDs. On the track before it is W.C. Fields’ “Temperance Lecture” where we get the lines:
Some of my other favorite routines:[ul][]“Green Chri$tma$” by Stan Freberg[]“Good King Eccleslas” by Spike Milligan“She Loves You” - Peter Sellers recites the Beatles lyrics in the voice of Dr. Strangelove[/ul]
I’ve always enjoyed the Ellen Degeneres routine on airlines. Her comments on seats being in the upright position, “live, don’t live” always cracks me up.
With the Ellen Degeneres airline routine, I used to [as a joke] say goodbye to my friends in the fashion of the flight attendants she impersonated. [“bye, buh-bye, bye-bye now, buh-bye, bye, no more peanuts, buh-bye…”]
Yeah, I remember her riff on eating the skimpy portion of peanuts on the plane.
Anyone familiar with Nichols and May from the 60s. They have a classic sketch about the commercialization of funerals.
Without quesiton, the National Lampoon Radio Hour’s “The Immigrants”. Presented as a sort of pseudo-PBS-style documentary, with tons of allusions to The Grapes of Wrath, the premise being that hillbillies immigrated from Europe to the U.S. like other European ethnic groups, with vignettes of episodes before, during, and after their journey. Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Brian Doyle-Murray, Christopher Guest, Michael O’Donoghue, and the rest of the Second City/National Lampoon/Saturday Night Live crew a few years before the debut of SNL.
Sample dialogue (each line in a different voice, with exaggerated hillbilly accents):
Obviously, not nearly so funny described as experienced.
George Carlin’s “Football vs. Baseball” routine is my favorite–“the object of football is to move the ball down a rigidly marked grid through enemy territory into the endzone. The object of baseball is to go home. We get to go home. Home.” Most of Carlin’s stuff tops my list, although Jonathan Winters and early Robin Williams can get me rolling on the floor as well.
Bill Cosby’s Hofstra (“Do not touch…certain areas of your bodies…” and Greasy Kid Stuff.
Most of Abbott and Costello
Stan Freberg’s Elderly Man River and Bannana Boat spoofs.
Great topic, this will require some thought.
I do have an old Stan Freberg routine on tape, the Flackman and Reagan Show, about Ronald Reagan and his press agent. It was done when Reagan was running for governor of California (mid-60s, but I don’t know the exact year) and ends with a joke about him aspring to be President some day. The last network radio commedian was years ahead of his time.
1). Nearly anything by Carlin, especially when he goes off about language usage (“Fuck you, YOU get ON the plane, I’M getting IN the plane”)
2). Chris Rock’s Tossed Salad Man, You have to see the look on his face to get the full effect.
3). Am I the first to mention a Python skit in this thread? Wow. The Argument Clinic and The Cheese Shop are timeless and hilarious.
Sam Kinison: “Phone call from Hell” is one of the best improv pieces I’ve ever seen. His rants on the Kurds (“You should just call them the fucks, ‘cuz they’re fucked”) and rock against drugs (“Rock created drugs!” and “Hello, don’t get caught doing drugs or you’ll have to make a commercial, just like this one.”)
Early Robin Williams and Galligar, any Carlin or Pryor. Cosby had some good ones (Moses and Fat Albert) Early Eddie Murphy was good, too (“Eddie, why you wash your dick in the sink?…What time is it?”)
Any Stooges shorts are always excellent.
“The Two Thousand Year Old Man”.
Richard Jeni’s bit about Jacque Cousteau.
Bill Cosby’s whole album Himself.
Ernie Kovacs’s “The Nairobi Trio”.
And I have a new-found fondness for Chaplin’s speech as Hynkel in The Great Dictator, all in mock-German.
“…I’d like to return this parrot…”
Just about anything from George Carlin, especially from the 70s/80s (before he got all pissed off and ornery). Some classics:
The seven words you can’t say on TV.
The football vs. baseball bit.
The sports vs. activities bit.
The stuff bit.
The entire Occupation Foole and Toledo Windowbox albums, but especially his stories from when he was growing up. “I never tried to get a tan, I just tried to neutralize the blue.”
Juts off the top of my head (an it’s possibly an acquired taste because they’re not “belly laugh” funny) but I have to put in a vote for Bob and Ray. One of the few teams who’s routines read as well as they sound.
Except for the slow … talkers … of … America …
Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones - Concerto for String Quartet and Next Door Neighbor
Many of Peter Schickele’s P.D.Q. Bach routines.
Monty Python’s “Australian Wines” sketch. I honestly and truly laughed so hard that I hurt myself. Just the phrase “…and a pleasant afterburn” still cracks me up.
The “What’s the password” scene from “Horsefeathers.” Classic.
Chico: “I give-a you a hint. It’s-a name of a fish.”
Groucho: “Is is Mary?”
The Firesign Theatre’s “How Can We Be In Two Places At Once When We’re No Place At All?” Featuring Nick Danger, Third Eye!
Nick Danger is indeed a classic. “He walks again by night.”
“Who’s on First,” of course.
The Marx Brothers had more then their share, with the “Why a Duck” scene, and “The Party of the First Part” coming first to mind.
On the more obscure front, Jackie Vernon had an absolutely hilarious routine about his vacation. He used a little clicker to imitate a slide show:
<click>This is my guide.
<click>This is my guide leading me around a pool of quicksand.
<click>This is my guide from the waist up.
<click>This is my guide’s hat.
<click>This is a bunch of boy scouts coming to rescue my guide.
<click><click><click>That’s a whole bunch of hats and ropes and things.
<click>This is my new guide.
<click><click><click><click>That’s his hat there.