Jerry Lewis

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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[FONT=“Arial”][/FONT. Forget Jerry’s movies for a minute. Otis us face mimicry does it, comparable only to Fernandel the cherished French tete de gomme. Jerry can do unusual faces, never seen before. Also sings, contorts to good effect, Woody cannot do this.

LINK TO COLUMN: Do the French really love Jerry Lewis? - The Straight Dope

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It’s hard to argue with that.

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Reads like failed spam.

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I’m guessing he’s comparing Jerry Lewis to other comics. I don’t have a clue as to who Otis is, but Fernandel was France’s top comic actor for decades. Woody is probably Woody Allen.

So, something like:
“Forget Jerry Lewis’s movies for a minute. Otis’s comic faces are unusual, comparable only to Fernandel the cherished French tete de gomme. Jerry can do unusual faces, never seen before. Also sings, does good physical comedy. Woody Allen cannot do this.”

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i’d like to forget Jerry Lewis.

maybe this

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MODERATOR COMMENT: This was “disappeared” because we thought it might be some sort of spam. Having heard from Coarc, we understand it was a comment on the Jerry Lewis column (as others noted but I was too dense to see), so it’s restored.

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Who is Otis? And what is a “head gum”? Is that something like “gummy head” to mean facial contortionist?

Jerry Lewis was the Jim Carrey of his generation. And like Jim Carrey, after a while his schtick wore out.

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I don’t believe Otis is a person. I believe the OP was attempting to say, in an unfamiliar language, “To us his face mimicry does it”–that is, the French find Lewis’s contorted faces funny, irrespective of their lame cinematic context.

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Thanks, that makes more sense.

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The French are fucked, then.

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Oh, THAT guy! The one whose schtick Lewis [del]stole wholesale[/del] based his entire career on.

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right down to the teeth.

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I guess. I just watched a few YouTube clips, not impressed. Then again I’m not a big Lewis fan either.

I’m guessing Otis is auto-correct for a mis-typed “To us”.

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In partial support for the OP, I saw part of a Martin and Lewis movie a couple weeks ago and it was pretty funny. However, it differed from that part of his œuvre that I understand to be the most popular in France in that it was neither written nor, more importantly, directed by Lewis. It had better gags and his acting was reined in a bit.

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“Rubber face” is probably the most similar English term.