My (faint) recollections of seeing Rich Little were that his impressions were better than his “writing/humor”. That is, what the impression-ee said wasn’t all that funnny.
Of all his impressions, I think his Jimmy Stewart was one of his best. And if you’re ever in the neighborhood of Indiana, PA, you’ll find that the city thought so too. As the birthplace of Stewart, they had Little do his impression of Stewart for some of the crosswalks: when the light turns, instead of beeping, the crosswalk “sign” will say (in Rich’s Jimmy voice) “uh you can cross the street now”.
Cracked me up !
I hated the way he laughed at his own jokes and impressions.
Well how else are you supposed to know when to laugh?
I remember him from Hollywood Squares. Due to him, I lost a bit of my TV innocence - I realized that the questions to the celebs were tailored. RL always got one the allowed him to do an impression. Then I noticed that the questions to all the big celebs were the same. I cointinued to watch, but just sadder and wiser,
Despite that, he always seemed funny on HS. As much as anybody else, at least. (with the notable exception of Waylon Flowers and Madame - you complain about impressionists. What the hell is funny about a ventriliquist that doesn’t even pretend to hide the fact he’s openly speaking? That takes no talent at all!)
Deep down, that really is true.
“Iraq and a hard place!” That’s comedy gold!
I’ve literally fallen off my chair and I’m literally rolling on the floor and laughing my ass off.
mmm