I was already in high school or beyond when most of the stuff mentioned came out. My mother was a big Marx Brothers fan, and so was I. Also S.J. Perelman, that most urbane of New Yorker humor writers. I loved Rocky and Bullwinkle also, and song parodies like the Battle of Camp Kukamonga. Soupy Sales was great - where else to get all the old vaudeville routines and lots of pies. I watched a lot of Bugs Bunny cartoons also.
Hmmm…. Could it just be me?
Allow me a few that haven’t yet been mentioned.
Garrison Keillor. The slow-paced delivery of good time homespun humor. I haven’t quite mastered his cadence but I leave 'em in stitches whenever I deliver one of his rants.
From TV, there was the edgy humor of the Partridge Family and the good folks from **Hee Haw **never seemed to fail. Ahhh, that Junior Samples, what a comic virtuoso!
Also I got my daily endorphin release from the ever-hilarious Family Circus cartoon. The walls of my cubby are liberally decorated with samples of their can’t-miss antics.
What?
Instead of listing a bunch of repeats, I’ll mention a few of my childhood influences not yet mentioned:
Garfield and Friends (much more clever and witty than the comic strip)
Animaniacs (basically the Marx brothers in cartoon form)
Rocko’s Modern Life (precursor to Spongebob that I think holds up better)
I watched a ton of cartoons as a kid, but these stand out in my memory.
Jack Benny - I learned how to get laughs by letting myself be the butt of jokes.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? - When I became a huge fan of Whose Line, I started paying more attention during conversations for an opening to make a joke.
The Simpsons - Pointing out the stupidity of the world around me is a favorite subject of mine. Also, I love “doing voices”, and some of the first characters I learned how to do were Simpsons characters.
George Burns - One of the greatest straight men in the business. I learned that if somebody I was talking to was telling a good story, that I should respond by saying little and encouraging the other person’s humor instead of trying to top them or interrupt.
Death and humor are woven together. Worked with a cousin of Allen Sherman. Officially he died of emphysema, but she dismissed it. “Nobody on that side of the family dies of natural causes. They all kill themselves, and we assume he did, too.”