In an episode of The Simpsons Bart accidentally becomes vey popular due to an accident. His “I didn’t do it!” leads to variations but all on the exact same joke. He rides a wave of popularity for a while but he has nothing else so people turn hostile and then he’s forgotten.
What are the best examples of people who managed to ride the wave for a while on variants of just one joke/schtick but were abandoned after it became clear they had nothing else?
Fonzie on Happy Days.
William Hung with his performance on American Idol. Brief surge of fame, even appeared on Arrested Development, then basically went away.
Relatively famously, Vaughn Meader made a big album imitating John Kennedy. Once Kennedy died, it was no longer funny to people and he struggled to find another schtick that could draw an audience.
I mean, he has a catch phrase “Ehhhhhh!”, but he was on for 10+ years. I don’t think this matches the OP topic.
I saw him two or three times, then walked away unimpressed. Ten years? Wow.
He did?
I know this is CS, so I won’t say the name, but the OP is asking for real life examples. I’m hoping this will be the ultimate fate of a certain businessman turned TV star turned politician.
Ha, yeah, I’m imagining a depressed Fonz with a lack of emotional affect and Anhedonia:
The Jones twins: “Hey Fonz, want to take us both out to Lookout Point to watch the submarine races?”
Fonzie: Ehhhhhhhh.
Antoine Dodson, made briefly noteworthy by Autotune the News. He made a go at trying to catapult his meme status into actual fame, but he couldn’t stick the landing.
The opposite but the “Cash me outside, how bout dat” girl went on to be a successful rapper who claims a total earnings over $50M and is making millions on OnlyFans.
On the political side,
There was Joe the Plumber who went viral at a Obama campaign stop and then tried spinning that fame into a bunch of different ventures, including a doomed run for Congress in 2012. He briefly popped up in the news again this year when he died from cancer.
Then there was Ken Bone who asked Obama a question at the presidential debates and went briefly viral for his affable demeanor and red sweater before people noticed he was being a little too horny on main with his reddit account.
A comedian playing a one-joke character that got old real quick.
Reminds me of the character actor in old black & white sitcoms whose catchphrase was just “Hello”.
Must have been hilarious at the time, because he’d often be something like a shopkeeper who’d turn around, audience would laugh in recognition, then the drawn-out “Hellllllloooo!” and the audience erupts. Even the other actors are having a hard time keeping straight faces.
eta: no luck finding a video…
I know who you mean, but can’t remember his name. He showed up on Jack Benny’s show a lot, IIRC.
Are you sure it was “hello”? Frank Nelson was one of the performers on Benny’s show but his catchphrase was a drawn-out “yesssssss”.
I know this isn’t Saluga … but I had no idea that this “you can call me Ray …” was a national bit. This ad was all over New Orleans television for a spell in the early- to mid-1980s.
Wasn’t The Simpsons spoofing Steve “did I do that?” Urkel?
“Where’s the beef?”
That’s who I thought of, too.
There was also Rod Hull, a comedian who would appear with his stuffed emu under his arm and cause general mayhem. For those who don’t remember, I found a clip of him with the Hudson Brothers, also a bit of a flash in the pan.
Jimmie Walker, “J.J.” on Good Times, was kind of the proto-Urkel. (Ur-Urkel, perhaps?)
He has kept himself active in show business since then, though, so possibly not quite what the OP was looking for.
For that matter, Jaleel White has consistently worked in show business as well - the Family Matters residuals must be respectable.
Thanks so much. Looks like his schtick was to say any greeting in that way: I found a bunch, from “Yessss…”, to “Howww do you do?” to “Can I helllllp you?” The protagonist (usually Jack Benny) would say "Why do I keep running into you?" or “On second thought, I’ll just help myself.”
And that, grandkids, is what we had for comedy…
Lots of stand-up comics who flashed and died, but one in particular sticks in my mind. Male, probably from the 80’s, youngish and fairly buff, I think he had longish brown hair. He had two schticks: one was his “dawg” who loved “salsa sawce” (he had a thick accent, maybe Jersey, I don’t know); the other was based on sleeping nude with his wife, getting up to pee in the night, and cleverly using the guest towels to blot his dick so that he was all nice and dry when he got back into bed. That was it, all I remember about his act. He probably got a couple of years’ worth of national TV appearances on variety shows with that stuff.