he started acting like an idiot on radio with Dean. he never stopped with that.
Hmmm . . . wacky comedian, wacky conspiracy theory. How fitting.
So sorry about that. For some reason, the site would not let me see what I was writing, as I was writing. Frustrating!
I actually wrote in a blank email, complete with paragraphs ;), then copy and pasted.
For some reason, all the formatting disappeared, and it bunched everything together.
So, you think that there’s a good chance that George Burns will outlive Jerry Lewis?
:dubious:
Would you care to make a wager?
God is on your side.
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The Nutty Professor is one of my favorite movies of all time. The characterization of Buddy Love is pretty amazing. (There is plenty to criticize in that movie too, such as college students that look 40, but no other movie does what it does.)
The Ladies Man is another great movie, also with flaws, but also with truly unique stuff in it. And the scene with the gangster and the hat is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a movie!
As others have pointed out, he was also great in The King of Comedy.
The Martin and Lewis movie Artists and Models is also pretty darn good, featuring a young (and very hot) Shirley MacLaine.
I don’t think a creator’s work should be assessed based on average quality but on the absolute value of the good s/he has produced. I would thus say I like Lewis a lot. Based on an average, no, he would not make the grade.
At his best, he was very good. I think the issue is that he got a lot of power pretty quickly, and he was then able to make whatever he wanted, and nobody could reign him in. At the same time, his shtick was selling, so directors like Tashlin (when Lewis was not directing himself) also didn’t have much motivation to change the formula.
That’s how I’d sum up the situation.
To give another example, we all know that Emily Dickenson is a great poet, right? Her best stuff is masterful. Transcendent. But if you try to read her complete works, uh oh. The average is really, really bad and boring.
More than one poster recommended The Ladies Man and since I had never seen it and never even heard about it, I watched it to see the “funniest thing ever” about some gangster and a hat.
I was very disappointed. I found it to be very little more than just rubbish and almost all of Jerry Lewis’ films were the same with the possible exception of only 2 or 3. Those are The Nutty Professor and The King of Comedy. In The King of Comedy, he played a character that was not in the least bit funny and he did as good a job as any competent dramatic actor would do.
If I sound bitter or angry, it may be because I also watched The Bellboy and The Geisha Boy. Both of these could easily qualify as the worst film ever made. They were really terrible. I’m sorry I ever even heard of Jerry Lewis.
That’s too bad!
I watched The Ladies Man again and I found the final scene to be quite good. It was the music by the orchestra - the Big Band sound and the very beautiful dancer - the one in black. The entire scene was just very captivating.
So, I must retract my previous negative remarks about this movie. Overall, I still didn’t like it very much but at least I found that one scene to be very entertaining.
Well done, Jerry! I take it back. Good on you!
I never found any of his other films to be much good.
I’m sorry to disagree with the poster upthread who loved The Bellboy. I just found it to be very awful. Not funny. Too much slapstick. Much too much.
I hope you understand that I meant to say I would bet that George Burns lived to an older age than did Lewis. George Burns lived to the age of 100 and it will be pretty hard for Lewis to live longer than that.
However, I don’t think the age at wich someone dies is a very important factor in deciding the quality or value of their lives. AAMOF, I don’t think it is up to any of us to decide just how valued a life someone has lived. It just don’t seem to be something that is in our hands. What do you think?
I really loved George Burns. I always thought he was truly one of the finest people that I ever knew (or knew of). He was IMO a very great man and a very great entertainer.
It was hard to understand how he could have lived so long and smoked so many cigars. I suppose if he never inhaled that might have made quite a difference. Oh well. Once again, it’s not for me to judge. All I can say is, “Fare thee well George! You were one of the good ones. One of the best ones.”
If I understand you correctly, you are saying that Jerry Lewis was kicked off the telethon because he was pushing selenium as a cure for MD.
From what I can tell, Jerry stepped down because [list=A][li]He is in his 80s [*]He and the MDA could not agree on the format or length of the telethon- Lewis wanted to do the full 21.5 hours and MDA wanted to cut it to six.[/list][/li]
The idea of selenium as a miracle cure for the common forms of muscular dystrophy in humans is notwell supported.
Welcome to the SDMB.
Regards,
Shodan
A fitting article about Lewis.
He would get more respect if he was a better human.