# R.I.P. Don Rickles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [April 6, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908 "2017-04-06T18:16:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/41 "2017-04-07T15:13:10Z")
The “meta” aspect of his humor is interesting. Some new comic pointing to someone in the audience, commenting on their ethnicity and making jokes based on stereotypes would be in big trouble. But we knew that Rickles was just doing a shtick and didn’t mean any harm by it. In fact the audience expected it of him. It was some sort of inside joke between him and us. I remember the HBO film a few years back. At the start, backstage, he was slow and shuffling. But the second he came on stage he powered up. An amazing example of what being on stage does to people. There can never be another one like him. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/42 "2017-04-07T15:19:19Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > …Some new comic pointing to someone in the audience, commenting on their ethnicity and making jokes based on stereotypes would be in big trouble. … That’s [Russell Peter’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYiteaPBlz0) entire act and he’s pretty hilarious at it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/43 "2017-04-07T15:34:55Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The “meta” aspect of his humor is interesting. > > Some new comic pointing to someone in the audience, commenting on their ethnicity and making jokes based on stereotypes would be in big trouble. > > But we knew that Rickles was just doing a shtick and didn’t mean any harm by it. In fact the audience expected it of him. It was some sort of inside joke between him and us. > > I remember the HBO film a few years back. At the start, backstage, he was slow and shuffling. But the second he came on stage he powered up. An amazing example of what being on stage does to people. > > There can never be another one like him. You know those thing that only family and the closest of friends got away with saying? Don was family. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/44 "2017-04-07T16:03:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I liked his standup, but remember him more from guest spots on Dean Martin’s show and on Carson, as well as several parts on 1960s sitcoms. He appeared on a few episodes of _Get Smart_, and there are blooper reels of the two Dons cracking each other up so many times that it’s amazing they ever finished the scene. I’ve read that the two-part _Get Smart_ episode that Rickles was in was not originally written as a two-parter. It was intended as simply an ordinary episode. But Rickles and Adams got to ad-libbing so much during their scenes, and so much of it was so funny, that they couldn’t bear to cut it. So it became a two-part episode, to make room for all the ad-libs. I caught part of Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue last night. He was in tears talking about Rickles. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/45 "2017-04-07T16:07:12Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I’ve been listening to a lot of Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast lately and they speak of Rickles often; just yesterday I listened to his Bob Saget interview and they spoke of him at the Friars club. This morning, I listened to WTF. Maron was interviewing Jeff Ross, who was also a Friar and knew Rickles well. > > I think I killed Rickles. More likely Marc Maron and Jeff Ross did, but still. I listen to a lot of podcasts of comedians speaking of their craft. I haven’t caught up on those (so it’s not my fault). The comics that other comics revere are sometimes surprising. When contemporary comics talk about meeting Rickles you can tell how thrilled they were. He was famous but he was also a comics comic. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/46 "2017-04-07T16:09:28Z")
Liked him as a kid, but I haven’t seen a Don Rickles skit in years. Looks like I got some youtubing to do. The last couple days, I have heard nothing but fond farewells for him. That’s amazing, considering his jokes might seem too abrasive these days. Are there any young (in age) fans here, in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/47 "2017-04-07T16:23:35Z")
Here is a clip of Artie Lange talking about working with Rickles. ETA: the story starts about a minute in. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TozUujHyYRk/hqdefault.jpg "ArtieLange") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TozUujHyYRk) He was also a WWII Navy vet who served on a PT boat tender during the retaking of the Philippines. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/48 "2017-04-07T17:58:28Z")
I remember a long time ago watching some kind of awards show, and Don Rickles got on stage and started picking out members of the audience and ribbing them. This was shortly after \*Roots \*came out, which had already caused enough racial tension, so it made his joke hysterical, if not almost riot-inducing. “Hey there’s Levar Burton! New to Hollywood, huh kid? Here, I’ll make ya feel right at home.” He started doing a tapdance like blackfaced minstrels were known to do at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/49 "2017-04-07T23:28:16Z")
I liked him in Get Smart and The Dick Van Dyke Show, but his stand-up and (especially) his talk show appearances I found cringe-worthy in their unfunniness. I mean, Carson would literally roll out of his chair in laughter at the lamest of one-liners. Even as a youngster I was almost embarrassed at how everyone around him overdid their reactions to his insults. Take this, for example: > [@Mahaloth](#): > > …“[insert joke about Sinatra] … Please, Frank, don’t send your men on me! I have kids! They need me!”… Really? This extremely unwitty, unclever remark sends grown men into spasms? Maybe not this specific line, but this is a fair representation of what I am referring to. But on the other hand, Rickles’ appearances on Get Smart were jolly good fun for me. He and Don Adams had a chemistry that rose above the written dialogue and elevated the show even higher than the lofty place I held for it. I usually didn’t get you Don, but rest in peace. mmm ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/50 "2017-04-08T05:04:22Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Too late to edit, I suppose. My favorite Rickles joke. > > "So anyway before I met my wife I was dating a young lady in Vegas. Frank Sinatra was having dinner. She said ‘Oh, I’ would love to meet Sinatra.’ Well, I am in the business, I am allowed to talk to Sinatra so I go over. I say ‘Frank, I’m with this girl, she wants to meet you.’ He says he’ll come over in a few minutes. So I go back to my table. > > “Frank gets up to use the restroom. On his way back, he stops at my table and makes a big deal of saying hello. I say to him, 'Damn it Frank, can’t you see I’m with somebody?” At the end of this clip, Sinatra tells a slightly different version and says it’s a true story! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5\_V9RT8aR8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5_V9RT8aR8) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/51 "2017-04-09T17:57:59Z")
I can’t let Don Rickles go with just one post short of a second page. Rickles deserves a second page. I do remember _CPO Sharkey_. At the time, a buddy of mine was in the Navy, and his father was a big fan of the show just because of that. EDIT: I thought this post would push into the second page. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/52 "2017-04-09T18:19:53Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > EDIT: I thought this post would push into the second page. ☹ My browser displays 50 posts per page. Yours was #51. You made it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/53 "2017-04-09T18:21:11Z")
Huh. It’s up there now, but before it showed the bottom of the last page. Go, Don! ---
**Author:** ![TheInimitableMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TheInimitableMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheInimitableMaven)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/54 "2017-04-09T18:23:31Z")
In addition to _The Dick Van Dyke Show_ and _Get Smart_, Rickles was also great on _The Beverly Hillbillies_ **[(as a horse race betting addict, beginning at 11:54)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NajqZdpobzw)** and _The Addams Family_ (as one of two crooks trying to hide from the police on Halloween night). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908.md?page=2)